Claire's Gap Year Story

Hi, my name is Claire and I am currently a tutor at yipiyap. As I only started as a tutor at the beginning of March, my gap year so far has involved a mixture of different things and I would like to share with you what I have been doing.

Firstly, last September, I decided to set up my own blog.Throughout my childhood, I had always struggled with English. I had countless tutors and after-school sessions trying to get English up to the standard of all my other subjects. By the time I did my GCSE’s, I think I was getting quite good at it. Then I went to college, I decided to study maths, graphic design and textiles therefore I didn’t write a single essay about anything and lost every bit of confidence that I had built – which is why I challenged myself to start a blog to build up my confidence up in writing again. Thankfully, it has worked and has actually made me enjoy writing a little bit.

Also,as I wanted take a “stay at home” gap year, I felt as though I could have a story to tell that would be different from all of the others. When I first decided that I wanted to take a gap year, I researched into what others decided to do but everyone seemed to want to jet off to somewhere exotic and volunteer in a sloth sanctuary or something out of the ordinary. It was as if everyone that had a similar gap year to what I wanted didn’t want to shout about it as much as the ‘adventurous’ people and I thought that was a shame. That was when I decided that I wanted to create the blog that I wanted to come across, and that is what I did.

As well as making myself busy with my blog, I have also added to my workload by starting a business with my Mum. So, at the start of September, me and my Mum decided to bring out a range of products that would complement her current business (she is a holistic therapist, which is a posh way of saying that she does massages and facials and things like that). She has always wanted to bring out her own product ranges and as I’m planning on studying Marketing at university in September, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get a little bit of “real world” experience before starting my degree. Now, after launching helpmeorganics in December, we have 3 product ranges and have also been featured in subscription boxes – most recent being The Unibox subscription boxes this month! We have been mentioned in numerous blogs and have around 7 different product ranges in the pipeline for coming out this year.

After finishing the job that I had for the first part of my year, I thought that it was about time that I stopped ignoring the “university or not university” question and actually decide whether or not I was ever going to accept a university offer or go down a different route. After speaking to a lot of people, I finally decided on sticking with my plan to go to university, which was slightly swayed by discovering Yipiyap. I loved the idea of finishing my gap year as a tutor as I had also never ruled out the idea of becoming a teacher so I had to try it. As I only work at school 2 days a week at the moment, I have plenty of time to work on helpmeorganics with my Mum and also upload every week to my blog. I feel as though it has allowed me some time out as well – being a tutor demands all of your attention and takes your mind off everything, which is a nice change to staring at a computer all day.

Even though I haven’t finished my gap year yet, I would highly recommend having one. The amount of growing up and maturing that you do between 18 and 19 is unbelievable. I think that if I attempted to go to university last September, I would have still been sitting here telling you about my gap year experience anyway because I would have crumbled under the pressure of growing up and moving out. Now, I feel completely ready and am kind of excited to live in a flat with people I don’t know and budget every last penny I have. A gap year lets you have a time out to recuperate and get ready for the next massive jump that you have to make and that is why I took one.

If you would like to read more about my gap year and what I have got up to so far then my blog is www.clairesyear.com and I try and post every week (give or take).