 Hi everyone! My name is Katie. If you're new here, I talk about gap years a lot. And this year has been a year for me to really connect with just like so many people who are on gap years. Like I didn't even know that there were so many people. I just sort of like fell into talking about this topic because I pretty much like by default because of COVID I took a gap year from college right in the middle of it. So it's been definitely a weird year. It's been a really weird year and a bad one. But I love my gap year and it has been a really like eye-opening experience. So I think that's definitely something that I want to address in this video. So I've made a lot of gap year content and you could like go and like read the comments on it. And I'm not gonna like add anybody but the comments are there. And you guys often write in sort of your own experiences and I think it's really cool and I think that maybe people aren't paying attention. They aren't reading the comments. Like they might miss some of those comments or fears that are like other people are having and experiencing. The first two, these really go hand in hand. The two most common fears that I see about a gap year is that you're worried that if you take one, you're worried about being productive on it. Or the flip side of the coin is that you're worried about being too productive that you sort of like miss the experience of a gap year. I can't speak to this uh firsthand because this summer because of COVID like I usually work during summer and I did work some in the summer but I had a lot of free time and the whole time that I had time off I was so panicked about getting a job. Then the second I got a job I started doing YouTube and I threw myself into this channel like so hard that I would work three days a week but then posting two videos a week and like a learning how to do YouTube I would literally work seven days a week like sitting on my computer. I definitely over like exerted myself for a while like throwing myself into a project because I really felt that pressure of like I need to do something with this time. It's taken me a long time to like try and find balance. I think that I'm still kind of trying to find balance. I mean especially because I live at home too so that's like another like added layer of like being productive. I don't know if that makes any sense. It's definitely different than like the productive feeling that I get when like I'm at college. Just because you know you fall into old routines and habits when you're back at home so it's that's definitely like a whole another piece of the puzzle that like can get you know confusing. So talking about worrying about being productive yeah like I get this. I would be worried about this too and to be quite honest I think this year particularly I think if you're on a gap year this year like like I barely got an internship and I can see that if like the perfect situation like didn't sort of work out you know fears about going out like into the world and having a job and being around people like that would have been really really hard this year. I think now the more people are getting vaccinated I can see where some anxieties might be like a little bit more lifted this fall and spring. So I wouldn't be too worried about that like productive feeling because you know if you're vaccinated and people are still following guidelines in the fall and the you know the spring and all that which I think the world will be getting getting better at that point. I wouldn't be too worried about that for this coming year because I think the job market's starting to open up a little bit more and you know we should all be feeling like maybe a little bit more comfortable. I can see you know definitely that if you're not like I completely understand that too. So I guess it's like finding the right type of productiveness is definitely important and to be quite honest like and I've said this in other videos like I really feel like I've gotten a lot out of this year even if I haven't like had it all figured out because I definitely haven't uh have had days where I did absolutely nothing and I have I mean when I say I've spent this year like in this room like I literally mean it like I go here and then I go sit like in an office and I don't see the world so it's been a really a year of like not too many perspectives shifting because when you just do the same thing over and over again like you can get like a little bit hamster reel like you start to go crazy which like I've definitely definitely I'm fine I'm fine I'm good I'm really I'm good that's that's pretty much what I have to say on that so I wouldn't be I wouldn't be afraid of this it's definitely I think there's so many fierce surrounding app ears we're like this one but I think that if you were taking it in 2020 like that was definitely something to worry about but with the world opening back up like I think that you know if you want to volunteer or travel like I think even some travel things are starting to open up or maybe spend you know the beginning of the year working and then the later half of the year not I don't know the second fear or third I guess is that gap years are not very normalized okay I feel like this fear was valid like last year when I was taking it I was like literally no one I know has ever taken a gap year except like maybe two people that like I knew of I mean it's not really that's it's not really that scary once you do it I think now it is very normalized the more people I talk to the more I realize how many students this year are on gap years and it's a lot so I would feel less weird definitely that you're like you