For the majority of students across Ireland, your college course choice is made within the whirlwind of the Leaving Cert. A concoction of exam pressure, CAO deadlines, points calculators, and career ambitions swirl around the teenage brain as students attempt to forge their way through the third-level minefield.
Some students know what they want. Their entire secondary school experience has built up to this. Some, however, are not so lucky.
Jordan Simpson left for a Financial Maths course at University of Galway in September 2021. Close friends were heading to Galway, the course suited the career path he assumed he wanted, and so the decision "kind of came nearly out of comfort." It felt logical at the time. But the cracks began to show.
Those cracks weren't immediate. He enjoyed the course content and he didn't dislike Galway. But the leap from secondary school to college life came too fast.
"I felt I made that jump too soon," he explains.
"I probably had a lot of stress coming out of Leaving Cert, and then that year just rolls around so quick. So I found that turnaround really difficult, and then it took me a long time to find my feet. And even though I was enjoying the content, I found it hard to show up to lectures, and to be consistent, and even to just mingle.
"It basically ended up that I didn't have the experience that I kind of dreamed of."
Crunch decision
By the end of first year, something had to give. He spoke to his parents and resolved to giving second year everything he had, and pushed through to October - the deadline for paying fees.
Pulling out of financial maths was, in his words, "a very tough decision at the time." Friends and family were sympathetic but also sceptical.
Jordan saw it differently. Another three more years of "chasing his tail" through a course and a life that didn't fit felt like a far bigger risk than stepping back to figure out what did.
So, back home he went, to a bar in Westmeath that offered him full-time hours and flexibility while he found his footing.
What followed was nine months that Jordan now credits as the turning point of his life so far; not because of any grand plan, but because it gave him space to simply think.
"I essentially pulled pints and swept floors for nine months. But that just gave me the opportunity to, first of all, speak to people, but then as well, to just take time to relax, to actually think about what I wanted," he says.
Where everything changed
That shift in approach changed everything for Jordan. He found himself itching to get back into a classroom. He was jealous, even, of friends preparing for exams.
College didn't feel like an obligation anymore. To Jordan, the opportunity was "a privilege".
"Instead of something that had been a burden, it was now like the best opportunity ever," beams Jordan. "I get to go to college with all these smart and interesting people and be amongst them."
That gratitude sparked a new Jordan. His new chapter brought him to University College Dublin, to a course selected by curiosity rather than career aspirations - Politics and International Relations, as well as Economics as a joint major with a pathway into pure Economics depending on his grades. A decision sparked by interests he rediscovered during his year back at home, such as current affairs, the news, and his love for English which he had overlooked when he was in school.
The results speak for themselves. Those grades were indeed achieved and he branched into purely Economics in second year. He then went on to receive an academic award from UCD for his second-year grades. He begins his fourth and final year next week.
Academic success aside, he loves Dublin life. And he has built friendship groups around shared interests.
He has since completed a nine-month internship with a company he "absolutely loved," an opportunity he links directly to the turnaround in his academic performance. Jordan also found that his journey, as well as the realisations he made along the way, made him stand out in his interview process.
Listen to yourself
Jordan's message to anyone weighing up a similar decision is that doubt is worth listening to.
"If it's just nerves, but you feel like it's the right thing, go ahead. But if there's some kind of doubt in your mind, I would definitely take that year."
He recalls colleagues in higher up positions at his internship laughing off his worries about being "behind" at 23.
"He found it hilarious that I was worried about my age and that kind of put me at ease. So, if you're worried about a year when you're 17, 18, 19, it seems like a big deal now but in the grand scheme of things, it's not.
"And if it puts you on the path you want to be on, that's going to allow you to be more yourself. You'll never regret it."
For Jordan, his gap year wasn't a detour. It was the decision that put him on the right path.
