Filling the post-matric gap

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

“It was one of the scariest decisions I’ve ever made,” says Skye Burgess, who, at the last minute, decided to turn her holiday travels through Southeast Asia into a gap year. “What I’ve learned is that the scariest decision can turn out to be amazing.”

After matriculating from King David Linksfield in 2016 with five distinctions, Skye left for a three-week trip around Southeast Asia with her older brother. The two made an unscheduled stop in Cambodia the day before they were due to fly home.

Sitting at a backpackers lodge having drinks, Skye reflected on how much she loved Cambodia. “The owner heard me and offered me a bartender job, complete with food and accommodation,” she recalls. “I’d wanted to take a gap year, but it was always a fantasy. Initially there wasn’t the slightest thought that I’d stay. I was 100% planning to go to university to study business.”

Yet, as she and her brother prepared to leave from the bus station the next morning, Skye stayed put. “I just didn’t get on the bus. It was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to – it was potentially life-changing.”

After explaining her feelings to her parents, who had initially wanted her to return home and study, Skye stepped into the unknown with their blessing. What followed was a 13-month adventure of a lifetime, where she worked her way through Cambodia, Thailand, Australia and Nepal. Among the highlights of her trip were making lifelong friendships, teaching English to monks in Cambodia, rebuilding schools for earthquake victims in Nepal and staying at Mount Everest base camp.

Having recently returned to South Africa, Skye now plans to sustain her love of people and exploration by studying psychology and anthropology at Wits University. She hopes to complete part of her degree in Rome. “If I were to leave here to work somewhere else, it wouldn’t be because I dislike South Africa. I’m simply not the type of person to be in one place,” she says. “I feel like a different person now. I always knew I needed to learn about the world, but I had no idea that I actually knew nothing.

“It was the first time I’d been by myself. I saw good and bad sides of life and I encountered interesting people who opened up my mind. I learnt about construction, I picked up languages easily and I realised that I can do a lot more than I thought. My greatest gain was falling in love with life.”

Dinah Poyurs – a class of 2017 matriculant from Yeshiva College, with four distinctions to her name – is about to take a more structured journey. She flies to Israel this weekend to take part in Bnei Akiva’s MTA programme. “It’s a great opportunity to see Israel and to learn,” she says. Seeking more than just an inspiring year away, Dinah is also contemplating pursuing a degree in Israel.

The year includes intensive Torah study at a midrasha, army volunteering, kibbutz work and touring Poland. Dinah sees this as an opportunity to take time off from secular studies and daily pressures, and to think clearly about the future. “I’m mostly looking forward to becoming more independent – it’s a great opportunity to grow up; you’re living by yourself and have to follow a schedule and take more responsibility. The fact that it’s a tried and tested programme and that I’m going with friends removes any worries I might have had.”

Bradley Mervis, who matriculated from King David Victory Park in 2016 and is about to start his BCom studies, recently returned from a year in Israel on Habonim’s Schnat programme. “School prepares you academically but not when it comes to independence, cooking, cleaning, living alone, budgeting, planning, using public transport. I’m better equipped now – I feel a lot more like an adult than I did before I left.”

For Joshua Pincus, a gap year spent in Israel and the US in 2015 provided career clarity. Now in his second year of studying strategic marketing communications at the University of Johannesburg, Joshua knew he couldn’t go to university straight after matric. “I went on a programme called Aardvark, which offers work experiences, learning and touring in Israel and the US,” he says. “I decided to go to Tel Aviv because I like big cities that are always on the move. You choose whichever internship you want. Initially, I worked at a business incubator which aimed to bring foreign business and companies into Israel. I learned a lot but also realised that I couldn’t be emailing all day. So, I quit after four months and went to work with autistic children in an Israeli kindergarden.

“I then worked at an American Jewish summer camp in Pennsylvania and spent a few months travelling there with my new friends. My gap year taught me responsibilty, budgeting and how to wash my own clothes. Most importantly, it helped me discover what I wanted to do, which was marketing, because I love interacting with people.”

After matriculating from King David Victory Park in 2014, Taiman Milner followed his long-held dream to work on yachts in the US. Three years on, he’s still sailing the seas. He’s based in Fort Lauderdale and works on general yacht maintenance and managing watersport equipment. “Working on yachts was a great way to see the world while making money. I heard about yachting when I was younger and the idea stuck, so after matric, I followed my instincts.

“I’ve gained a lot. I’ve been to amazing places like Panama, Cuba and the Bahamas. I’ve also explored other places in South and Central America when I’ve had time off. I’d recommend it to anybody who’s willing to work hard, make sacrifices and step out of their comfort zone. I’ve made countless friends along my travels. It’s been the best decision I’ve made so far.”

Taiman plans to eventually return to SA to pursue a qualification in property development, but for now he’s still charting his own course. “I’ll be back within the next few months for a holiday and then I’ll continue working, this time in Europe,” he says.

A parent of three children who’ve pursued gap years, the youngest of whom is leaving in April, Mickie Spitalnik Mayer is a self-taught expert on the topic. “We put gap years together for each of my kids based on their interests. It was a lot cheaper than having them go on the programmes on offer,” she says. “Gap years can be very expensive, but we’ve been strict about instilling a budget and allowing our kids to work and support themselves for part of the year.”

Her oldest son, now 22, did Marva, a two-month Israeli army experience, and then worked as a soccer coach at a US summer camp. He travelled to London with the money he made and then returned to Israel and did Magen David Adom, an ambulance volunteer and training programme. A year later, he was accepted into the Israeli army. Now he’s about to start studying in Israel.

“He didn’t know what he wanted to do after matric and he wasn’t ready to study, so taking the gap year and going to the army was brilliant for him,” says Mayer. “Many of his friends are now finishing their degrees and my son is just starting, but I don’t think he’s missed anything – he’s gained so much.

“My daughter did one semester of Aardvark in Tel Aviv, cooked at a camp in America and later au paired in London for three months. She always wanted to do occupational therapy, so after her gap year, she came back to study at university – she’d already received a deferred acceptance. My younger son just matriculated and he’s doing a pre-army programme, a US camp work experience and Magen David Adom.”

Mayer believes in gap years. “Kids are quite mollycoddled here, so this gives them a real sense of their independence. They discover their strengths. A lot of kids are very itchy after school. Matric is stressful and many kids go straight to university afterwards, but a lot of them drop out. Some just get there later in terms of discovering what they really want to do.”

Considering the mounting pressures of today’s world, it’s natural that kids want to explore, adds Mayer. “They should experiment in positive ways, learning about their capabilities. In a world that’s largely about buying and consuming things, giving kids experiences is invaluable. Taking a year off while still supported by their families, but having to work within a budget, gives them a different sense of who they are. They find their wings.”