April 1, 2025 • 19 mins
Deferring a year before uni was a scary decision for me, but I am so glad that I did it. Today we are diving into 3 important things that I learned from my deferred year.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing
Podcast.
My name is Eleanor and I am aBritish American oboist studying
at the Royal Conservatoire ofScotland literally my dream
school and it took me a long wayto get there.
I applied and auditioned for 12schools in three different
countries.
It was a lot of hard work but,oh my gosh, so worth it.
(00:24):
I want you to have theconfidence to work hard in
achieving your goals, so comewith me as we go on this journey
together.
So sit down, pull up a chair,take a seat or, if you're on the
go, welcome to the ConfidentMusicianing Podcast.
(00:52):
When I had gotten into differentconservatoires in the UK, I
visited the UK to check them outand to see which one I liked
the best.
And I remember that first nightstaying in the UK I was in a
hotel and I felt so panicky, sounbelievably panicky.
I was like led in bed and I wasunable to sleep, partially
because of the loud pub rightbelow me, but also because I
(01:14):
knew this was a much bigger leapthan I realized, and I knew
deep down that I needed to defera year before starting uni,
that starting it right aftergraduating high school would be
not helpful.
It would not help me in any wayand I needed that time to
prepare.
And let me tell you, I am soglad that I deferred.
(01:36):
I am so glad that I deferred.
I was able to have a muchbetter move to the UK because of
it and I was more preparedfinancially, emotionally,
logistically, and I was alsoable to start this podcast,
which means so much to me.
Now, looking back on it, youknow when I say, oh, I deferred
(01:57):
a year.
Looking back on it, I thinkthat there are so many things I
have learned from deferring ayear and I remember when I was
so scared about making thatdecision.
I wish I knew the things that Iknow now about deferring a year
.
So if you were thinking aboutpotentially deferring a year
before starting university, thisvideo, this podcast, is for you
(02:21):
.
We are going to go into a fewthings that I learned from
deferring a year that willhopefully help you to decide
whether you should or should not.
So let's go into it.
Okay, the first thing that Ilearned is that everyone's pace
is different, and I trulylearned this.
(02:42):
I was really nervous aboutdeferring a year because I
thought that that meant that Iwould end up being a year behind
from the rest of the studentsmy age.
They would graduate a yearearlier.
They would be in theprofessional world a year
earlier.
They would maybe get jobs.
In my mind, this is what I wasthinking they would get jobs a
year earlier than I would.
(03:03):
And if we're thinkinglogistically, yes, the people
that I went to high school with,the people that you know I did
like youth orchestra with inhigh school, they are a year
ahead of me in university.
But when I actually got touniversity and started, you know
, studying at university, Irealized just how different
(03:26):
everyone's pace is.
Everyone is on their own timeframe.
I have friends who are a yearolder than me, who are in my
year, who are a year youngerthan me, who are two years
younger than me.
In my year I have people in myyear who are like five, six
years older than me.
I have people in my year whoare my parents' age.
(03:49):
So everyone is on their own pathand if deferring a year is
going to serve you, I think it'sso, so important to do it.
So if you feel like a littlestressed about the idea of
taking a year and being behindof the people your age by a year
(04:11):
, especially in the music world,where it's like, when we get
out of conservatoire, if we want, say, an orchestral job, those
things are extremely competitiveand so when we think about, oh
my gosh, if I I'm behind a year,then I might not be able to get
you know things as easily.
But the thing about it is that,and what I've learned from
(04:31):
going to a conservatoire is thatevery single person is on their
own path and if your pathincludes a year off or, you know
, a year off of school notnecessarily practice, but a year
where you take some time toprepare for university, that is
so valuable to you and soimportant and, to be honest,
(04:55):
might even help you, I mean itwill definitely help you in
university, maybe more thanpeople who might have rushed
right into it.
You know, know, maybe that's,maybe that's something that they
need to do and they need tojust go into it and that's great
for them.
But sometimes we need to havethat year.
So if that sounds likesomething you need and maybe
deep down, if you think about itdeep down, you're like I need
(05:18):
to take a year, then that'sreally important to consider.
You won't necessarily be likebehind in the way that I was
thinking of.
I'm going to be a year behind.
