Scrolling through the scholarships on Naviance, it seems like there are millions of options. However, a lot of that aid is conditional on being a graduating senior and enrolling in college the next year. For many students, this could present a significant financial barrier to partaking in a gap year.

LT should focus more on providing financial aid and counseling support for students who wish to take a gap year. I recognize that there are students from LT who take a gap year, but they are definitely the minority. There are too many roadblocks that prevent students from considering taking a gap year.

We grow up and we are so inundated with the steps that we think will take us to the next place in life. For as long as I remember, I’ve known that immediately after high school follows college. In “Gilmore Girls” when Rory takes a few months off from school, the entire show centers around sending her back. But just because that’s the way that things have been doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the way they have to be in the future.

Even if we ignore the inherent cost of some gap year programs that allow students to gain global exposure, if we assume they somehow managed to find an external scholarship outside of LT, those students would still be missing out on the multitude of scholarship aid offered by LT to its students who are following more traditional pathways through school.

And that traditional pathway doesn’t necessarily mean a “Vita Plena” for all students. Recent studies have shown that one-third of American college students don’t return for a second year. That’s the highest rate of any developed nation. Other countries have developed systems that reduce burn-out in students. It’s possible that for some students a gap year could be a much needed break in order to be prepared and emotionally ready for college.

I hate that because of that rigidity, we’re just “getting through” our education. School, and especially college, should not be about getting a diploma and getting out. Students should want to go to college to explore their interests and ask questions that maybe don’t have answers and have fun and form relationships. I’m done spending my life just trying to get from Point A to Point B. Taking a gap year shouldn’t feel like a “gap,” but rather another important step in the journey.

And here’s the thing: college is expensive. Really expensive. When I say I’m not 100 percent sure about what I want to major in, most adults shrug it off and fondly tell a memory of how they switched their major three times before graduating college. Which would be fine, except for in a situation where the average American student takes six years to graduate a four-year college. Even that time frame would probably be all right, except for the fact that college is really expensive.

We are so busy following this pathway to success that we don’t stop and consider what education really is – an investment into our future. In the stock market, you don’t make an investment if you don’t know what you want to buy, easy. But because of external pressures, students are pressured into starting school immediately out of high school; investing into an education even though they don’t really know what they want.

I’m not saying everyone needs to take a gap year, just that there are some serious benefits involved, and we should be encouraging kids rather than discouraging them to take a gap year. A gap year could give students the time they need to understand what they want to study and re-focus on long-term goals. It’s time we make that a financial possibility for everyone.