Parents often worry about kids taking a year off between high school and college. My parents worried when I announced that I was moving to Australia for a year. They feared I would never go to university (I did) nor return home (I did, at least for a time before itchy feet got me moving). Taking a gap year is a wonderful opportunity to focus on something important to you. Take Samantha Larson. Stanford happily deferred her admission for a year. Her plan: Climb Chomolungma also known as Mt. Everest. And she did. Not only that. She became the youngest person to  completed the seven summits challenge–summiting the highest peak on each of the seven continents.

Her story is amazing - she has climbed every major peak in the world since she
was 13. As one of her classmates offered:

“You can do your freshman year anytime,” said Cacey Ashley, a classmate
on the Poly dance team who has known Samantha for seven years and who
played with her on the districtwide concert band. “How many people can
do what Samantha’s doing?”

On an aside, one commentor on the Stanford blog, quipped: “Wow! Admission requirements are getting harder every year.” I will leave you with one of my favourite Edward Abbey quotes:

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a
reluctant enthusiast… a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic.
Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and
adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more
important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get
out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and
explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the
rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a
while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious
and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and
your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and
I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our
enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe
deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise
you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

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