Okay, the next thing is thereare a lot of different types of
(05:38):
years off or deferred years.
Now, I think I said this liketwo minutes ago, especially for
musicians a year off is not ayear off of music, right?
We're not taking a year to likenot look at our instrument at
all.
I don't think that that's aneffective use of our time at all
in terms of a deferred year.
(05:58):
But there are a lot ofdifferent types of years off.
Some people backpack throughnew countries or just relax for
a year.
Some people do internships.
Some people just get a job andstart working to get the money
that they need for university.
Other people apply forscholarship after scholarship
(06:20):
after scholarship.
Other people maybe need toprepare more emotionally and
mentally because, let's behonest, going to university is a
big step and we are all in ourown journeys in terms of our
emotional and mental health.
Some people need to preparemore logistically.
All of these are great ways tospend the year if they serve you
(06:44):
.
For me, I did not backpackthrough countries.
I was more of someone who wasapplying for scholarships,
looking for funding, figuringout the logistics of it.
I think as well, mentally andemotionally, I needed that year
as well, and I also took thetime to create more of like
(07:04):
creative endeavors in terms ofstarting this podcast, working
very hard on my social medias,doing things like that, and
creating this confidentmusicianing community that we
have.
That I like.
I focused that year on startingto do that, and I think that
that's so important because nowwe have this community.
(07:24):
I think if I didn't take thisyear, then, you know, I would be
at university, I would be doing, I would be doing practicing
and I would be learning, butmaybe I wouldn't have the
connections that I have nowthrough this podcast.
Or maybe, you know, I wouldn'thave been able to focus as much
on my social media and not beable to use it in effective and
(07:48):
helpful ways.
Now, now for you, you might notbe like, okay, I'm going to
take a year to focus on socialmedia, because that's not
necessarily what I did wholly,you know, not completely, but
that's something that Iincorporated into my year and
now it has been really helpfulin my growth as well, and also
we've created an amazingcommunity that I absolutely love
(08:11):
.
So if you are taking a year,building that year.
The way you want to build it isso important.
For me it was scholarshiplooking.
It was applying for funding.
It was practicing, it waspreparing to change you know
scrapes styles because I changedfrom the American style of oboe
(08:31):
playing to the European.
It was finding a flat.
It was mostly like thelogistical and financial aspects
of it.
But if you take a year, don'tcompare it to all the Instagram
gap years that were spentbackpacking through Europe
trying new things, all of thesethings, because if that's not
(08:54):
what your year, like yourdeferred year, looks like, then
why would we ever compare it tothat?
I did not backpack throughanywhere because, honestly, I
didn't have the time or money todo that.
So how you spend your deferredyear is really important to you
(09:15):
and it's really special to youand it's personalized and you
get to decide how you do thisyear.
So ask yourself what you wantout of this year.
I remember when I started my gapyear I had a weekend after the
summer because I did a summerjob and when I finished my
summer job I had a weekend thatI called a transitional weekend
(09:38):
and if I look literally, if Ilook back into like my diaries
and my calendars.
Back then, I marked out thisweekend, and this weekend was
specifically to decide what Iwas going to do with my year.
You know what.
How much time would I focus onfinding funding versus the
logistics of it?
You know all of these things.
(09:59):
How would I spend my time?
And I also, you know, cleanedmy space physically, cleaned my
space digitally as well to havethe best year that I could
deferred year that I could andfor me, I remember that
transitional weekend wasextremely important for me to
(10:19):
realize how I wanted to spend myyear and what I wanted to work
on the most, or maybe not asmuch, but still consistently,
you know.
So, for you, what do you wantout of this year?
I think it's really importantto reflect on this and it can
always change.
The beginning of my deferredyear looked very different from
(10:41):
the end.
Also, in some ways, it lookedvery similar.
So now this goes straight intothe next thing, which is
structuring your year.
Now, this is kind of like thesecond point, but more focused,
and we were kind of moving intothis as well.
So, structuring your year forme, I just worked and worked and
(11:03):
worked and worked on findingfunding and organizing the move.
I woke up every single weekdayat 7am, I started working at 8am
and I kind of didn't stop until7pm.
Saying that right now soundsreally overwhelming to me.
