4. Get Qualified

A gap year isn’t just a year to waste away in hostels. It’s a year for you to get some experience and qualifications.

Get your TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate or your Dive Master scuba diving License. Learn some new skills while volunteering on a farm in Australia or gain work experience while working for a winery in France. Learn how to cook at a restaurant in India or guide English tours through the pyramids in Egypt. I have personally met somebody who has done each of the things I have mentioned.  All of them are always employed and happy because they’re doing what they are passionate about.

These types of qualifications and experience(s) will definitely make you stand out in any pile of resumes or school applications.

Use your gap year to build your resume, gain qualifications and increase your experience.

5. Expand Your Comfort Zone

At home, in your daily routine, you are pretty comfortable. The older you get, the less likely it is that you will break out of that zone or expand the things you are comfortable with.

That’s why your parents won’t go to your favorite Japanese restaurant or why your uncle thinks deodorant will give him armpit cancer and refuses to wear it.

A gap year is an awesome time to stretch your comfort zone to the limit.

Meeting new people, navigating foreign places, communicating in foreign languages, eating strange foods and sleeping in new locations will totally force you to expand the things you are comfortable with.

Why would you want to do that? You want to do that so you can experience all of the great things out there.

If I didn’t live in Japan, I would probably have missed out on all of the amazing sushi places I have eaten at. I wouldn’t have the Japanese friends that I have or be able to speak Japanese. If I never took a year off to push my comfort zone, I probably never would have traveled to the other places that I have been to or experienced the things that I have experienced. If I never went to Japan, I doubt that I would feel confident getting up on stage speaking to thousands of students at a time.

Pushing your comfort zone makes you a stronger, more confident, capable person.

6. Learn About Yourself

Sometimes we are fed the same thing everyday that we actually start to believe it and even worse, we think it’s the only thing that exists.

Imagine living a life where everyday from the day you were able to eat solid food, you ate a bagel for breakfast. Even if you go to a restaurant for breakfast, the only thing available on the breakfast menu was a bagel. I am sure that you would think that’s all that exists and you would probably even like it.

But imagine one day after years of eating bagels everyday, you stepped into a restaurant with a different breakfast menu. You open the menu and there are eggs, sausage, hash browns, and pancakes. French toast, crepes, Belgian waffles, donuts, croissants and a ton of other delicious breakfast foods. You would go crazy!

I bet that after you tried a few of the other breakfast foods you would find that you don’t even like bagels.

You have probably heard the same things about yourself for your entire life. You’re so clumsy, you’re so stupid or you love working with people, you are so good at math, etc. You’ve probably heard these things so much that you believe them.

By taking a year to yourself, you are opening a whole new menu, a menu of YOU. You will learn about the things you really like. You will discover what you are really passionate about. You will learn what you are really good at and what you really want to do with your life. You’ll finally get the chance to learn about the most important person in your life, YOU!

7. Decide on a Direction

The best part of your year off is that you will come home with a plan.

You will get to take what you learned from your experiences, your new friends, your qualifications, your new comfort zone and your new knowledge of yourself, to decide what you want to do.

You can use this new information to decide what school to go to, what to study, where to live, what kind of work to do and who to hang out with.

A gap year isn’t to be wasted. You need to treat it like education. You are heading out to learn a whole bunch of stuff that no school on earth could possibly teach you.

Use the things you learn to push yourself ahead. Use it to show other people what’s possible when you leave the comfort of their own home and most importantly use it to create the story of your life.

Taking a year off was the best decision I have ever made. Because I took that year off, I met some of my best friends. I became inspired to see this amazing planet we live on and most importantly, I’ve been able to use the experiences I had to inspire tens of thousands of young people to Make Their Own Lunch.

If you are considering a gap year, here are some good places to start:

Why take a gap year?

Gapyear.com

Work for your gap year

Volunteer on your gap year

Gap Year Blogs

Gap Year Blog

Ben’s Travel Adventures

Preparing for a gap year

My gap year (the name of the blog, not actually MY gap year)

If you’ve never heard of a “gap year” before, you need to know that it has nothing to do with wearing khaki’s and sweater vests.

