J, you make that sound like a bad thing.

I spent my gap year working a low paying job, and I’d definitely recomend it to anyone. While I didn’t have much money, I was able to devote my free time to political activism and volunteering, and reading, figuring out what I was interested in.

Would I want to work at a burger joint ever again? No. The job sucked, plain and simple, and that in and of itself made me a lot more motivated when I got to University. Right out of high school I didn’t really have much of a concept of what a good job was, everyone I knew worked crappy service industry jobs.

More importantly, the gap year gave me time to sort out my other priorities before jumping into post-secondary school. Wealthy people travel – I just explored my own city, volunteering with and meeting homeless people and hanging out with them, going for bike rides, seeing lots of live music.

Your text does not fit the article AT ALL.

/Anna

About gap years — I think they *can* be beneficial, and for some highly motivated individuals they are. But for many young people, it’s a waste of time. They don’t gain the experiences that grant them more understanding of the world, they don’t discover more about themselves. So it depends on the individual. And I’m wiling to bet the young adults most likely to make the most out of their gap year would be just as fine without it.

We actually make a lot of our own board games, since they are so expensive to buy. I have a url with some information up on my website. The url is http://craftstew.com/print-and-cut/craft-your-own-board-games

I too enjoy Ticket to Ride, but prefer playing it on the XBox 360 against the computer. :)

I do want to recommend a board game called Stone Age. It has a lot of pieces and seemed too complicated to me at first, but it has become a favorite among our friends. There are a number of ways to create your own secret advantage and come from behind to win.

I also recommend Ingenius – it’s a really simple tile game for up to 4 players. It’s a great quickie game.

“Gap years used to be the privilege of the rich; a man could wander around Europe while living off his trust fund.”

The author may have these high aspirations to the “gap year”, but most people I’ve encountered who took them ended up with a low paying job, hanging around their parents house (playing video games, drinking, smoking pot), or being lucky enough (meaning their parents paid) to be able to go without income for a year and/or having no obligations to student loans.

Something that would make FAR more sense is more advocacy of programs at colleges that let you study somewhere else for a semester or year (and keep financial aid/transfer credits), summer programs (which he mentions), and so on.

Also, it would be GREAT if the idea of “sabbatical” would come back. I would certainly appreciate a large block of time to study, travel, refresh myself while not having to worry about keeping my job. Or if we could get some European-style vacation time where we could make longer visits. Not to mention sick time policies that actually treat people like humans, instead of the horrible “PTO” schemes that makes people trade vacation for sick time.

BTW, Dominion won Spiel des Jahres (German board game award) this year. Awesome game and a great expansion coming out very soon.

One thing of note: The 7 reasons to stop tracking your finances is satirical in nature, just wanted to make sure no one took it seriously. I know how the internet goes ;)