The Gap (Crap) Year

After 12 years of school I'm pretty sure the term Gap year sounds pretty sweet after matriculation.Especially to those pupils who have no clue what they want to do after the school uniforms, endless amounts of home work and exams cease to exist and their handed a piece of paper as a summery of what they have been doing for the last twelve years of their lives.It’s pretty depressing, not to mention limiting!

So you don't have that 90% average you were gunning for you might not even have enough to qualify for the degree you were planning on doing next year, so what now? “I might need a year to think about it” you decide as you start picturing yourself laying next to the pool and soaking up some sun with a six pack of beer in the cooler bag next to you, so care free, so relaxed right..?Wrong!

Unless you have access to unlimited funds and your parents wouldn't mind you laying around the house for the next 365 days this should not be an option! I however was unlucky enough to find myself at home on my fathers couch in front of the TV 24/7 after receiving my Senior Certificate last year.

Not because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life or because my marks limited me from doing so but simply because University is a shit load of money and the bank had not yet approved my loan before my classes started. Sucks balls right?Yes,yes indeed.

Anyway after I repacked my bags and cried my eyes out for most of the bus ride home. I decided that if I was going to survive this I might as well make the best of it.Get a job, get my drivers license, I might even lose some weight!Ha, was I in for a surprise..

You see getting a job in the real world with nothing but a Senior Certificate is almost impossible.Everyone wants to hire people with previous experience and I had nada. So I phoned our local newspaper and asked if I could work there for a week or two just to see how things were done ( oh yeah, I want to be a journalist) and luckily for me they were a journalist short that week and I was hired!Unpaid of course, but that didn't matter because I had something to do and that was enough besides I could put that on my CV for next year.I was excited.Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all I thought as I went in to work everyday wrote a few articles and was sent out to take pictures of school events and other news worthy activities ( I live in a small town).Needless to say I was content.That was until they got a real journalist and I was sent home two weeks later and a surprising R1000 richer. That kind of dulled the pain for a while and I being the “dedicated” person I was started a new job 3 days later as a waitress at O’hagens.

This is a period of my life I am reluctant to revisit as it was the most hellish two weeks of my life!!!!! But share I must. First of all we did not get paid the first week because we were still being trained and we were not allowed to serve any tables which means we had to follow some of the more seasoned waiters around to see what was up. The first time waiters had to work from 8am-3am with a break of about two hours.Yes, we only had 5 hours of sleep.Boom! luckily for us our training ended early and 3 days later we got our own tables which meant we could get TIIIIIIIPs! This new and exciting concept had breathed new life into us and we were taking orders like it was nobodies business. We even started stealing each others tables even though keeping everyone’s orders straight was getting more and more difficult just so we had more to look forward to at the end of the night. By the end of my second week I had heard more than my fair share of cussing by the way. Things had gotten ugly but at least we had our first pay checks to look forward to.Or not! Turns out we had to pay for the uniforms we got earlier that week our selves and we still owed the restaurant owners.And That ladies and gents was the final straw.I was not going to work like a slave any more I thought and quite the very next day. I knew that I could get something better by the next month I just had to touch up my CV and send it out. I was confidant, I was determined but most of all I was wrong...

It’s six months later and I'm still very much unemployed.I spend my days on the internet browsing various social networks or I am in front of the TV.I have put on more than a few pounds even though I workout twice a day because I snack all day out of shear boredom. The only Good thing that has come out of this year is my Boyfriend who I love very very much.He has made this year more than bearable. But I cant wait to go to Uni next year, get a degree and start paying my dues! Because People like us (matriculants) don't belong in the real world that's why we are throne curve ball after curve ball so we can hall our asses back to school and finish a degree. My advice?Don't Delay Your Life.Unless you’re going to use your Gap year productively and you have a plan It simply is not worth it!