Taking a year off...

[Stratus]

I took a year off from after graduating from what the school system deemed "High School". This is a good thing and a bad thing. I would like to show a list of pros and cons and well as give advice to those considering, or to those who know someone who is considering taking a year off.

Pros
-no school!
-If you have a job, you get to make alot of money
-It is a well deserved rest
-You get to discover what you really want to do without pressure from school
-You have a new found respect for people in the real world

Cons
-No plan for the entire year
-You're pressured in a different way
-Most of your friends will be gone due to college or high school
-You have to learn how to deal with working for the rest of your life

There are probably plenty of other pros and cons, but those are the ones i'm focused on.

I personally am glad I took the year off, but if I could go back, i'd take a few precautions first:

1.Be Prepared to loose friends. It's going to happen even if you go to college, but at least you'll make other friends in college.
2. Make sure you have a license and a car. This way you can go out and find new friends. I still don't have my license, and regret not getting it before.
3.Make sure you have a job. You'l go crazy without one. And by job, I mean a real one.
4.Make sure to make a deal with someone that says you have to go back to school after the year or else....Just in case. It's easy to loose yourself in a world full of money and social life.

That's about it. Number 2 I really kick myself for, because now I don't have many friends left and during the week, no one to hang out with but my computer. Not to mention West Hartford doesn't allow bars or anything involving entertainment. I'm serious. I'm not legally allowed to drive, so that's a big problem. I'm working on it though. The dmv's as slow to mail things as they are to solve your problems.

"Some days we don't let the line move at all. We call those weekdays."
-Selma at the dmv (Simpsons)