Gap year resources

If the new year has come around and hit you in the gut with the reality of facing another 12 months chained to a cubicle, you might want to explore your gap year options.

A “gap year” is nothing more than a gap in your career where you bugger off and travel the world, live abroad, or otherwise engage yourself in experiences far more worthwhile and rewarding than simply working for the man.

Gap years, which have become quite popular in England, are slowly gaining ground in America where I live–although most professionals I know would still consider taking a year off as nothing short of career suicide.

There are others, however, (and you know who you are) that sit around and daydream of the possibilities, mulling over what they’d do and where they’d go if they were to ever summon up the courage to take that first step out the door.

As a public service to those of our readers trapped in this purgatory of travel lust, we’d like to provide you with some motivation in the form of a very detailed Telegraph article, A comprehensive A-Z of gap year options from Arizona to Africa.
This great resource provides purpose and meaning to the Gap Year so that your wanderings are not aimless and hollow. In other words, you won’t be a bum. Instead, you can travel the world while bettering yourself or the community at large through a variety of programs such as teaching in Ghana, conservation projects in Africa, language classes in Guatemala, volunteer work projects in Cambodia, science fieldwork in Greenland, and a ton of other options as various as the world is large.

In addition, the Telegraph directs would-be travelers to a handful of helpful, sites designed to aid those seeking that elusive gap in their professional careers. Just make sure you don’t surf them at work; GapYearForGrownups.co.uk is not the site your boss wants to see on your computer screen when he barges into your cubicle.