I'm kind of like how did Iactually do that?
And the thing that helped me tobe consistent in my gap year
(11:28):
endeavors is how I structured myrest.
I'm going to be honest and saythat I did struggle with taking
breaks during the day.
It's something that I stillstruggle with.
I find in my mind I'm like,okay, when I wake up, once I've
had breakfast and kind of done amorning routine, once I'm ready
to go, I need to work, work,work, work, work, work, work
(11:49):
until about 8pm and then I canrelax.
And that's something that Istill struggle with being able
to just take 15, 20, 30 minutesin the day and take a break.
But I did, during my day duringmy gap year, have a lunch.
It was half 12.
It was half 12.
Every day, from half 12 to halfone, I had lunch and that was
(12:12):
my time.
I decided not to work at all inthat time and that was, you
know, very much designated.
Then, when I got to about 7 PM,I stopped working and I did
hobbies.
I did like tons of hobbies.
I have, you know, from my gapyear.
I have so many things I did.
(12:32):
I learned I have so much moregrammar knowledge because I
learned languages.
You know I have so much morelanguage knowledge.
I also sewed.
So I literally have physicalpieces of clothing that I hand
sewed in, you know, in my breaksand also on the weekends.
I made it so that I mean, Istill practiced on the weekends,
but I made it so that I didn'twork on finding funding or, you
(12:55):
know, doing things likelogistically doing things for
the podcast, although sometimesI did on the weekends.
But for me that was reallyreally, really important to how
I structured my day, since thereis no set school day in your
year, especially if you arecoming from high school a high
school situation where you dohave a day that you have to be
(13:18):
in school from a certain time toa certain time and then you
have assignments.
It's a really differentstructure.
There's no set school day and Ifeel like it's so easy to get
really stressed because you'relike, okay, any time is a great
time to be focused and workingon things, and it's so easy to
get burnt out through that, butsaying things like I'm gonna
(13:39):
have a lunch this is where mylunch is from and, two, I am
going to respect those theboundaries of those of that
lunch and, you know, reallyfocus on relaxing during that
lunch.
After this specific time I amnot going to work.
It is my time to do what I want, to enjoy things you know and
being open to you know.
If, say, you need a break,going for a walk, doing like
(14:04):
that, just really focusing onyour mental well-being as well
as, you know, doing the workthat you need to do during your
gap year, I think if I didn'tfocus as much on my mental
well-being, I would have beenway more panicky about this
whole situation.
I mean, moving is stressful,but I think if I didn't have
(14:25):
those set rules, it would be waytoo stressful for me.
Okay, I hope that this washelpful.
I hope that this made sense toyou and if, if I hope that it
helps you.
If you are considering taking agap year, I hope it helps you,
um, have a bit more of aperspective of someone who did
(14:46):
take a year off, um, but notnecessarily someone who
backpacked through Europe,although if you want to backpack
through Europe, go ahead.
I mean that's pretty cool aswell.
I would have loved to backpackthrough Europe.
It's just not what my prioritywas during my year.
Okay, let's do a bit of a recap.
The first thing is everyone'space is different.
Everyone's pace is different.
(15:07):
I think I was so nervous aboutbeing a year behind.
But then I get to universityand there are people who are six
years older than me and alsotwo years older than me and
we're in the same lecturebecause we're in the same year
but at the same time.
It's not because you know theperson who's six years older
than me, it's not because theyare behind or anything.
(15:29):
It's just you know their timefor studying.
This specific you know degreewas different from mine.
So everyone's on their own pace.
The next thing is that there aretons of different types of
years off.
If you want to backpack places,or if you want to do an
(15:49):
internship, I mean that's reallycool.
I didn't do that, but I thinkthat that could be so cool.
Internship, I mean that'sreally cool.
I didn't do that, but I thinkthat that could be so cool.
If you literally just need toget a job and work and make some
money for university, that is areally really good way to spend
a year.
If you need to apply forscholarships, if maybe you just
need some time to work on youremotional and mental health
(16:12):
before you do this big leap,that's also extremely important.
Sometimes you just need to belogistical.
So everyone's years aredifferent and the way you
structure your year is sopersonal and important to you,
and I hope that you can findthat balance of what you need.
