A Retirement GAP Year

We always hear about college students who take a gap year. They run off to travel the world in search of adventure and experience outside the life they knew as a child. We rarely hear about an adult running away from home for a gap year, but why not?

Together, we worked a combined 90 years, mostly in the education and medical fields. Wasn’t that enough time spent working? For almost 90 years we worked in some kind of service role putting other people’s needs before our own. We worked long hours for the job. We gave up our free time to raise our children. We declined social activities and put our noses to the grindstone. Work, work, work. Even our free time had work intertwined (lesson plans, schedules, trainings, email, etc.). Why? Why did we work so long and so hard? First, it was our nature, some deeply woven fabric of our beings. Second, it was what we were taught to do. You work hard and some day you will be rewarded.

According to Forbes Magazine, a gap year allows (young) learners a chance to

• develop a better awareness of themselves

• travel or volunteer, immersing oneself into new learning

• reduce their stress and address mental health concerns

• become more confident and independent

• make a plan for your future

But why can’t (old) learners use a gap year for the same reason? Health care and education definitely qualify as stressful, and our mental health’s have suffered recently. We had both reached burn-out and needed to make different plans for our future. Even more so, our combined future needed to be analyzed more than our individual futures. We had grown stagnant individually and needed an opportunity to grow our perspectives together, away from the stressful routines we were familiar with.

Anyone, at any age, needs a plan if they choose a gap year. We know, roughly, what our one year will look like. But what might life look like on the other side of that gap year? Separately, and together, we have a lot of personal interests, and we needed time away to reflect on our true desires. We hope the gap year will help us answer many of the following questions.

• do we want to keep serving people

• do we want paid jobs or volunteer work

• do we want to own a house or rent in our senior lives

• do we want to live in the city, in the country, or by the seaside

• do we want to live on a large footprint or small footprint

• do we want to have a large network of people in our lives or an intimate network

• do we want the responsibility of pets or gardens

Our idea was born out of a desire to experience a new way of living; a life different than the type we had known in the United States of America. Our research began with the idea that we would move to Europe, wouldn't that be grand? But then we couldn't decide which country we liked better to be an expat. As we continued to talk, we realized we needed to visit a variety of countries to really narrow down our wants and needs. Perhaps we wouldn't like any other place. So, the gap-year of travel was born.

Overall, the gap year is the right choice for us. We have a lot of soul-searching to do and hope that the experiences in places like Italy, Albania, Spain, Portugal, and France can help us find our physical and emotional pathways. What do you need to help you find yours?