The Gap Decade

"A gap decade isn't a cute whim of a decision to take a pause and travel to Italy for a few months. Nah. A gap decade is a cluster of challenging, transitional years that the universe just dumps in your lap. And my lap. And pretty much everyone's lap. It's that twilight zone between 'young person' and 'full-blown adult' that sort of washes in, bringing with it a bit of chaos, growth, and self-discovery. It is a few years of flailing around, trying to figure out what the heck is happening as you move from not old to kinda old. From young adult to adult adult." The gap decade is that sometimes difficult transitional season young adults face in their twenties and early thirties. In this quirky and honest chronicle, Katie Schnack names the awkward realities of living in that gap between adolescence and adulthood. She and her husband go on an unpredictable journey through a decade of never-ending transitions as they make multiple moves across five states, face job interviews and tax returns, and go through anxiety, loss, pregnancy, and countless episodes of The Office.* Along the way, Schnack explores the common experiences of these young adulting years: The uncertainty of waiting when you're stuck and don't know what steps to take. Learning to trust in God's provision when you are broke like a joke. Admitting your need for help when panic attacks strike. And discovering a life full of grace and joys that can't be ordered via two-day delivery. *Katie has binged all nine seasons of The Office—four times. Don't do the math about how many hours of TV that is. She doesn't want to know.

The idea of the gap year has taken hold in America. Since its development in Britain nearly fifty years ago, taking time off between secondary school and college has allowed students the opportunity to travel, develop crucial life skills, and grow up, all while doing volunteer work in much-needed parts of the developing world.

A single mom and her seventeen-year-old daughter learn how to let go in that precarious moment before college empties the nest.

"I'm not ready for college yet..." Those words need not cause panic and fear for parents. Taking time off before or during college is no longer the road less traveled for many students in the United States. A gap year offers students the opportunity to gain focus and discipline, learn to set realistic goals, get real-world experience, and ultimately get the most out of a college educaiton. A complete resource, The Gap-Year Advantage provides parents with all the advice, tips, and information they need to help students develop and implement a gap-year strategy. With answers to commonly asked questions such as "What do colleges think of gap years?" and "Can I be certain my cheld will go or return to college after taking time off?," education experts and gap-year parents Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson also offer guidance on researching program options, creating a gap-year time-line that complements the college-application process, communicating with students about their goals, and handling logistics such as travel, health insurance, and money. With anecdotes from students and parents across the country who have taken gap years, this valuable guide also provides extensive information on program options in the United States and abroad that include volunteering, travel, interning, and specialized study.

The Gap Year Book is the leading one-stop guide for 18- to 25-year olds taking time out from their studies and career to travel.This practical and inspiring guide contains essential information on every aspect of the gap-year experience, including pre-trip planning, budgeting, packing, health and safety, volunteering, courses and working abroad.New regional maps and continent overviews reveal the best routes and must-see attractions for young travellers.

In the 1960s and ’70s, thousands of baby boomers strapped packs to their backs and flocked to Europe, wandering the continent on missions of self-discovery. Many of these boomers still dream of “going back”—of once again cutting themselves free and revisiting the places they encountered in their youth, recapturing what was, and creating fresh memories along the way. Marianne Bohr and her husband, Joe, did just that. In Gap Year Girl, Bohr describes what it’s like to kiss your job good-bye, sell your worldly possessions, pack your bags, and take off on a quest for adventure. Page by page, she engagingly recounts the experiences, epiphanies, highs, lows, struggles, surprises, and lessons learned as she and Joe journey as independent travelers on a budget—through medieval villages and bustling European cities, unimaginable culinary pleasures, and the entertaining (and sometimes infuriating) characters encountered along the way. Touching on universal themes of escape, adventure, freedom, discovery, and life reimagined, Gap Year Girl is an exciting account of a couple’s experiences on an unconventional, past the-blush-of-youth journey.

Conscious uncoupling, single parenting, dating and mating. Throw in career reinvention, a fiscal meltdown to rival the GFC, and a determination to have some fun along the way, it's clear one Gap Year was never going to be enough! Facing a crumbling marriage, an insecure financial future, and the daunting prospect of single parenthood, Nathy Gaffney was scared. At the age of forty-seven, it felt like all her friends had their acts together, while she was a struggling actress flailing for a lifeline. Would she survive her menopausal mid-life reinvention? In her no-holds-barred memoir The Gap Year(s), Gaffney takes readers on a raw and rollicking odyssey through heartbreak, utter resolve, and ultimate redemption. Refusing to take on the role society designates for women in their middle-aged years, Gaffney opts for possibility and transformation (with a liberal sprinkling of sexual renaissance). With courage and relentless enthusiasm, she shape-shifts herself and her life into what she wants it to become, not what society thinks it should be. The Gap Years is a story of hope and empowerment and refusing to settle for less than what you deserve.

Charlie Wheelan and his family do what others dream of: They take a year off to travel the world. This is their story. What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre–COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family dogs to travel the world on a modest budget. Equal parts "how-to" and "how-not-to"—and with an eye toward a world emerging from a pandemic—We Came, We Saw, We Left is the insightful and often hilarious account of one family’s gap-year experiment. Wheelan paints a picture of adventure and connectivity, juggling themes of local politics, global economics, and family dynamics while exploring answers to questions like: How do you sneak out of a Peruvian town that has been barricaded by the local army? And where can you get treatment for a flesh-eating bacteria your daughter picked up two continents ago? From Colombia to Cambodia, We Came, We Saw, We Left chronicles nine months across six continents with three teenagers. What could go wrong?