 Hi everyone, my name is Katie, and I am on a COVID gap year. Felt like this video could be helpful to people trying to plan a gap year for this coming year because really the world is, it's not like super ready for planning right now. Before I made my decision to take a gap year, I had not thought about what I would do on my gap year for like literally one second. So by watching this video, you're already just like a little bit ahead, right? Love that for you. From what I have, I started making this YouTube channel because I was like, let's talk about gap year. So I watched a bunch of gap year content and most of it has to do with like traveling and volunteering and doing all these, you know, cool things. But what happens if there are still travel restrictions next year? Like what are you supposed to do? And hopefully this video will allow you to see some of your other options when planning a gap year and how to just like be like mentally prepared for it, but also like actually prepared for it. So I feel like I have personally maximized this year to, you know, it's, it's fullest potential in a way because let's be honest, this year has, it's not been super cute this winter. And like the rest of the whole entire year, like not, not the cutest. And right around like probably June, July, I was sitting looking at my class list. I was all registered for classes and I was like, you know what? I just can't do online school. Like it had, I had only done online school for about two months and it was too much. I wasn't good at it. It just made me frustrated and it, I felt like I was like missing out. So I was just like, you know what? I need to give the world some time to heal itself before I go back because I'm sure that a lot of people are feeling this way that, you know, this pandemic has really taken a toll on a lot of people, young people's lives and everyone's lives. But you know, if you're going to college or you're in college, you know, these years are like the golden years of your like your youth and like, you're supposed to be out there like grasping adulthood, but a lot of us are back at home and that's, you know, it's difficult. So in July, I decided to drop all my classes and it was the right decision for me. And if you want to hear more about how I made that decision and why and like, were my like emotions about it and like the feelings, I have a bunch of more videos on my channel and I will link a playlist up here and down below in the description. All right. So first step of planning your gap year is obviously make a decision so you can make a plan. So in July, I thankfully dropped my classes in enough time to secure an internship for the fall. And that was pretty much my only option at the time because like, there was no way I was going to travel or volunteer this fall. Like that just wasn't going to happen with all the COVID restrictions and it just wasn't safe. So the first thing that I did, and this will be a big help is if you have some extra time and you're maybe not even thinking about deferring your year yet, brush up your resume. This will be really helpful for when you start maybe applying for internships or trying to get a job. Having your resume ready so you can just, you know, give it to people is a really great way to do that. So I brushed up my resume in the summertime. Well, no, actually I sat next to my brother who knows about graphic design and he made my resume for me while I sat at the same table. So technically I helped. Number two, make sure you understand your academic plan. So if you're thinking about taking this gap year specifically for people who are hoping to take their gap year before college or if you're during college like I am, like maybe you just need to break from the year that was 2020, like look at your academic plan. So when I was planning for study abroad, I learned my school's like major requirements and my requirements literally inside and out. I can like redo the amount of credits that I have left like on my hand. Like I swear to God. And that really helped me make like a very educated decision on what the rest of my college career would look like. So in that same summer, I applied for a bunch of internships and I ended up getting one, which was very cool. And I had enough like buffer time that I had a plan and most internships only run for about like three to max four months because they usually go by semester for college students. But for my internship, I actually ended up staying with the company for the whole entire year. So you know, it's, it's flexible. So if I had wanted to and especially this is for people going into this year. So maybe the fall, you're a little wary about traveling or volunteering or you're not sure what to do yet, you know, try getting an internship or a job that's flexible or has an end date so that maybe you can choose to make the decision to spend the rest of your year doing something else. So number two, and this is what I would say it was sort of going off the other point is allow for some flexibilities. There are definitely programs that you can sign up for for gap years. I don't know a whole lot about those. I know that they can be kind of expensive, but you know, should check out your options, see what you like. But I think keeping your options open for the year is a really good idea. Like I was saying earlier, my internship definitely had an end date if I wanted to, I ended up staying if you wanted to take the rest of the time off to travel, or that's definitely something to keep in mind. Number three is set your own goals because my, I have two extra days in the work week to just kind of like do whatever I want. I decided to start a YouTube channel because it was something that I had always wanted to do. Like I just, I always knew that I wanted to start a YouTube channel. So that was what I decided, you know, to allot those two days for it. Oh my god. Hi, I'm Kate and good-bye. You are new workloads. Hey everyone, welcome to VOO! But you know, if you're not into YouTube, try some stuff. A gap year is a great opportunity to like teach yourself some skills. Or if you're not into doing that, like take up a hobby because honestly, if this year has taught me anything, like just do the things that you want to do, if you can, because you just, you never know when the whole world is going to shut down and everything's going to be terrible. So some examples, you know, start a photography Instagram, you know, that's pretty popular with the people our age, there we go. You know, learn how to paint, learn graphic design, teach yourself like the Adobe creative stuff. I just worked on learning Premiere this year and that was like a task in and of itself. You know, create a blog. These are all creative ideas. I'm so sorry if you're like a scientist or something. Like look up like a list of like the best books of all time and try and read all of them or like read, you know, a book a week or whatever your goal is. That sounds like a lot actually. And number four is, you know, I think for next year, especially if you're thinking of taking a gap year, set loose expectations. I think the beauty of a gap year in its like entirety is just this open slate of time. And I've talked about this before. So rarely, like I remember when I first thought about doing a gap year, the idea of it was like truly kind of troubling. Why is that troubling? I don't know. I'm going to tell you why it's troubling. Okay, I have like, and I know that other people relate to this, like I have just always gone to school, like you just, I've never like stopped. And the idea of like pausing my life, it feels like a setback, like it feels like, whoa, like I, what am I supposed to do for a year? And when you have that like very like open slate, like very, very open, it's very daunting. And like I said, that kind of funny, I'm sorry. So I think that the beauty of like this video is, you know, choose, if you're going to choose a gap year, you know, I think choose it and like really choose it and you know, leave yourself open to like whatever the next year may bring because hopefully, you know, we'll be getting out of our houses this next year. And I would like that. I would really like that. But I think for me, like having just a little plan to start with and making that initial decision to take a gap year weirdly gave me more control over it. If you have made it all the way to the end, thank you so much for watching and give this video a like if you liked it and subscribe because I've host new videos every Thursday and sometimes Monday. Yeah, and leave any questions you have down below because I'm really, I probably will answer it. So