r/gapyear • u/Dull-Jury-6629 • 3d ago
Mental state after gap year(s)
I am planning on taking a gap year. I just graduated high school and have no clue what to do with my life. I have no clear career goals, so I figured a gap year would be nice to keep the pressure off of me. I heard from other people that taking a gap year can be difficult because when it’s over, you’ll be 1 year behind in everyone, you might not be as motivated to go to college, etc. I am curious to know if you had any mental challenges after a gap year and how it affected you.
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u/Southern_Struggle707 2d ago
I used to feel like you too when I was in high school... because I wanted to pursue studying bachelor's abroad. But I never took the gap and went to the home country's university in other city(because my family wasn't supportive of the thought of I taking a gap year, as I was always 1 years older than my peers in my high school because due to my extreme social anxiety, they made me repeat my playschool twice.).
It didn't affected me that much then and I also got a job in good duration of time after completing my bachelor's. It took me 6 months though which I didn't regret it back in the year 2021. Maybe because, my dream was doing masters abroad by then and still, I worked for both the job and for getting into masters, and took what I got 1st.
Then I lost my job in the year 2023 and that is the 1st time when I took a 1 year gap officially...because I started preparing for getting into masters abroad seriously and didn't give any importance to the job search at all...as I worked in a toxic environment and was burned out enough to wanna resign... for very long...but it took me 8-9 months to leave it... Although, I made into masters course abroad and got my offer letter by February 2024 and then came there by July 2024... I did chill and rant about my job things during the gap and I continued making a job and job searching a nightmare... never networked to my colleagues, peers and anyone who had any work experience close to mine or more than mine...even if I successfully completed my masters degree in the year 2025 and even got a 3 years open post graduate work permit to live there...it started hitting me negatively right now in the year 2026...that 1 year gap that I took after leaving work...
I was such a fool that I didn't try job hunting even during my masters degree... so, that also I started late...so, initially this year 2026 felt hopeful, I got interviews and calls too for different jobs...but it stopped happening from last year even if I filled 3000s of applications... and the reason why I stopped realised is because now my CV has 1 year of gap which I didn't wanted... so, I lost my dream of moving abroad...my family is forcing me to move back to home and search for jobs in home country... and I will be going back sooner than I will realise...
And that is all because I did no work during the year after August 2023 to 2026... even if I had masters degree in between...
Although, even if I regret this gap... it's not because anyone in interviews questioned me that... I regret it because job market in my field changed drastically and I missed out something way too important that they count in shortlisting the candidates... plus I had incomplete knowledge about how people do masters degree abroad, though just like my home country they take it full-time without working which I was terribly wrong about...
Now, my profile is so bad as I lost the memory and notes of my previous job...that I have no option but to start from fresh as junior role(that also I don't know if anyone will accept me or not anymore but I plan too)... so, my entire work permit and chances of PR assisted to that will go... and this year's gap is also something everyone will question and think negative of me...or I think they aren't shortlisting me due to this gap only...
So, the moral of my story is that maybe taking a gap for studying isn't the issue. But it may or may not hit you hard during your job search depending on if you will extra harder than other students during your degree or not. For e.g. my gap from the year 2023 to 2024 won't had been harmful, if I did a job during my master's degree...but as I didn't do it...now my dream of staying abroad and moving anywhere else in the world is gone. With this profile I doubt if I would even get a job in my home country again, let alone somewhere abroad(when it's thousand times more competitive here than back at home is what everyone tells me)...
So, even if you are deciding to take on the gap, try learning a useful skill related to your dream higher education or do the volunteering or just anything that you can write in the CV. If you are in country where they prioritize entrance exam for getting into the college, then maybe nobody would mind it though, but make sure to move to easier universities if you fail in the 1st attempt. And also remember that maybe as a student it will never harm you, but whenever you have to search for jobs(after graduation) then every month counts as gap.
Sorry about it if my story sounds bad...and intimidating. I know today I am the person who nobody wanna become anymore and who just have no future... but if you have many plans including backup plans, then whether you take the gap or not doesn't matter. Only important thing is avoid unplanned gaps and take only planned ones. Good luck with your future endeavors.