(16:32):
The next thing is structuringyour year, but more focusing on
rest so that you don't get burntout because there, you know,
you have all this time.
There is no limit, there is nobell at the end of the school
day to say, okay, we're donewith this.
So having those that structurefor me, it was having a lunch,
having an hour where I made surethat I didn't um, I didn't work
(16:54):
during this time.
It was, you know, having anhour where I made sure that I
didn't work during this time.
It was, you know, having a timeat the end of the day where I'm
like, okay, I'm done withworking, I'm going to, you know,
do fun things that I enjoy.
So creating that time for rest,for relaxation, for breaks,
especially if you are doingsomething like applying for
funding, because that can feelso endless.
(17:16):
So creating that time for youis really important.
Okay, and before we go, I justwant to let you know if you are
a musician which I have afeeling you might be because
you're listening to this podcastand you want to be more
structured in your practice.
You want to have more effectivepractice because, let's be
honest, if you're taking a yearoff practicing should, it needs
(17:38):
to be so effective so that youcan take you know the time that
you might have spent wasted inthe practice room, so you can
take that time and focus it onthe things that you need to do
as well, like applying forfunding or other things, other
things.
So effective practice is soimportant, which is why I want
to introduce you to Notable.
(18:00):
A Notable practice journal issomething that I have been using
.
They are practice journals thathelp you plan your practice and
also reflect after yourpractice so that you can improve
the way you practice everysingle day.
As soon as I realized this wasworking for me, I had to tell
you about it and I had to giveyou a code.
So if you want a notablepractice journal, use code
(18:21):
Eleanor15 for 15% off yourjournal, that is,
e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for 15% offyour journal.
Get a notable practice journaland make your year so extremely
effective in your practice.
You know me, I don't recommendanything that I don't absolutely
love.
This code is an affiliate code,so I do receive a commission
(18:44):
with no extra cost to you.
Alright, that's about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for listeningand watching.
I hope that it was helpful.
If it was helpful, please dolet me know.
You can like, comment,subscribe, follow all the fun
things and all the links will beavailable in the description,
in the show notes from the blogpost that goes with this episode
(19:05):
, and also the link to get yournotable practice journal.
All right, until next time,take care, bye-bye.
Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing
Podcast.
My name is Eleanor and I am aBritish American oboist studying
at the Royal Conservatoire ofScotland literally my dream
school and it took me a long wayto get there.
I applied and auditioned for 12schools in three different
countries.
It was a lot of hard work but,oh my gosh, so worth it.
(00:24):
I want you to have theconfidence to work hard in
achieving your goals, so comewith me as we go on this journey
together.
So sit down, pull up a chair,take a seat or, if you're on the
go, welcome to the ConfidentMusicianing Podcast.
(00:52):
When I had gotten into differentconservatoires in the UK, I
visited the UK to check them outand to see which one I liked
the best.
And I remember that first nightstaying in the UK I was in a
hotel and I felt so panicky, sounbelievably panicky.
I was like led in bed and I wasunable to sleep, partially
because of the loud pub rightbelow me, but also because I
(01:14):
knew this was a much bigger leapthan I realized, and I knew
deep down that I needed to defera year before starting uni,
that starting it right aftergraduating high school would be
not helpful.
It would not help me in any wayand I needed that time to
prepare.
And let me tell you, I am soglad that I deferred.
(01:36):
I am so glad that I deferred.
I was able to have a muchbetter move to the UK because of
it and I was more preparedfinancially, emotionally,
logistically, and I was alsoable to start this podcast,
which means so much to me.
Now, looking back on it, youknow when I say, oh, I deferred
(01:57):
a year.
Looking back on it, I thinkthat there are so many things I
have learned from deferring ayear and I remember when I was
so scared about making thatdecision.
I wish I knew the things that Iknow now about deferring a year
.
So if you were thinking aboutpotentially deferring a year
before starting university, thisvideo, this podcast, is for you
(02:21):
.
We are going to go into a fewthings that I learned from
deferring a year that willhopefully help you to decide
whether you should or should not.
So let's go into it.
Okay, the first thing that Ilearned is that everyone's pace
is different, and I trulylearned this.
(02:42):
I was really nervous aboutdeferring a year because I
thought that that meant that Iwould end up being a year behind
from the rest of the studentsmy age.
