When you graduate from college, the burning question floats your mind… “Should I look for a job, or should I take a break?”
Leap years, as they call it. Is something that is pretty common among foreigners. Whether Europeans or just international kids – it is common for them to take a year off to explore new things – by either traveling, or dabbling in internships.
Do you think it’s nessecary? Should you actually take a break before getting into anything serious? Are you willing to leap into all that commitement?
If you’re jumping from studies into the working world, you will notice that it is a big leap. Sure, they perceive the working world as this ‘golden era’ but is it really? The working life is a completely different world than the one you once knew in college.
Sure, you’ve been locked into studies for… as long as you can remember – and sometimes, you just need to let free and explore a little.
Let’s face it, when you start working, there is no such thing as a break – it’s going to be an on going cycle that will go on forever. After all, how else do you rake in the money to support yourself? Unlike college, where you would have semester breaks to take a breather – the working world works in a much different sense.
Would you take a break before you start working? We asked a couple of women what they wished they had done and 70% of the women we asked said that they wished they took a break to travel. We asked them why, and they told us that despite being able to take leave during work – taking a long break to travel may have consequences.
As for the other 30%, they don’t regret going straight into work because they said that it taught them a rather good lesson on how to handle themselves on a very mature level. One of the women said that despite the hard times, it’s been a “good journey filled with lessons that you don’t learn until you get straight into the working world”.
Saying that you want to take a break is one thing. But can you afford it, that’s the other thing. We then asked these working women why they didn’t actually take a break during that leap year period – and 90% of them answered the same thing… “No money.” – Which is actually the main reason why people can’t take the leap to travel the world (as good as it looks in movies, the reality is pretty harsh on the pockets).
At the end of the day, we all wish we could take a break from reality. Jumping into the big bad world of work may be a bit of a fear and if you’re not ready yet and need some time off to explore – you should definitely go ahead. But the only time you can do such a thing is if you know for sure that you have enough to support yourself through this ‘leap year’. There’s no point to take that leap year, and come home to almost nothing – it’s not worth it.
If you can afford the break – take it. If you can’t, get into the working world and make it through! But either way, the main goal is always to be happy. Be happy in what you do, and stay happy. That’s what counts.
