Gap year? Take a hike (From Stroud News and Journal)

Gap year? Take a hike

NO-ONE more than me believes in the benefits of travel.

It opens the mind and hardly ever fails to make us take stock of our own good fortune back here in Blighty.

I am, however, increasingly exasperated by the current trend for the Gap Year. Now, I know I was born when God was a boy and it is infuriating for young people when the oldies begin every sentence with "In my day."

But in my day anyone with wanderlust scraped together their pennies by doing the sort of mind-numbing jobs students had to do, headed for the airport and sought out new horizons with little more than a good dollop of hope and a prayer to see them off.

The thrill of the unknown and the adventure into the big wide world was intoxicating.

They would travel wherever fate destined. They would meet people on the way and change their plans on a whim and if they wanted to help out in an orphanage or a school en-route they did and the arrangement was satisfactory on all sides.

Now the Gap jamboree is organised with military precision and the first port of call for any teenager embarking on Le Gap Year (don't even mention the word job) would appear to be Le begging letter.

Hardly a week goes by without me hearing of someone who needs to raise

THOUSANDS of pounds to go and work in some poverty stricken part of the world.

The ethos behind these jaunts is commendable. Truly it is. But let's be honest, these are jaunts - expensive once in a lifetime holidays that would take most people years to save up for.

And when these youngsters get to the far flung places of their choice what do they find there? A wealth of different cultures? No, a bunch of rich, pampered kids just like themselves.

It's just like boarding school in the bush and that in my book defies the whole concept of travelling to broaden the mind.

By all means teenagers should fly off as soon as they can. In fact I think it should be compulsory.

I spent two months travelling when I was 18 setting off with just £20. When I needed money I worked. If I couldn't find work I didn't eat. I arrived home exhausted and thinner but in one piece and richer for the experience.

Personally I would love an exotic holiday but I can't afford one. (Gap year students may need to read that sentence more than once).

And if I feel the need to help the poor and less fortunate there are plenty of places closer to home where I could offer my services without searching the globe.

But I wouldn't get much of a suntan in a British soup kitchen would I?