The big news from Washington DC yesterday was the report that 17-year-old Malia Obama is taking a gap year before going to Harvard university. Gap years are quite normal for most young people in the UK, but are still relatively rare in America, where any delay in getting through further education and earning money is viewed as odd by many.
The gap year was an outcrop, as it were, of National Service in Britain. National Service took young men away from home and school for two years and allowed them a long, (if sometimes boring) break, and time to grow up. Nowadays, too many drink beer for a year on a beach in Thailand, but that’s alright, too. They get used to being away from home and developing some perspective on life – it will be stressful enough later. At my own university interview I was told,”Mr. Hanrott, we will admit you, but we find you immature, so the condition of acceptance is that you do two years National Service. You will get more out of university this way”. They were absolutely right. (I have told this story previously on this blog, but it bears repeating, because I think students can be propelled into college/university far too soon, and this helps explain some of the behavioral and psychological problems many develop away from home for the first time. I hasten to say not all young people! Everyone matures at different rates). And, of course, the gap year can cost a lot, so it is still the preserve of the relarively well off.
Malia sounds a very sensible young lady. My only reservation is that, at 17, the gap should maybe be 2 years. It’s young to go to university, and you are young but once.
I agree, I know a few people who were 17 when they started university, and they really struggled. I chose to go to university at 18 because I really wanted to move away from home, and university was the most feasible option. But had there been the option a year’s National Service, I very well may have chosen to do that. I’m not calling for compulsory National Service, but it should be brought back as an option.
As a now-19 year old, I’m now settled into university life fairly well. But when I first started, it was a serious challenge. I got occasional panic attacks from not knowing what to do in a given situation. I also felt extremely out of my depth living full time with people who suffer from mental illness, including a close friend of my with borderline personality disorder. I also had to deal with my friends’ relationship issues, something which I have relatively little experience in. If you feel confident going to university at 18, by all means do, and it may be incredibly rewarding. But if you don’t feel quite ready, don’t be pressured into going- my Dad did a two-year gap year, and he ended up loving university and graduating with a First.