What should I do with a year off of school?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m in my last year of college. Grad school deadlines keep coming and going, and I keep not applying. I’ve been busy shooting a movie and trying to keep up with my classes, and I just havn’t had time to sit down and think about grad school they way I need to.

I do want to go to grad school eventually. Maybe film school. Maybe for some sort of writing. It’d be nice to teach college eventually. My transcript is obscenely great, so I don’t think I should have too much trouble getting in to school. But I’m really not sure what I want to do in grad school. I havn’t even taken my GRE. It just seems not-so-smart to run into this whole grad school thing without some idea of what I want to get out of it.

So it looks like I am going to take a year off. What is a 22 year old girl with a BA in film supposed to do for a year? That is our challenge.

I know how to live cheap, and I don’t mind living cheap. But I don’t want to waste this year simply supporting myself. I’m not interested in just hanging around town working some lame job and partying. And I’m not ready to launch a career of some sort yet- unless it is something that I could continue during grad school. I’m too young and idealistic to get caught up in the 9-5 world.

I have a considerable amount of money put away, but it is the only large chunk of money I’m ever going to have in my life, so I don’t want to spend it on living expenses. I could buy a digital video camera with it (ahhhh, what I wouldn’t give for an XL1) if I had a good reason to. But ideally I wouldn’t touch this money so that I can use it as a downpayment on a house or something.

I live in Santa Cruz, CA right now. I’m getting a little tired of Santa Cruz, plus it is the most freaking expensive place to live ever (really- I pay $1,200 a month for a rotting one bedroom shack) so getting out of Santa Cruz is probably a good idea. I’d really like to be in San Francisco or Berkeley, but those places are probably the only places more expensive than Santa Cruz to live in. I’d like to live in Northern California, though. I’m not opposed to living in Sacramento (thats where I grew up) but if I am going to live there, I certainly hope to be doing something intersting- not just getting stuck there doing nothing.

I’d really like to travel. My tenative plan is to move to Sacramento and work some lame job for a while (did I mention that I hate working? I’ve never had a job that I didn’t hate to the point of being nearly suicidal) and then save up money to go traveling for a long time. I’m thinking two months in central/eastern Europe and a month in Vietnam. I love traveling, and I know how to travel on a tight budget. A lot of travel is probably the only thing that could motivate me to join the work of wage-slaves.

I’m also not opposed to some sort of travel/volenteer/work thing. The Peace Corps looks like a decent deal, except that I’d have to start applying for stuff now. Some sort of teach-English-abroad thing or something could be good. I’m interested in going literally anywhere on Earth, as long as I am able to feed myself (and hopefully keep up on repaying my student loans).

I’m also open to crazy schemes. For example, I’d love to walk across America or something like that. Or take some completely bizarre job- become a sushi chef or join the circus or something. Anything.

Do you think I could save enough to travel that long? Are there any good programs out there for people like me? Any other brilliant ideas on how I could spend this upcoming year doing stuff that is useful and intersting for myself and maybe even beneficial to others?

2

I once knew someone who was a blackjack dealer on a cruise ship. If you are looking for a different and fun job that includes travel I don’t see how you can do better then that! Actually, any job on a cruise ship sound like fun to me.

What ever you do I bet it will be great! It is making me jealous just thinking about having a year like that.

3

Step 1: Get a cheap but functional video camera
Step 2: Poll SDMB to find dopers interested in participating in this project
Step 3: Plot itenerary across US/World to visit said dopers
Step 4: Travel around world, staying with, and hitching rides from, dopers as often as possible (to keep expenses down)
Step 5: Interview said dopers on camera
Step 6: Ask said dopers to take you interesting places around where they live, take camera
Step 7: Assemble all footage into a bold and powerful movie which is simultaneously a travelogue, a documentary about the SDMB, a series of hilarious biographical sketches, a rumination about man’s place in an infinite universe, and a teen gross-out comedy.
Step 8: Sell to hollywood, become rich and famous, retire

4

Well, I highly recommend a program called BUNAC, which sponsors work visas to Britain, Australia, and New Zealand for recent graduates. You won’t make a fortune (at least, I didn’t during my summer in Britain), but it helps defray the costs of travel. Council Exchanges offers a similar deal for France, Germany, and Ireland; I don’t have personal experience with this program, but it sounds like it might be worth checking out.

Also, Dave’s ESL Cafe is a good resource for teach-abroad information, if you decide to go that route.

5

You should take some classes! If I had some time off, that’s what I’d do.

:slight_smile:

6

Travel and/or do something you know you’re just not going to get time to do when you go back to school.

For instance, I second the suggestion of taking a video camera out on the road and making a film. You obviously are into film, it’ll get you out of your home town, and you’ll end up with something to show for at the end of it.

Also (pet peeve) learn how to remove superfluous 'of’s from your sentences.