A gap year has nothing to do with clothing. It’s a year that you take off from school (usually after finishing high school before entering college/university/the workforce) to travel, gain experience and meet new people.

Gap years have been popular in Europe for a while but they’re just now becoming more accepted in North America. Some people use this year to volunteer, some work to earn money, some people spend the whole time backpacking and others use it as a time to write and take pictures or all of the above.

I am a HUGE fan of gap years (such a HUGE fan that I have to write HUGE in CAPS). I personally took a gap year to live and work in Japan and that decision completely changed the direction of my career/life and has brought me to where I am today. I learned so much while on my gap year adventure. I met a ton of new people and had too many crazy experiences to count.

You may be one of those people coming up to the end of high school wondering what’s next or you may be thinking about taking a gap year but still haven’t decided. I want to give you 7 really good reasons to take a gap year.

1. Have Experiences

One of the awesome reasons to take a gap year is to have experiences that are completely different from the majority of your friends back home. They will have things like “going to another party” in their Facebook status, while you will get to have stuff like, “just got back from an African safari. Lion count: 7, Elephants: 12, Scared Americans: 1” or “finally finished the schoolhouse in Nepal. It feels good to make a difference”.

These experiences have the power to transform the path of your life. They can shape the direction of your career and education and if nothing else, they will give you the best stories to tell at family dinners and parties.

My gap year stories have become a huge (no caps needed) part of my message when I am speaking to teens all over North America.

2. Decompress

We spend like 15-20 years straight, in school. It’s so easy to get caught up in the world of education that we forget why we are there. Why do you want to go to university/college? Why are you choosing your major? What will you do with your degree/diploma when you graduate?

I think it’s crazy to try and choose a university/college major or career path without having experienced something other than school for your entire life.

It’s like going into a restaurant and ordering from a menu printed in a different language, with no pictures. You basically have to point, smile and hope that you get something that you like, without ever seeing it or tasting it first.

A gap year is the perfect time to take a well-deserved break from school and clear you head.  It’s a perfect time to taste-test some of the possibilities for your future. It’s an ideal time get refocused on what you want to do and more importantly, why you want to do it.

Take some time to yourself, away from your friends, family and teachers (who are all probably pressuring you to do something different) and decompress. You have worked hard for the past 12-13 years, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to take some time and figure out what you really want to do?

“But Ryan, if I take a year off, I will be a year behind everybody else?”

What’s the rush? Is it a race? Besides, did you know that half of first-year university/college students change their major at least once? Racing into university/college isn’t always the best decision and wasting a year there is a pretty expensive decision.

And if that’s not good enough, a recent report from Stats Canada found that students who take a gap year don’t face a disadvantage when it comes time to get a job. (I believe it actually helps them)

Some schools will even put your University/College acceptance on hold for a year while you travel the globe.

3. Meet New People

I hate to say this, but sometimes your friends are your friends just because they’re there. It’s easy to be friends with the girl next door or guy on your street because it’s convenient. Also, the people around you are so much like you. They probably share most of the same stories and background as you.

By taking a gap year, you will meet so many new people. Some will make you want to spit in their food (but you won’t) and others will become friends for life.

You will get to hear about completely different ways of life and hear how other people have grown up. You will get to learn about different people, cultures and traditions. You will get to be exposed to people who have grown up on the other side of the planet but have more in common with you than the guy who you’ve been playing Xbox with for the past 7 years.

While on my gap year, I met so many people who have become great friends. We keep touch using Skype, MSN Messenger, Facebook and email. One of the guys I met while living in Japan has become one of my best friends and we are planning a Round-the-World trip for 2011 together.

Get out and meet some new people. Learn about new cultures and make some new friends. Keep your old friends, but make some new ones.

Read Part Two HERE

Alright, it’s no secret that I think traveling is one of the best ways to Make Your Own Lunch™  (click here for my true feelings). While traveling, you’ll get to experience stuff that you could  never have experienced sitting on your mom’s sofa watching The Hills or playing Halo 3! And  those experiences are what Make Your Own Lunch™ is all about!

If you Google the words “cheap travel”, you’ll end up getting over 34 million hits! That’s a little intense. Let’s make this a bit easier. Here are my secrets to traveling for less than it cost you to go watch the Hanna Montana movie in a theatre. (You thought nobody saw you?)

