Life Versus Grades

On his article titled “Malia Obama’s ‘Gap Year’ Is Part of a Growing (and Expensive) Trend”, Mike Mcphate writes about the decision students have to make after graduating from high school whether if it is suitable to take or not a year off from school. Like the author of the article states, for students: “It sounds awfully nice: A yearlong postponement of schoolwork.”

Nowadays, taking a year or a semester off after finishing high school has become popular. Even  the president’s older daughter would be among the thousands of students to take a so-called gap year between high school and college. Students have made of this a trend and like the author writes it is an expensive one, not only in money but in time.

First, the idea of going on an adventure of a life-time before starting college sounds attractive, there is no doubt about it. However, many people still look at this idea with resentment, for example, some parents worry that their children could veer off track academically and never recover. Others like me, think that it is a waste of time and money (if you have to pay for it) because international programs normally cost about $35,000 or more.

Nevertheless, “studies have shown that not only do the students go on to perform better than their non-gap-year classmates, they also tend to end up in more satisfying careers” (Para 5) To be honest, this topic is a dilemma for me because it is necessary to put in a balance traveling or finishing university earlier, self-growing or building a career. It is a conflict: life versus grades.

In addition, if someone ask me for an advice about this topic I will not be sure on what to answer because even though I chose to postpone school for one semester to go on an exchange, I am still not sure if taking a yearlong break is a good idea, mainly because of the time a person is loosing. It is an amazing experience, but it is better to take the gap-year after begining university, either at the end of the freshman year or in sophomore year, that way you can expand your horizons and redefine the focus of your career or your life.

Finally, a lot of questions come to my mind: How can we find balance between traveling and academic life? What techniques can we apply to reach balance between life and career?