By Josef- The Leap Intern

Way back in February 2005 all those years ago I set off from what can only be described as a bone quivering winter, my destination… Mumbai, India. After six grueling months sat between the ever complaining Dave and Claire, negotiating with thousands of curiously fuming customers, and slowly coming to terms with a life where my every waking hour was spent in a soul destroying call center, my time had come. Bring on stage 2 of my gap year… travel!

The taj at sunset

Alongside tens of thousands of British school leavers I’d decided that a gap year was for me. Everyone has there own reason to take a gap year, ranging from inspired to downright misjudged. For most however, its usually the first decision that’s all yours to make, and that’s what makes it so exciting. I went to India, traveling anticlockwise for six months until I ended up exactly where I started again, Mumbai. I’ve only recently realised how precious a gap year is, being able to take a year off from life, simply to indulge our dreams is rare, and for most of us we only get one chance to make the most of it. But how do you that?

My only qualification to talk about gap years is that I’ve taken one, and although I hate to admit it, I’m not sure I got the most out of it. The one thing I can be 100% sure on is that I made plenty of mistakes. So where did I go wrong?

Deciding early on to travel independently, I bought all my own flights, insurance, jabs, organised trains and buses, flicked through a lonely planet and off I went. Moving on every few days to see the next monument or beach, mountain or festival, it was an onslaught of experiences and undeniably fun. But now I ask myself if I got to know anybody, or indeed a particular place or community. With so many things to see in the bible that is a lonely planet, I never had time to get truly involved with the people, who I so keenly watched as my train rolled past their towns and villages. The only time I sat back, took stock, and got to know any locals was whilst bed bound in a hospital in Goa following a rather dicey fever! But I’ll get to that other pitfall of independent travel later.

Even paradise involves a trip to the hospital occasionally!

Essentially, the question I ask myself now is… Did I become just another tourist? I never wore socks and sandals, or hung an expensive camera about my neck, but with retrospect I became the very tourist that no Gapper ever wants to become. By following the very books designed to inform the independent traveller, I ended up following a conveyor belt of gap year traffic, bumping into the same people time and again as we all raced to the places highlighted in our travel guides. Of course this is avoidable, a more adventurous traveller would throw the guide away, but for an 18 year old who’d only been away for the occasional holiday with mates, you become addicted to the ease of just flicking a page for your next destination.

How would I change it if I could? I loved my time in India, but with time I regret 2 things. Firstly, I never gave back to a country and people that have such a special place in my heart, in fact I think I might have bankrupted a few with my over exuberant haggling. Secondly, I never got to know an area properly, never took the time out of my hectic itinerary, and now have no one I’d feel comfortable flying out and visiting. With a bit of research its pretty clear to see that there are volunteering projects in just about every corner of the world, I’d recommend taking the time to check them out, its something I wish I’d done! I’m pretty sure it would have dealt with both of my regrets.

There's alot of advice out there, just know when to take it.

A quick note on safety. Again my only qualification here is my natural ability to attract bizarre mishaps… Like being hospitalised with pneumonia in Goa, bitten by a rabid dog in Rajasthan, or confronted with a rifle waving ticket officer onboard an overnight train in the Himilayas. Travelling with an organisation might not have prevented any of these “mishaps” from happening, but the support they can give you would’ve been nice to say the least.

If I’d gone with an organisation I feel I would have got so much more from my time away. Stick Gap Year into google and you’ll find everything you need, including The Leap. Trust me, you’ll go on about your gap year to everyone you meet for years, so do everything you can to make the most of it, there’s loads of organisations out there that could have helped me to get more from what’s supposed to be the most exciting year of your life.