The Student Room Group

At a complete loss on where to start...

Hi, I feel like I'm at a complete loss on what to do at the moment, so I thought maybe people on here with gap year experience could give me some advice.

Basically, I'm 22, I graduated last year, and for the past year I've been working full-time whilst studying part-time. I'm desperately unhappy with my job, and so now I'm trying to decide what to do with my life.

I'm basically stuck in a contract with my employers until February 08, so I'm planning on leaving sometime after that, and because they have paid for my course, I'm currently saving up money to pay them the £1200 for it back.

Sooo... my dilemma really is what to do once I have left!

I'd really like to travel, see stuff, and just try and experience life whilst I'm still young! I just feel so middle-aged already, and really unhappy. As I'm due to start the final level of my course in September, and this runs through until next June (though you can actually defer the second half of it - so technically I could leave in February), I'm looking at probably going somewhere from June so I have time to gather a bit more money and plan for this.

I have no idea how long to go for though - whether to just do the Summer and start work again in September, or whether to go for a year or longer, and experience more.

I just have no idea where to go either. I'm female, alone, and I don't know any other languages, so I need to take that into consideration. I've recently passed my Open Water course, so somewhere good to dive would be great. I work in marketing, but I guess I won't find much to do related to that. Also, I do volunteer RSPCA marketing/events/fundraising work currently and enjoy it a lot, so a volunteer project or 2 at some point would be great too. I'm rubbish with children and at building stuff, so those sort of projects are out of the question, but I'd really like to find something to do. However, judging by some of the sites I've seen, this type of thing seems very expensive...

I've thought maybe about starting in South Africa, then go across to New Zealand, Australia (fair bit of time here), then up through Singapore, to Borneo, then finally Thailand - but I don't know if this would be a good idea, or even have any idea of how much this would cost.

Or I thought about doing America - I'd love to see a lot of this, and at least the language wouldn't be a barrier. I originally thought about South America, but a friend went there and I'm not too comfortable about being on my own there given some of the stuff I heard.

Or, I thought maybe I should see if I can get some friends together, do interrailing through Europe for the Summer, and then once I'm a bit more used to travelling then consider going at a later date!

I don't know, I'm completely lost on this and just don't know where to start.

Any advice, experiences, ideas etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks :smile:

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