Taiga Kambara of the class of 2016 is taking a gap year next year to consider different careers and try new things. After a stressful high school experience Kambara wants to take a year to reevaluate himself and think about his plans for the future.

“I wanted to take a year to really reevaluate my priorities in terms of academics and so recalibrate and start thinking about bigger plans for the future,” said Kambara.

His primary reason for taking a gap year was because of his conflicting interests in two different fields.

“I really enjoy the sciences and history and as a profession I am planning on pushing the sciences, perhaps going to into engineering , but by doing that I realized that I was going to have to throw away my history track,” said Kambara.

Kambara wants to branch out and try different fields so he can get a feel for what he would like to do in college. He wants explore more science-related fields in depth.

“All throughout high school you take a certain set of courses and there’s only so many fields you can explore,” said Kambara.

Kambara plans to start working and deeply explore a specific industry, go abroad and do a gap year program in England, or apply to a Japanese college instead of going to college in the U.S.

Kambara has already been accepted into Case Western Reserve University, and put down a deposit for a place in the college. But if he decides to go to  Japan for college he will un-enroll from Case Western and forfeit the deposit.

Most people do not want to take a gap year because of the negativity surrounding it. Kambara does think that a person’s financial situation and the amount of stress planning for the gap year has a factor in a person taking a gap year.

“It evidently matters on what the plan for the year is, but especially if you plan to travel, the price could be pretty high. I will be behind all my classmates in college,” Kambara said.

However, Taiga sees that there are a lot of pros in taking a gap year which help develop one’s self.

“Gap year students will be doing a lot of “adulting”: planning the gap year, possibly living alone, et cetera. I may even argue that it may require more independence than going to college,” said Kambara.

He is very excited for the year to come.

“It is scary, to be honest, but I am expecting that it will be an experience like nothing before,” said Kambara.