The Great Gap Year: Embracing Uncertainty

You are back to when anything was possible

“You are back to when anything was possible. If you truly thought about everything happening right now, your brain would explode. I’m choosing to think of this year as a Gap Year, to frame for myself how to muddle through it”, I explained to my friend. We’d met for lunch after months of not seeing each other and our focus beyond the safety of our family and the sanity of ourselves, was to talk through what our plans were career-wise.

We both work in an industry that’s been demolished by the pandemic, we both specialize in marketing what’s on-stage and theaters are dark. The question on the table today was, “Do we wait for what we love to return? Or do we need to pivot with a greater sense of permanence?”

We aren’t the only friends having this conversation right now. This year has been easy for no one. The uncertainty of everything is illuminated. With the elimination of the additional $600 per week, granted to those struggling through unemployment, dreams and ambition will be brushed aside to simply figure out how to pay our bills and put food on the table.

Many people are looking for jobs that simply aren’t there, hustling to find all kinds of gig work or even taking online courses to gain new skills. Others are shifting gears, selling their homes or leaving their apartments and heading home to live with their parents…