Cheers and tasseled square caps soar as the last graduate crosses the stage and receives their diploma. You’ve done it: you’ve finally finished high school. A recurring question happens repeatedly between the teary goodbyes and endless congratulations.

“So what are you going to do now?”

For many, this graduation ceremony punctuates their transition between high school and college. College has been seen as a near-essential career-advancing next step for decades. However, blindly following the standard education treadmill isn’t necessarily required for a successful life.

A gap year can provide valuable time and experience to understand better what you want from life. Read on to learn about the power of pausing and why you might want to consider taking a gap year after graduation.

1. To Avoid Burnout

You probably don’t remember an August without going back to school. Most young Americans’ life seasons are anchored in and structured by semesters. They often give shape, feeling, and context to what longer periods feel like. Because of this, it may be hard for students to imagine time uncontextualized by school.

Barring unusual circumstances, most Americans will spend most of their first two decades of life in school. While this may be great for some students who love structured learning, it can take a toll on others. If you feel tired, overworked, or just plain bored by learning, it’s not necessarily your fault. You may just be experiencing plain old burnout, especially if you used to love learning when you were younger.

Taking a gap year can help rejuvenate your curiosity to learn. It’s no secret that the academic challenge will likely increase as you transition to college. So consider pausing your educational career and taking a gap year. And don’t worry if you’ve already been accepted into college for the next academic season. Talk to a college admissions consultant about deferring, as many institutions will allow you to push your attendance back a year.

2. To Define Your Goals

What do you want out of life? What do you want to major in? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t know the answer to either question at the time of graduation. Don’t let the 18-year-old aspiring doctors, lawyers, and child-prodigy artists fool you. Most people don’t know what they want to do with their life, and that’s okay. The trick is to have varied experiences to learn what you like and, just as importantly, what you don’t.

The K-12 education system provides many opportunities for exploring your interests. There’s much to choose from, from required math classes to extracurricular art and sports. However, this system is fairly weak in providing opportunities to reflect on your interests. Why do you like what you like, dislike what you don’t, and what career opportunities cater to your interests? If you don’t explore these kinds of questions, it will be harder to understand what you’d like to pursue.

Taking a gap year can be a great way to explore your interests or lack thereof. Work full-time, get an internship or try a specialized year-long program. As you get older, you’ll likely take on greater amounts and kinds of responsibility. So take advantage of this time when your responsibilities are relatively few. Take risks and learn from them!

3. To Learn About Yourself and the World

When considering the classic gap year, you might imagine surfing a sunny Thailand island or backpacking in Europe. And that’s for good reason. As mentioned, a gap year can offer you the time and space to learn more about yourself. Traveling during your gap year can also give you a more worldly perspective and challenge your preconceived notions.

Exposure to different landscapes, foods, people, customs, and traditions can broaden your perspective. Getting lost in your experience out in the world will challenge you to rely on yourself more than ever. All these new experiences and changes will require you to grow and push outside your comfort zone.

Traveling also provides numerous opportunities for self-reflection. Whether gazing upon stunning vistas or learning by journaling, you’ll have more time and space to introspect. This process of self-discovery can deepen your knowledge of yourself for life. So not only can you learn a lot about the world by traveling, but you might find yourself brimming with new-found self-confidence and understanding when you return.

Forge Your Path

While a standard, formalized education is a powerful tool for learning and growth, it’s not the only way. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must do life a certain way to do it right. Determine what a successful life means to you and pursue it.

If you don’t know what success means, a gap year can be a great way to find out. It can be a reprieve from a relentless stream of time largely contextualized by school. Pause and take a gap year as an opportunity to understand yourself and the world better.

That way, you can make an educated decision about whether or not you want to go to college. And, if you do, you’ll know more about what you want to study and why. When done well, a gap year can be a learning tool just as powerful as a formalized education.