Please give your feedback about my essay. Thank you very much

In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Nowadays, youngsters are often strongly encouraged to take a gap year before entering university education. This recent trend has numerous merits and a few demerits, which will be discussed in this essay.

On the one hand, taking a year off before continuing their studies is beneficial in some ways. The first one is that taking a gap year can provide students with a wonderful opportunity to boost maturity and learn a great deal of responsibility prior to engaging in university life. As a college student living away from home for the first time, the thought of having to manage finances as well as university stresses and dorm life can be overwheming. Taking on a high school job during a gap year or even volunteering in another country will help them learn how to be a responsible adult and embrace the necessary skills in life that many students going straight on to university do not have. Another point worth noting is that delaying the start of university studies may partly contribute to reduce financial burden to some extent. The cost of living in university life covering not only tuition fees but also expenses for accommodation, books is one of the major concerns affecting their parents. Therefore, working for a year can be seen as a contemporary option for saving their own personal finances.

On the other hand, the most significant disadvantage of such a break is that it can be a distraction from further studies. Some students find such breaks so relaxing and enjoyable that they decide to shun further studies permanently. Moreover, taking a year out is synonymous with strengthening long-term educational process, which could result in starting their university program a year later and graduating a year later compared to other peers at the same age.

In conclusion, there are lots of reasons in favour of encouraging young people to work or travel for one year after graduating from the high school, but there are also some disadvantages that have to be taken into account.