Documenting your gap experience
While you’re away you may wish to keep your friends and family updated on your travels by documenting or recording your experience. This might also be important for your own use in terms of reflecting on how your gap year is meeting (or surpassing!) your original aims and objectives and/or providing unexpected outcomes and can provide you with material to use in your CV and when applying for future courses and jobs. Documenting your experience can also provide an opportunity for you to develop another skill or hobby through your gap year. You might choose to document your experience in several ways.
Some ideas include:
Research project
You may wish to investigate an area of geographical interest during your gap year and write up a report on your topic of interest. You might want to do this independently or it could be part of a placement where you may be collecting and analysing data which you can write up in a report.
Photography
You may wish to use photographs which can be uploaded to sites which your friends and family can look at and, if good enough, you could even look at getting published!
For examples of sites you can use, see:
Blogs
Many gap travellers choose to write a blog - an interactive online journal which allows you to write a diary, upload photos and voice messages, map your journey etc. You can then also access this once you have you returned from your gap year.
For examples of blog sites, see:
Video blogs
Many travellers now choose to start a ‘vlog’ or ‘video blog’ of their trip using YouTube. To find out more about how to do this, see here. Tiktok and Instagram reels can be used as a vlogging platform as well.
Journals
You may prefer to keep a handwritten diary or journal which can also double as a scrap book. This is especially valuable in areas where internet access is difficult to find and is an excellent way of recording all the details of your travels.
Articles
You may wish to write an article about your gap experience or a particular aspect of it. Perhaps you have contacts with your local newspaper, your old school or other organisations who may be interested in you writing a piece for them.