know in the minority of people who take a gap year because like the amount of people taking a gap year like I feel like has increased exponentially this year and especially after this literal pandemic year like just do what you want you know don't let the haters get down okay the fourth one so a lot of you guys wrote that so this is like this is kind of complicated because it was written like a bunch of different ways but the sentiment is really the same that you are so done with school like so burned out from online school and all that that you feel like going to college next year will you won't have motivation for school or you won't be able to succeed I see this a lot for that I say I think that's the perfect reason to take a gap year to be quite honest I was feeling that way I am so that person like I don't slow down and I like being busy I like working towards a goal and like having that empty year like scared the crap out of me okay I lost my train of thought but having motivation for school I think you know yourself as a person and I before I took this gap year I was supposed to study abroad so I was like oh that's gonna be like my gap year little did I know that's not funny that's really not funny yeah I was like so burned out and like studying abroad is not really like like it's technically like a year off so I pretty much like if I get to study abroad next year like it'll be like I feel like a gap year do over but I'll still be in school and it'll count so like I don't know but I was like so looking for that like I was burned out and not in a way like I love college and like I I love it but I needed a break from I don't know for me like my career and the future and what I'm gonna do with my life like when I'm in college or like even in high school too like those first couple years of college and then the last couple years of high school combined like that is a lot of pressure for one person to handle and I had so many like existential breakdowns and like I just and I think that like a lot of a lot of people have that like you are definitely not alone like and the more people I talk to like literally everyone's like how am I supposed to know I'm 18 and it's like no you don't have to like but like the but you also have to because like the tuition bills coming so like you have to pick a major I don't know it just it all feels so final and like like in some ways it is but then in other ways like it's nothing matters like it's like everything matters but also nothing matters and I needed like a year off to like process that so little did I know that I was going to be getting this extra bonus year so fun so I think that honestly I wouldn't be afraid of not like that fear of like not having motivation I think that you could be a good candidate for a gap year like I think that some time off can can do anybody some good so okay so the next one is that you will lose your opportunity to go to college um this is definitely one that's like very common like I had a panic about panic moment where I was like I'm gonna be 23 when I graduate college like I'm gonna be so old and like I still panic about that you know what but uh other days I'm like no it's fine like I'm just I'm just living life like I think that we all get on this timeline and uh I think like really it doesn't matter and like I have to keep telling myself that to be quite honest but it's really true I mean it's I I shouldn't be I shouldn't even be having to tell myself that because like it is it's honestly true like there is no timeline for your life like things are just gonna happen when it happens and sometimes the world shuts us down and um so I think that losing your opportunity to go to college most schools can let let you defer a year I would just sort of look into that like technically wise but um no college will be there waiting for you like if you go when you're 19 like all the 18 year olds who are just starting college are gonna be like ah a 19 year old what do we do like you're gonna be fine like you know I mean you're gonna make friends you're gonna get right into it uh it's college it's different so that's what I would say and the last one is that you will lose your academic edge yes this is actually a fear of mine because I have to go back to school next year and I have spent a year not exercising my brain in the slightest haven't done a math problem in a year nope not one time have not I still have both of my science liberal arts credits after this which actually I if I study abroad I won't take it for like a whole another year so let's just hope that I remember like sophomore biology yeah you know what I would say for this one like I think this is gonna this is my metaphor for you today like um your your brain is like a loaf of bread and I feel like once the time you like finish high school like it's baked you know what I mean but like this is no this is getting out of hand yeah I think like you the point of high school is like you learn and like middle school is like you learn how to learn and you sort of get like those baseline skills I don't it's not like you're gonna go to college and like forget how to write a paper like I think that those skills are like solidified you just have to kind of trust that you have it in you to to do it yeah I hope this video helped any of you who are worried about this stuff because like I know I have worried about all of these things um constantly so I'm on a gap year I post new videos Thursday yeah thank you so much for watching and comment down below if you have any other fears that I didn't address and I'll comment back to you so leave those down below okay thanks so much for watching