> Taking a year off to party seems like bad advice. A year off "to party" is iffy advice, but "a year off to get high school out of your system," i.e. a "gap y

> Taking a year off to party seems like bad advice. A year off "to party" is iffy advice, but "a year off to get high school out of your system," i.e. a "gap year," is really good advice. I walked out of high school a depressed mess, and instead of slowing down and dealing with that, I let my parents pressure me into rolling that straight into college. Five years later, still pointlessly studying anything that sounded interesting, no degree in sight, sinking deeper into depression… it wasn't until I finally flamed out and put my life back together that I could even think about career. I wasn't even aware that the disciplines I would eventually find interesting even existed until after college. I still rank going straight into college as the biggest mistake of my life.