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Ask HN: Good gap year activities?
I’m a US high school senior going to college next year, and am currently looking into gap year programs. I’m open to working, but I figure I have my whole life to work, so I’d like to do some _cool_ work overseas.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Some info about me is on my site in my bio
- adamnemecek 9y agoConsider contributing to open source, It has never been easier. Pick an interesting project, not too popular (there might be less to do if it's too popular) and start fixing shit.
- MaxLeiter 9y agoI already do, see https://maxleiter.com https://maxleiter.com
- adamnemecek 9y agothose projects, while nice, aren't popular. contribute to something people use.
- kuro-kuris 9y agoI would try myself at selling stuff perhaps start a business. You can just start selling water in front of a library. Learning to sell and fighting your fear of interactions will be an asset for the rest of your life.
- ai_ia 9y agoCreate your own version of 12 startups in 12 months and go digital nomad for a year. Mail the guy who created nomadlist for more info.
- dabockster 9y agoFirst off, I'm happy to see a high schooler considering a gap year. As someone that received the whole "go to college asap or be irrelevant" talk, I deeply wish that I had the resources to take a gap year and really find out if I wanted to enter college in the first place. As to your question, I'd recommend finding a job that will cover your living expenses. Nothing too brutal, but enough so that you're not totally broke. This will allow you to really leverage your free time in order to do some soul searching. Tech ideas include contributing to open source, starting a business, writing a few crud websites, building a computer, etc etc etc. You also have several non-tech opportunities available such as climbing a mountain, improving your mental health, getting into a relationship, and other things. Most importantly, see this gap year as a way to better yourself as a whole. Don't use it just to build a thousand projects thinking that a large software company will notice. Really dive down to figure out what makes you, well, you. I hope this helps you figure things out.