I'd probably hop trains, hitchhike, and road trip.

How do you just take a year off out of college? How are you going to pay for food and rent and shit? Are you a trust fund kid or something?

wouldnt do sheeit

I'm intending to spend a year or two volunteering abroad somewhere once I leave college so maybe that idk. Most of them seem to require either a degree or a year of prior experience and I'm kind of skeptical about the ones that don't anyway!! bored college kids shlupping around starving villages in $100,000 jeeps. mmmm yeeess what a.....powerful life experience im having *steps over corpse in street*. I still want to try it though because either way it'd have to be better than just sitting in front of a fucking computer.

Dogg, you can totally volunteer at a food bank and feel good about what you're doing without engaging in third world poverty tourism. The reason programs like the ones you mentioned want skilled applicants is because they don't want to send a bunch of privileged first world parasite kids who don't know shit to work on infrastructure projects.

make 127 albums/EPs

uh is this a year off with or without unlimited amounts of money/resources to do whatever you feel like

Yeah, there definitely is a lot of "better" things I could be doing. Gaming is a pretty lame activity by a lot of other people's standards... but really, when I look at it, this'll be the last time I'll really have a lot of time to do what I want until I'm 65 and retired. ...Honestly, that's not an exaggeration.

LOL and you've decided to spend that time lounging around your parents house eating their food and playing nintendogames.

Jesus man, backpack through Europe, take every single drug you find and fuck every girl you can.

Dogg, you can totally volunteer at a food bank and feel good about what you're doing without engaging in third world poverty tourism. The reason programs like the ones you mentioned want skilled applicants is because they don't want to send a bunch of privileged first world parasite kids who don't know shit to work on infrastructure projects.

Yeah this is true! I guess the third-world stuff is more appealing on some level in terms of uh a dramatic break with everyday life/accumulatr experience (ive seen things you wouldnt believe...... attack ships on fire off the coast of orion....) but doing stuff at home would possibly be more effective without the queasy voyeuristic tourism part.

How do you just take a year off out of college? How are you going to pay for food and rent and shit? Are you a trust fund kid or something?

This requires running out of money then saying to yourself "hey I cant pay for this year might as well take it off". I wish I was a trust fund kid, i'd be done college by now...

Yeah, there definitely is a lot of "better" things I could be doing. Gaming is a pretty lame activity by a lot of other people's standards... but really, when I look at it, this'll be the last time I'll really have a lot of time to do what I want until I'm 65 and retired. ...Honestly, that's not an exaggeration.

why would you want to study medicine???

i feel like i've had four years off already, it sucks when the balance between work time and play time is out of whack in either direction. i'd really hate to have a year off and i'd probably do a bunch of little courses or find some part time work or something. i guess having money makes a huge difference too because on my days off it's pretty much which screen do i want to sit in front of, and while it's alright for a month it gets really tedious when you essentially can't do anything else. "might as well finish that level" etc.

didn't you feel like you were wasting your life????

You can bet I did but when you have nothing to do for 2.5 years you have a lot of time to think about everything else.

Well, I don't have the money to travel the world. It'd be nice to do that, but none of my friends have that kind of money/time since THEY aren't taking a year off. And I'd only go if I had my best friends to come along for the ride. Besides, if I did have any money saved, it'd go to medical-school expenses... since it'll cost me $67,000 my FIRST year ($44,000 for subsequent years).

Man I'm really glad my parents wouldn't let me leech off them like that god damn 22 years old and "not gonna get a job 'cause work sucks"

And yeah man, I'm not going to get a job. A lot of my friends told me to not be a bum and get a job... they all have no idea how hard it was to get into medical school (no idea). Not to mention the fact that I'll have... 12 hour class/sessions everyday for the next 2 years, then 60 hour/week clinical rotations across hospital wards for 2 years, then 80 hour/week shifts through hospitals in residency for 5 years, and THEN start life.

So yeah, work now? For $8 an hour? In my last year to do what I want? ...no

Oh, and thanks for the congrats Seawed! Free health care for you when I'm older! 

why are you doing medicine if it was that hard for you to get into???? maybe after taking a year off you'll be a medical prodigy or what???

so i just found out i got into chemical engineering so i'm going to take a well deserved break. i really struggle with chemistry and maths since i despise both subjects, so it was a LOT of tough work. i'm taking a break because for the next 40+ years i'll be stuck in this hell of a profession doing this garbage i hate day in day out, and this'll be the last year i can do something I want to do before i shackle myself to this prometheus rock

Chemical engineerings not so bad. I hated math and chemistry in highschool too and ironically I got in for the program. First years pretty easy, mostly review of chemical elements, compounds, reactions+rates you learned before. Nomenclature gets drilled into your head too if it wasnt already. The labs are....wouldnt say always fun but can be very interesting at times. The math is basic too until you get to 2nd year. You wont hate is as much as you think you will frisky, well at least I didnt.

ugh i would kill myself if i spent an extended period of time just doing nothing but playing video games and watching television shows.  Like maybe I've become so jaded but those things are so much more boring compared to being in the social world and interacting with people, hanging out with friends, and forging your ways towards something meaningful in your life.

why are you doing medicine if it was that hard for you to get into???? maybe after taking a year off you'll be a medical prodigy or what???

It wasn't hard for me, and only me, to get into... it's hard for ANYONE to get into. Each school gets some 3000-4000 applications for a seat of maybe 70 students. I graduated with a 3.8 gpa, biology major chem. minor, with a 33 on the MCAT... I spent 10 months, poured in $3000 dollars worth of prep material, and studied some 4 hours a day to get that 33 score. I got in easy yes, but getting those stats are tough as hell (considering you need shadowing, years of research, volunteering, leadership, etc. etc. on top of everything to become competitive).

And I love science, and medicine, I can't wait to start this stuff. Interview me and I'll tell you exactly why being a doctor is the one and only career for me. And that's why I put myself through all of this to get there, and am willing to endure the next 9 years to finish it. Love for the art doesn't make them EASY though. Medicine requires critical thinking, which is tough, but it doesn't matter how naturally gifted you are, if you need to study/memorize/understand 2000 pages worth of material per test, it'll be difficult if for nothing else than by shear volume of it all.

Easy with the speculation! Taking 1 year off is a great idea, even my interviewers agreed when THEY asked me what I'm doing between now and when classes start.

Like maybe I've become so jaded but those things are so much more boring compared to being in the social world and interacting with people, hanging out with friends, and forging your ways towards something meaningful in your life.

You'll be amazed at how much time 24 hours/day really is. Of course I do other stuff than GAMING and TV shows. I have a social life, and no it's not XBOX LIVE. I play guitar and jam with buddies, trying to start up the old band, Laker game parties... call me, and I'll give you a thorough list of my social activities...if you take a year off, you can do everything and still have more time.

Gosh, I didn't want this thread to turn into ANOTHER argument with atari and whoever else is in the usual-douche list.

ummm dude you have to admit with the sheer number of video games that you mentioned and the sheer volume of television shows and the lack of any sort of mention of socialization, you can understand how i formed my post above.  I never said that was all that you were doing in my post, but rather than if that was the only thing I was doing it would make for a very sad life.  don't look for an argument where there isn't one bro