Malia Obama will wait a year between graduating high school and attending Harvard in 2017, in what is becoming a rising trend among American students. Here are the pros and cons of taking a gap year:
Pros
- Working for a year provides a great opportunity to set aside a laughably miniscule fraction of your eventual suffocating student loan payments
- Arms you with the kind of experiential ammunition you need to absolutely crush freshman orientation icebreaking activities
- Delays inevitable unemployment by one year
- Not all that many educational tools to forget after 13 years spent in the American public education system
- Great way to diverge from the expected path by impregnating a backpacker in France and ruining your life
- Way less stigma than taking a year off
Cons
- Global worldview gained from international travel will alienate student upon return
- Every year spent not experiencing eternal brotherhood, enlightenment, and everlasting bonds forged in the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity is a complete waste
- Requires a modicum of planning and organization
- 12 months potentially not enough time for an 18-year-old to eradicate poverty in West Africa
- Small chance you won’t want to attend college after experiencing the unfettered joys of the workplace
- Opportunity to completely waste a year of your life will still be there after you graduate