Taking a gap year abroad offers numerous benefits that can enhance your growth, future career, academic performance, cultural knowledge, and relationships. 

The world is a huge place…why not explore it when you have the chance?

Here are 5 reasons to take a gap year abroad:

Personal growth

When getting out of high school, we are all still trying to find our way. We have not fully understood the world or know exactly what career to fall into. Taking the time off of university to go travel and find yourself is a great way to learn about yourself. 

It gives you time to reflect on the person you are today and the person you want to be. 

School teaches you a lot (mainly school-based information) and allows you to build relationships. But what it does not help is with real life and becoming self-sufficient.

Taking a gap year allows you to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. It gives you the time to learn a new skill, such as learning to travel on your own. It allows for you to be more comfortable in your environment and face new challenges. 

When you're at home, you have the reassurance of your family; someone to fall back on and get help when you need it. But when you are out in the world alone (I know it sounds scary,) you learn twice as fast, as you have to rely on no one other than yourself, which helps you build confidence and gain a wide variety of skills. For example, learning to create a budget while traveling, how to do research about the country you are intending to travel to, how to problem-solve (which is a big one) are just a few of the skills you will acquire from traveling during your gap year. 

Problem-solving, as mentioned, is a big component to traveling. You will learn that not everything is going to go the way you thought. For example: you’re traveling to Vietnam, a country that mainly uses cash ,and you did not take out any Vietnamese Dong. It will be your job to figure out how to get out cash and make sure it’s a safe place to do so. 

Career Exploration

A gap year is an ideal time to explore different career paths. You are able to learn new skills by working a job you have never worked before. You can volunteer and help others, or engage in an internship. Working during your gap year allows for a wide variety of new skills and improves your employability. 

When you are in your home country, you may be scared to try out a new job, maybe because you fear your family won’t approve or you live in a small town and might be uncomfortable trying something new. When you know no one, it’s a bit easier, and it allows you to fail, make mistakes without being judged. 

Working abroad could lead to you finding your passion and falling in love with a job you really enjoy. 

Volunteering is a tricky thing; it is an opportunity that could take up most of your free time, that’s why not everyone volunteers. When you take a gap year, you may find yourself with lots of spare time, which gives you the perfect opportunity to engage in volunteering. 

Internships could also require a lot of your free time. Internships can often pay much less than a job. However, internships can generate a path for you to succeed in your career choice. 

Increased Academic Performance

By the time we graduate high school, we have done 12 years of schooling straight. We may have explored a few different jobs here and there, working once or twice a week, and then had sports/hobbies after school. A traditional choice is to continue your educational path and keep studying. 

I believe students need a break, to find themselves and learn about the world. Research reveals that students will have a better college GPA if they have taken some time off of school. (Academic Outcomes – Gap Year Research Consortium at Colorado College. (n.d.).)

That’s weird, right? Wouldn't it make us less motivated? Honestly, it depends on the person, but students who are motivated to stay driven to their goals are able to take years off of school and go back stronger than ever. Taking a gap year allows time for you to explore your interests, so you can go into university knowing what you would like to study. 

Cultural Immersion

When traveling, you are immersing yourself in another's culture. You eat the food they are eating, maybe learn a new language, learn about their beliefs, get around the way they do, etc.. 

You are putting yourself in a whole new environment, which will foster cultural awareness and appreciation. 

Learning about another culture can be done through books and the internet, but immersing yourself into another culture’s daily lives is a whole other playing field. 

I live in Canada. Every time I travel to another country, I return with a stronger appreciation for my home country. This year, I traveled to Vietnam, an overly populated country with structural challenges in healthcare and sanitization. Vietnam is very beautiful, but it also is quite difficult to walk down the streets without noticing stark differences in quality of life. I’ve seen families in Vietnam live in a small cramped quarters bedroom apartment, cooking meals on the street and hoping one of the tourists will pay for their food that night. 

It’s a harsh reality when traveling to developing countries, but when you are able to fully immerse yourself in another culture, it can show you how much you have and don’t need. 

Street scene, Vietnam 

Making Friends

The concept of making friends seems easier than it actually is. You need to find someone you connect with, and work at building your relationship. When you go overseas, it’s beneficial to venture beyond your familiar boundaries and challenge yourself to grow.

At home, you probably know most of the people around you; it's hard to build relationships with the few people you have not yet met. And if you're in a friend group that you've been in since high school, it limits you to those people and often doesn't allow time to explore new relationships. 

When traveling, you will stumble upon lots of people, especially if you are staying in hostels. It’s a great environment to spend time learning about new people and gaining confidence in social situations. 

Additionally, in hostels, the people staying are most likely from a different country than where you are in at the moment. They have the same interests in traveling as you, they may be on a gap year as well, or have graduated and are spending some time off. 

This gives you an opportunity to have something in common and talk about. 

I traveled to Australia last year, met lots of people traveling around Australia, and now the people I have met are reaching out to me as soon as I return to Canada letting me know they are traveling here. 

This gives us an opportunity to reconnect and for me to show them around. So, even if you meet people in another country, it doesn't mean you will never see them again. In many cases, I met many people from Canada and even from my home city. 

This is a photo from Australia, including my best friend on the left and my two guy friends from Scotland. They were on a working holiday visa and we met in a hostel in Cairns. A few months later, they sent me a message wondering what I was doing. I told them I was in Noosa working at a cafe, and they came to join me for a few months. Now that I’m back home, we are still in contact and they are planning on coming to Canada for the ski season next year. My best friend on the left is also from Canada. I met her while I was working at my hostel in Noosa; we got along so well that after a couple months, we ended up getting a place together in Australia. After Australia, we headed to Vietnam and Bali together, then went back to Canada at the same time to go see our families. We are still in contact and we have been back and forth visiting each other. I wanted to share this because at first glance it doesn't seem like you could make lifelong friends when you live on opposite sides of the world, but as you see, you can. It does work, you just need to put a bit of extra effort in. 

Kassidy Arnould is a student at Langara College, currently in the Association of Arts. She recently came back from traveling around Australia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. During her time, she realized what her passions were and discovered the Bachelors of Education program that she would like to get into. While writing this article, she is in school remembering all the fun stress-free times she had during her gap year.

All photos courtesy and copyright Kassidy Arnould, published with permission.