What are you going to do after school? Most young people, as they prepare to graduate from high school or college, are faced with many questions, the least of which is: “What’s next?” For some students, immediate continuing education is the first and only thing they need to do. Other students go directly to work. But, for some, there is another option. They can take a gap year job and experience life in another culture while working and traveling at the same time.

A gap year job isn’t just hopping on a plane to a faraway country and working in a pub. There is much more than that. Now there are companies that will help organize a vocational situation for you from start to finish, so that you have a good and rewarding job, are well fed and cared for, and still able to travel.

That does not mean, of course, that a year working abroad will be all work and no play. Most gap year work placements are in educational settings, so you’ll have the same days off as students. When school is over for them, the road is yours to ride.

A gap year job can take place in many different countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, or even South America. Wherever you go, you’ll learn lots of new ideas, ways of looking at things you already know, not to mention meeting new people. The friends you make during your year abroad you will never forget.

You only get your youth once and what a great time to get away from everything you know and test yourself in a new culture and a new country. Almost everyone who has taken this year off will tell you how rewarding and wonderful it was, something they will treasure forever.