I have a close friend who graduated from high school last spring. After a lot of thought and negotiation with her parents and the university where she’d been accepted and funded, she decided to take a gap year, that tradition of time off after high school that is common in Europe but often maligned in the US. I was one of the people who got her thinking about it.
It’s fair to point out that we’ve known each other for a long time and I’ve been there to selectively pass ideas across the table to her: an introduction to Linux, tours of subversive little urban spaces, genres of music. So I was in a good position to suggest a gap year to her, and to substantiate the benefits to her parents.
She’s in the middle of it now, and her version of taking it easy is working 2 jobs … Read the rest
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