In high school, not a lot of kids in my grade took a gap year.

I remember hearing about a gap year in my high school English class, where someone wrote their research paper about them.

I am really young for my grade, I have a late birthday and am the youngest out of most of my friends. Thinking back at it, I wish I took a gap year.

For those of you who don't know, a gap year is a break from school, typically between high school and college. You can do all sorts of things during that year, like work, travel or volunteer.

I would have wanted to do a little of all three: work, volunteer and travel.

I think that if I took a gap year, the transition into college would have been a little smoother because I would have had time to mature and think about my future over the gap year.

Don't get me wrong, I am so happy I am in college and that I will be graduating with a bachelors degree when I am 21, but people shouldn't doubt gap years as much as they do today.