It was January 2020. My friend Caitlyn and I were enjoying a slow morning with a cup of coffee in our little Airbnb on the southern coast of Portugal. Just a few days ago, we had counted down to New Year’s in a crowd of thousands in Avenida dos Aliados in Porto; we then promptly packed up our backpacks and took a bus down to a little town called Lagos for some quiet and beautiful scenery. Although the sunny weather and azure waters right outside the window seemed at odds with the calendar month (we’re both from Wisconsin), we felt inspired by the start of a new year nevertheless. So while Caitlyn set up her bullet journal and wrote out her goals for 2020, I felt motivated to crack open my laptop and update my newsletter readers on what I had been up to for the past few weeks. As I got ready to type, I noticed that the subscriber count had just crossed 1,000.
I paused to try and comprehend the fact that a thousand people were receiving my weekly emails! It was the perfect way to start the year.
Let’s rewind. Why was I collecting seashells in Portugal in January instead of shoveling snow and gearing up for final exams like every year prior? Like many other students, I decided to take a gap year before starting college. As much as I loved school and looked forward to studying media and communications, I needed to take a breather from education so that I would be genuinely excited to learn again. That was the easy part! The question of what I could actually do with all of this unstructured free time, however, was somewhat overwhelming. Faced with a blank calendar, I pondered how I could fill these 15 open months of freedom and possibility.
First up, I knew I wanted to travel. I’ve been very lucky to have had a wide range of travel experiences growing up, so it was important to me that I take advantage of this brief period of freedom after high school (and off-season airfares) to visit a few places on my bucket list. However, the thought of traveling for the entire year felt intimidating (and expensive), so I continued to rack my brain.
One piece of advice I always give to those considering a gap year is to think back to high school. What did you love doing but simply didn’t have enough time for? Maybe you tried to learn a foreign language that wasn’t offered at your school, or you ran an Etsy shop, fulfilling orders during the weekends. A gap year gives you the time and space to dive fully into projects you’re excited about.
Personally, I had two big things in mind right away. During high school, I had started up a freelance photography business as well as a little lifestyle and personal development YouTube channel called The Bliss Bean. Back in those days, with the help of meticulous time management and a daily thermos of strongly caffeinated tea, I had somehow managed the precarious balance of schoolwork and extracurriculars with senior portrait shoots and late-night editing sessions.
However, once my gap year began and all of my school responsibilities fell away, I felt a weight come off my shoulders. I got really excited. What could I accomplish now that I could go full steam ahead with photography and YouTube?
That year, I did so many photoshoots that I joked about buying a copy of the yearbook just to flip through it and be able to point out my work – “I took that photo, and that one… that one too!” I could have sworn I had taken half the school’s senior portraits. While I don’t envision myself doing photography in the future, that year I learned way more than just how to take good photos. I learned how to set up a business, work with clients, and manage my time as a freelancer. It’s an experience I’m so grateful for.
Just two weeks after the deadline to submit senior portraits to the yearbook, I packed a carry-on and hopped on a plane for my first solo travel experience. For a total of two months, I lived with a host family in Madrid and improved my Spanish skills, celebrated Christmas with my uncle’s family in Germany, and learned how to enjoy exploring new places on my own in Barcelona.
Meanwhile, throughout my entire gap year, I made weekly videos for my YouTube channel, taught viewers about planning and organization and slowly gained skills and confidence in my work. During high school, I was embarrassed to let anyone who knew me in real life watch my videos, I doubted my abilities constantly, and wondered if all of the effort would ever pay off. Spoiler alert: it did. By the end of my gap year, my channel had gained thousands of subscribers and YouTube became my full time job.
Now that my post-high school gap year is over, I look back on it with full confidence that it was the best possible decision I could have made for myself.
It wasn’t without its struggles, of course. I had my doubts as I watched my friends go off to college and wondered if I was falling behind. I struggled to implement a daily routine outside of the structure and deadlines that school had provided me with my entire life. I even caught a stomach bug in Barcelona and found myself taking a taxi to a hospital on my own in a foreign country.
but there was so much to be gained from every challenge i faced.
I learned how to be confident in my own path and not compare myself to others. I learned how to set goals for myself in the absence of homework and due dates. I even learned how to file a travel insurance claim! (And that I was a lot more independent and tough than I thought I was.)
Most of all, I’m grateful for all that I gained through blogging. During my gap year, I was able to turn my hobby into a brand and my passions into a career. Even if The Bliss Bean had never reached any level or definition of success, it gave me a creative outlet, a sense of purpose, and a way to document my life, without which my gap year would have been a lot more dull.
Even if you’re not interested in growing any sort of online presence or pursuing blogging as a career, making videos or writing blog posts about your experience (even if it’s just for your family and friends) is a great way to capture the memories and lessons of your gap year. I recently rewatched my “workaway day in the life in Madrid” for a dose of nostalgia. Even though it was a very average snippet of my trip, it takes me right back to my life in Spain – learning the metro system, meeting new friends, having dinner with my host family, and enjoying every little moment of it.
So if you’re reading this and have even just an inkling of a desire to start a blog, just go ahead and do it! As your blog grows, you’ll be able to share your story with the world, meet new friends, and open doors to career opportunities. If you grow your audience enough, you can even monetize your work by selling digital products, joining YouTube’s AdSense program, adding affiliate links to your posts, or working with brands to create sponsored content. But even if none of that happens, you’ll flex your creative muscles and have precious memories to look back on.
If you’re worried that you’re not “good enough” at writing, taking photos, or making videos, rest assured that my first blog posts and videos were embarrassing. Even though I had experience making videos, nothing could have prepared me for how weird it is to be sitting in a room by myself and talking to a camera. Those videos are painfully awkward to watch now, but through them, I can see how much better I’ve gotten. But I wouldn’t have improved if I hadn’t taken the plunge and started! I’m convinced that the only way to get better at making videos is by making videos.
I heard somewhere that a gap year is a “year on” not a “year off”, and that message has stuck with me. I believe there is so much you can accomplish if you just take a chance and start that project you’ve been thinking of. Who knows where it might take you?
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