1) Say no to the resort: Resort cans be cool… If you are over 60 and your skin has been in a tanning salon so long that it’s now actual leather. Too many people book their trip to a resort and then never leave the pool. Such a waste! If you want to travel for cheap, don’t stay at a resort.

Stay in hostels, ask friends if they have relatives you can stay with or sign up at couchsurfing.org and see if you can crash on someone’s couch! It can sound dangerous at first but the hostel sites always have reviews and couchsurfing.org has a system where members can vouch for other members and leave reviews on their couch surfing experiences. By using some of these tips I was able to find a place to stay in Bratislava, Slovakia for $7/night and $3/night in Semuc Champey, Guatemala – sure it only had electricity for 4 hours everyday but that was part of the experience!

2) Big Streets = Big Bucks: Here’s a rule, never eat on the main street (I am a rhyming genius!) Restaurants on the main streets of just about every city will charge you a lot more than some of the smaller “off-the-path” restaurants and often for the exact same food.

When in Paris, I had a meal on one of the busiest streets and paid quite a bit but the next day, when eating at a smaller restaurant away from the crowds, I paid a lot less and got a lot more. My French didn’t improve but my stomach got filled.

NOTE: If you are traveling in a developing country, always make sure that your meals have been prepared with purified water – or else you could be first in line for a trip on the D-Train. Yup, I really JUST wrote that.

3) Make a Friend: Friends are good, unless they encourage you to light forest fires. Then, they are criminals.

We live in a big world made small by technology. MySpace, Facebook, Couchsurfing.com, Bebo, YouTube, Twitter, these all make it really easy for you to make friends around the world. I have had friends who have joined Facebook groups for the countries they were visiting and by doing so, made friends who met them at the airport, gave them travel tips and even sometimes gave them a place to stay.

It’s all about the experiences. By making some friends, especially local friends, you will save a bunch of money and also increase your chances of having an experience that wasn’t listed in Lonely Planet or on Travelocity and who knows? You just might meet a lifelong friend. Isn’t that better than the invisible friend you hang out with every Friday night?

4) Early or Late – Never on Time: This one is simple. Book your flights either really early or last minute! Really early is good because you can have time to prepare but sometimes last minute can be really fun too!

I once booked a trip to Japan on a Thursday and then left two days later on Sunday.  I saved about $800 on the flight and also had an awesome experience while I was there because it was completely spontaneous!

5) The Path Isn’t Always the Path: The path is the path for a reason, most people travel along that path. Sometimes it’s good but other times, if you just follow the crowds, you will pay what they pay – always more if the areas are busy. You will only see what they see and experience what they experience.

Get off the path and explore. Always make sure it’s safe first (some countries have marked paths because off the path is still littered with land mines – not good) but then get off the path.

When I was in Kauai, Hawaii, I took my rental car off the path onto a really rough dirt road, through some sugarcane fields and ended up at a 17-mile long beach with nobody else on it. It was one of the highlights of my trip and it cost me nothing but the little bit of gas I used to get there and some gratitude to the couple that used their truck to pull my Cobalt out of the sand.

When I travel, I almost always spend less money per day than I would if I was at home. On a recent backpacking adventure through Central America I spent about $15/day. Next time you are planning a trip, don’t rule things out because you are afraid it will be too expensive.  There is always a way to do it for cheaper than you think.

Do you have questions about traveling for cheap? Let us know!

Two of the questions I get asked the most by students is, 1) “did your mom really beat up Chuck Norris in a cage match?” and 2) “How did you get to live and work in Japan?”

The answer to the questions are 1) As the legend is told by the Shaolin monks, yes. And more importantly 2) I will tell you how I did it.

I have no idea why I chose Japan. When I was 21, I dropped out of college (I eventually went back and graduated), quit my job at Tom’s No Frills and moved out of my parent’s house. I was broke and on the edge of being homeless.

I knew I had to do something and knowing myself, I knew it would have to be drastic and rip me out of my comfort zone.

After a sarcastic comment made by my mom, I decided to see if I could get a job in Japan… Low and behold, two weeks later I had a job for a company in Japan and two months later I moved to Tokyo working at the busiest intersection in the world.

