In some countries, taking a year-long break between finishing high school and starting college studies is far from a realistic option for those who decide to do so. Whether for work or travel, young people are likely to have less to gain but more to lose. This kind of decision is a matter of personal attitudes toward "time" and "money".
On the one hand, the advantages to taking a year off to travel or work are invariablely associated with the money factor. For that matter, money talks in two ways for as many motivations. Either some young people have deep pockets to go places across the world on an overly-extended vacation; or, on the contrary, being otherwise in financial stress, some need to work for a while in order to tide over the current economic problems of the family and hopefully to save some money for their university expenses to come. Both cases are understandable because, to varying degrees, young people are expected to benefit from travelling for global knowledge, or from working for social experience before attending college. On the positive side, the logic about the decision is simple enough: the rich can afford to happily spend a great deal of dollars along with four seasons of time, whereas the poor are obliged to work their way to get in and through university. Anyway, it is up to each individual to visualize exactly what to gain by travelling or working, obviously out of the regular track of academic studies.
On the other hand, time is money and it does not pay to lose time. With a few exceptions, the rule of the mainstream is to continue following the educational course without any interruption. For their own good, young people had better not be encouraged to suspend the habit of studying for the purposes of travelling or working. In practice, the loss of time is a considerable disadvantage, referring particulay to when a hasty decision of this sort might end up in some of them never again returning back to the academic pr
rocess. At this point, it would be realistic to adapt to the thoughts of Confucius: "the process of studying is like rowing upstream--not advancing forward means getting backward". As a whole, it is important that no one with a strong desire to attend university should be left behind in time.
The factors of "time" and "money" being considered, it is probably not a good decision to work or travel for one year between finishing high school and starting university studies. The poor might as well seek student grants and loans and even work part-time for extra dollars during the college years, while the rich young do not have to spend time and money in exchange of unertainties. To be realistic, the intention to take a one-year break demands second thoughts. (Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh )
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