They would graduate a yearearlier.
They would be in theprofessional world a year
earlier.
They would maybe get jobs.
In my mind, this is what I wasthinking they would get jobs a
year earlier than I would.
(03:03):
And if we're thinkinglogistically, yes, the people
that I went to high school with,the people that you know I did
like youth orchestra with inhigh school, they are a year
ahead of me in university.
But when I actually got touniversity and started, you know
, studying at university, Irealized just how different
(03:26):
everyone's pace is.
Everyone is on their own timeframe.
I have friends who are a yearolder than me, who are in my
year, who are a year youngerthan me, who are two years
younger than me.
In my year I have people in myyear who are like five, six
years older than me.
I have people in my year whoare my parents' age.
(03:49):
So everyone is on their own pathand if deferring a year is
going to serve you, I think it'sso, so important to do it.
So if you feel like a littlestressed about the idea of
taking a year and being behindof the people your age by a year
(04:11):
, especially in the music world,where it's like, when we get
out of conservatoire, if we want, say, an orchestral job, those
things are extremely competitiveand so when we think about, oh
my gosh, if I I'm behind a year,then I might not be able to get
you know things as easily.
But the thing about it is that,and what I've learned from
(04:31):
going to a conservatoire is thatevery single person is on their
own path and if your pathincludes a year off or, you know
, a year off of school notnecessarily practice, but a year
where you take some time toprepare for university, that is
so valuable to you and soimportant and, to be honest,
(04:55):
might even help you, I mean itwill definitely help you in
university, maybe more thanpeople who might have rushed
right into it.
You know, know, maybe that's,maybe that's something that they
need to do and they need tojust go into it and that's great
for them.
But sometimes we need to havethat year.
So if that sounds likesomething you need and maybe
deep down, if you think about itdeep down, you're like I need
(05:18):
to take a year, then that'sreally important to consider.
You won't necessarily be likebehind in the way that I was
thinking of.
I'm going to be a year behind.
Okay, the next thing is thereare a lot of different types of
(05:38):
years off or deferred years.
Now, I think I said this liketwo minutes ago, especially for
musicians a year off is not ayear off of music, right?
We're not taking a year to likenot look at our instrument at
all.
I don't think that that's aneffective use of our time at all
in terms of a deferred year.
(05:58):
But there are a lot ofdifferent types of years off.
Some people backpack throughnew countries or just relax for
a year.
Some people do internships.
Some people just get a job andstart working to get the money
that they need for university.
Other people apply forscholarship after scholarship
(06:20):
after scholarship.
Other people maybe need toprepare more emotionally and
mentally because, let's behonest, going to university is a
big step and we are all in ourown journeys in terms of our
emotional and mental health.
Some people need to preparemore logistically.
All of these are great ways tospend the year if they serve you
(06:44):
.
For me, I did not backpackthrough countries.
I was more of someone who wasapplying for scholarships,
looking for funding, figuringout the logistics of it.
I think as well, mentally andemotionally, I needed that year
as well, and I also took thetime to create more of like
(07:04):
creative endeavors in terms ofstarting this podcast, working
very hard on my social medias,doing things like that, and
creating this confidentmusicianing community that we
have.
That I like.
I focused that year on startingto do that, and I think that
that's so important because nowwe have this community.
(07:24):
I think if I didn't take thisyear, then, you know, I would be
at university, I would be doing, I would be doing practicing
and I would be learning, butmaybe I wouldn't have the
connections that I have nowthrough this podcast.
Or maybe, you know, I wouldn'thave been able to focus as much
on my social media and not beable to use it in effective and
(07:48):
helpful ways.
Now, now for you, you might notbe like, okay, I'm going to
take a year to focus on socialmedia, because that's not
necessarily what I did wholly,you know, not completely, but
that's something that Iincorporated into my year and
now it has been really helpfulin my growth as well, and also
we've created an amazingcommunity that I absolutely love
(08:11):
.
So if you are taking a year,building that year.
The way you want to build it isso important.
For me it was scholarshiplooking.
It was applying for funding.
It was practicing, it waspreparing to change you know
scrapes styles because I changedfrom the American style of oboe
(08:31):
playing to the European.
