Many students take a year after graduation to pursue other interests outside of school instead of heading straight to the workforce, also called a gap year. Fewer people are taking gap years due to the intense competition in the job market. There is a lot of debate among those who can afford to travel about whether they should take the time to travel during their gap year.
The following are reasons why you should and ways to help you take time out after graduation to travel:
Refinancing Your Student Loans Could Help You Afford Traveling
One of the main reasons more people are choosing not to take a gap year after college is student loans. They can be a burden for decades, so many choose to start repaying them as soon as possible. However, you do not have to start paying student loans right after college.
You can refinance your student loan debt with SoFi to have extra funds and afford to travel abroad during your gap year. When you add any savings or cash presents you might have gotten during graduation, you should have enough to travel abroad after graduation.
You Have Minimal Responsibilities
Most people would like to travel more but cannot because they have responsibilities. As you get older, you may have a job, business, family, and other responsibilities. However, right after college, chances are that you do not have that many responsibilities making it the perfect time to travel abroad.
You should take advantage of that great point in your life to explore foreign lands and have memorable adventures. You never know; the opportunity may never arise again.
Gain Experience
Unless you have wealthy parents or guardians, you will have spent around twenty years of your life in school with little to no travel experience. You may have traveled during summers, but that is usually domestic travel. You need to gain experience before joining the workforce, and there is no enlightening experience like traveling abroad.
As a first-time international traveler, you will be introduced to foreign languages and cultures, which will be a wealth of education. You will also get to tour foreign and distant lands, which will make for exhilarating experiences.
You may choose to join the workforce to make money, but I can assure you that you will always regret choosing money over experience, especially when you have the freedom.
You Could Get A Job
The fact is that job hunting after graduating from college is stressful and tiresome. Constantly submitting resumes and going to interviews and rejections is not fun for anyone. Though you might think that using your gap year for travel will set your job opportunities back a year, you might be surprised that there are job opportunities abroad.
The time after college is a great time to try out different things, and you might get a job you like during your travels as opposed to the job others would like you to have. You might discover your life’s passion while you travel.
Gain Perspective
The most significant benefit of traveling abroad during your gap year is that it can help you gain perspective, particularly about your future and what you want to do with your life. Traveling abroad is a learning experience; the world will educate you on things you cannot learn in school, like planning a trip from scratch.
However, it is the time and space to think about your lie as well as witness what the world is truly like that will help you gain perspective. Your travel experience will be a priceless and immeasurable gift to yourself.
If you are debating whether to take a gap year to travel, the above reasons should be enough to convince you to do it. There are many ways to make it happen, including refinancing your student loans.
Find a way to travel for that year, and you will learn more in a year than you could in a lifetime doing anything else.