I moved there using what’s called a Working Holiday Visa.  I had to apply for it at the Japanese Consulate in Toronto (the application process was super easy) This visa allowed me to live and work in Japan for a maximum of one year. I was required to have a return plane ticket as well as enough money in Traveler’s Checks to prove I could live in Japan for a couple of months. I actually didn’t have enough cash at the time so I asked my old boss to lend me some money, just for long enough to prove to the Consulate that I had it. Which he agreed to (I quickly returned the money to him later that same day).

At first, I lived in a company apartment but after three months I moved to a much cheaper, much more interesting house with 22 other young people.  The house I moved into was called a Gaijin House (Foreigner House), or Guesthouse, and was an awesome chance for me to meet a bunch of incredible people from all over the world!

I was working for a company called NOVA, which no longer exists. NOVA and most other English schools in Japan teach conversational English. This means that you don’t have to be an English professor to get a job teaching.  I taught lessons that ranged from, “How to order food in a restaurant” to my trademark lesson, “How to rob a bank”. That’s right, I am personally responsible for every bank robbery in Japan since 2004.

Living and working in Japan was probably the best experience of my life. The people I met, the things I learned about the world and myself, as well as the stuff I got to do, have completely shifted the way I think and inspired me to do the things that I do now.

After being in Japan for a few months and having that time of my life, I remember feeling completely ripped-off! I was angry that none of my teachers, guidance counselors or relatives told me that living and working in Japan was even an option. You, unfortunately have no excuse because your witty, always-informative friend Ryan is giving you the goods.

Here’s what you need to do:

1)    Visit the links that I will post below. Check out the different companies and their application requirements and decide if it’s something for you.

2)    Research what other people have experienced while living in Japan – check out Facebook groups and Blogs, there is a bunch of info available

3)    Try visiting there before moving there – I am bringing 10-15 high school graduates there next summer! (Click here for info)

4)    If Japanese language interests you, check the University or College closest to you and see if they have a language exchange program where you can teach English in exchange for Japanese lessons.

5)    Move to Japan and start working. If you don’t like it, you can always move back but at least try it out!

6)    If you have any questions, ask someone. You can start with me. I am as nice as pre-prison Martha Stewart (oh no he di’int).

English Schools in Japan (for info about each school click the school name)

GABA

AEON

GEOS KIDS

ECC

Miscellaneous Jobs in Japan

Gaijinpot.com

FAQ’s about teaching English in Japan

http://www.all-about-teaching-english-in-japan.com/

–Ryan–

This is it. You asked for it so I deliver it, just like a pizza but with less garlic so you can still kiss someone after consuming it.

The Make Your Own Lunch™ blog.

This is the place for you to come and learn how you can Make Your Own Lunch™. (Psst, hey new guy, Make Your Own Lunch™ isn’t really about food… Click here to learn about it)

This blog is a place where you can learn about what other people have done to Make Their Own Lunch and how you can do the same. You’ll learn about travel, education, money, hygiene (if you have to pause to smell you shirt -and it smells like a Junior Whopper – I’m talking to you) and a lot of other cool stuff.

You wanna learn how you can volunteer in Thailand, working with sick elephants? That will be here here. You wanna know how I got the chance to move to Japan to teach English in the heart of Tokyo or how I backpacked across Europe and Central America? I will let you know how I did it. You wanna know how to make more money or land the part-time job you dream of? Cool, I will make sure we write about that. You wanna start your own business? Good news, that’s also going to be taken care of here.

You want something else? Email us and tell us what you want to know and we will get our team on it!

Aside from having all this awesome info, we’ll also post interviews with people who are Making Their Own Lunch and doing some really cool stuff (think surfing photographers, professional croquet players and scuba diving instructors) We will also post videos and pictures to show you that we aren’t lying about all this stuff!

Our goal is to write about the things that we are passionate about. For some of us it’s music and travel, for others it’s making money and staying healthy. Bottom line, we want to help you create an awesome life that you are excited about living! We want to help you Make Your Own Lunch™ and love every minute of it!!!

Check back often and make sure you join me on Facebook and Twitter.

Bon appétit!

–Ryan–