It was finding a flat.
It was mostly like thelogistical and financial aspects
of it.
But if you take a year, don'tcompare it to all the Instagram
gap years that were spentbackpacking through Europe
trying new things, all of thesethings, because if that's not
(08:54):
what your year, like yourdeferred year, looks like, then
why would we ever compare it tothat?
I did not backpack throughanywhere because, honestly, I
didn't have the time or money todo that.
So how you spend your deferredyear is really important to you
(09:15):
and it's really special to youand it's personalized and you
get to decide how you do thisyear.
So ask yourself what you wantout of this year.
I remember when I started my gapyear I had a weekend after the
summer because I did a summerjob and when I finished my
summer job I had a weekend thatI called a transitional weekend
(09:38):
and if I look literally, if Ilook back into like my diaries
and my calendars.
Back then, I marked out thisweekend, and this weekend was
specifically to decide what Iwas going to do with my year.
You know what.
How much time would I focus onfinding funding versus the
logistics of it?
You know all of these things.
(09:59):
How would I spend my time?
And I also, you know, cleanedmy space physically, cleaned my
space digitally as well to havethe best year that I could
deferred year that I could andfor me, I remember that
transitional weekend wasextremely important for me to
(10:19):
realize how I wanted to spend myyear and what I wanted to work
on the most, or maybe not asmuch, but still consistently,
you know.
So, for you, what do you wantout of this year?
I think it's really importantto reflect on this and it can
always change.
The beginning of my deferredyear looked very different from
(10:41):
the end.
Also, in some ways, it lookedvery similar.
So now this goes straight intothe next thing, which is
structuring your year.
Now, this is kind of like thesecond point, but more focused,
and we were kind of moving intothis as well.
So, structuring your year forme, I just worked and worked and
(11:03):
worked and worked on findingfunding and organizing the move.
I woke up every single weekdayat 7am, I started working at 8am
and I kind of didn't stop until7pm.
Saying that right now soundsreally overwhelming to me.
I'm kind of like how did Iactually do that?
And the thing that helped me tobe consistent in my gap year
(11:28):
endeavors is how I structured myrest.
I'm going to be honest and saythat I did struggle with taking
breaks during the day.
It's something that I stillstruggle with.
I find in my mind I'm like,okay, when I wake up, once I've
had breakfast and kind of done amorning routine, once I'm ready
to go, I need to work, work,work, work, work, work, work
(11:49):
until about 8pm and then I canrelax.
And that's something that Istill struggle with being able
to just take 15, 20, 30 minutesin the day and take a break.
But I did, during my day duringmy gap year, have a lunch.
It was half 12.
It was half 12.
Every day, from half 12 to halfone, I had lunch and that was
(12:12):
my time.
I decided not to work at all inthat time and that was, you
know, very much designated.
Then, when I got to about 7 PM,I stopped working and I did
hobbies.
I did like tons of hobbies.
I have, you know, from my gapyear.
I have so many things I did.
(12:32):
I learned I have so much moregrammar knowledge because I
learned languages.
You know I have so much morelanguage knowledge.
I also sewed.
So I literally have physicalpieces of clothing that I hand
sewed in, you know, in my breaksand also on the weekends.
I made it so that I mean, Istill practiced on the weekends,
but I made it so that I didn'twork on finding funding or, you
(12:55):
know, doing things likelogistically doing things for
the podcast, although sometimesI did on the weekends.
But for me that was reallyreally, really important to how
I structured my day, since thereis no set school day in your
year, especially if you arecoming from high school a high
school situation where you dohave a day that you have to be
(13:18):
in school from a certain time toa certain time and then you
have assignments.
It's a really differentstructure.
There's no set school day and Ifeel like it's so easy to get
really stressed because you'relike, okay, any time is a great
time to be focused and workingon things, and it's so easy to
get burnt out through that, butsaying things like I'm gonna
(13:39):
have a lunch this is where mylunch is from and, two, I am
going to respect those theboundaries of those of that
lunch and, you know, reallyfocus on relaxing during that
lunch.
After this specific time I amnot going to work.
It is my time to do what I want, to enjoy things you know and
being open to you know.
If, say, you need a break,going for a walk, doing like
(14:04):
that, just really focusing onyour mental well-being as well
as, you know, doing the workthat you need to do during your
gap year, I think if I didn'tfocus as much on my mental
well-being, I would have beenway more panicky about this
whole situation.
I mean, moving is stressful,but I think if I didn't have
(14:25):
those set rules, it would be waytoo stressful for me.
Okay, I hope that this washelpful.
I hope that this made sense toyou and if, if I hope that it
helps you.
If you are considering taking agap year, I hope it helps you,
um, have a bit more of aperspective of someone who did
(14:46):
take a year off, um, but notnecessarily someone who
backpacked through Europe,although if you want to backpack
through Europe, go ahead.
I mean that's pretty cool aswell.
I would have loved to backpackthrough Europe.
It's just not what my prioritywas during my year.
Okay, let's do a bit of a recap.
The first thing is everyone'space is different.
Everyone's pace is different.
(15:07):
I think I was so nervous aboutbeing a year behind.
But then I get to universityand there are people who are six
years older than me and alsotwo years older than me and
we're in the same lecturebecause we're in the same year
but at the same time.
It's not because you know theperson who's six years older
than me, it's not because theyare behind or anything.
(15:29):
It's just you know their timefor studying.
This specific you know degreewas different from mine.
So everyone's on their own pace.
The next thing is that there aretons of different types of
years off.
If you want to backpack places,or if you want to do an
(15:49):
internship, I mean that's reallycool.
I didn't do that, but I thinkthat that could be so cool.
Internship, I mean that'sreally cool.
I didn't do that, but I thinkthat that could be so cool.
If you literally just need toget a job and work and make some
money for university, that is areally really good way to spend
a year.
If you need to apply forscholarships, if maybe you just
need some time to work on youremotional and mental health
(16:12):
before you do this big leap,that's also extremely important.
Sometimes you just need to belogistical.
So everyone's years aredifferent and the way you
structure your year is sopersonal and important to you,
and I hope that you can findthat balance of what you need.
(16:32):
The next thing is structuringyour year, but more focusing on
rest so that you don't get burntout because there, you know,
you have all this time.
There is no limit, there is nobell at the end of the school
day to say, okay, we're donewith this.
So having those that structurefor me, it was having a lunch,
having an hour where I made surethat I didn't um, I didn't work
(16:54):
during this time.
It was, you know, having anhour where I made sure that I
didn't work during this time.
It was, you know, having a timeat the end of the day where I'm
like, okay, I'm done withworking, I'm going to, you know,
do fun things that I enjoy.
So creating that time for rest,for relaxation, for breaks,
especially if you are doingsomething like applying for
funding, because that can feelso endless.
(17:16):
So creating that time for youis really important.
Okay, and before we go, I justwant to let you know if you are
a musician which I have afeeling you might be because
you're listening to this podcastand you want to be more
structured in your practice.
You want to have more effectivepractice because, let's be
honest, if you're taking a yearoff practicing should, it needs
(17:38):
to be so effective so that youcan take you know the time that
you might have spent wasted inthe practice room, so you can
take that time and focus it onthe things that you need to do
as well, like applying forfunding or other things, other
things.
So effective practice is soimportant, which is why I want
to introduce you to Notable.
(18:00):
A Notable practice journal issomething that I have been using
.
They are practice journals thathelp you plan your practice and
also reflect after yourpractice so that you can improve
the way you practice everysingle day.
As soon as I realized this wasworking for me, I had to tell
you about it and I had to giveyou a code.
So if you want a notablepractice journal, use code
(18:21):
Eleanor15 for 15% off yourjournal, that is,
e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for 15% offyour journal.
Get a notable practice journaland make your year so extremely
effective in your practice.
You know me, I don't recommendanything that I don't absolutely
love.
This code is an affiliate code,so I do receive a commission
(18:44):
with no extra cost to you.
Alright, that's about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for listeningand watching.
I hope that it was helpful.
If it was helpful, please dolet me know.
You can like, comment,subscribe, follow all the fun
things and all the links will beavailable in the description,
in the show notes from the blogpost that goes with this episode
(19:05):
, and also the link to get yournotable practice journal.
All right, until next time,take care, bye-bye.
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