John B. went to a small private school in the Northeast. He was active socially, excelled in sports, and was elected to student government. Because he attended prep school, he already had a good start in the college pipeline and didn't have to take all that much initiative in the application process. He was accepted at several good schools and seemed to be on his way to four-years-in-and-out. But he couldn't fend off a nagging feeling that he was simply being pushed along through the system with everyone else. And he says that took away from any feelings of achievement.

"The idea of 'time off' would never have occurred to me if my highly enlightened parents hadn't stepped in and said, 'Hey, what about this?'" he says.

Once he shook off the staid prep school distaste for such a choice, it was a tremendous relief to consider it. A little research turned up a program called Dynamy in Worcester, MA. At Dynamy, kids who want to pause along the educational highway live together in apartments, draw a weekly stipend, and work at internships throughout the city. It provides a look at adulthood complete with all the protections of structure and guidance that "real life" tends to leave out.

The experience began with a 10-day Outward Bound foray, a trial-by-fire that forged bonds within this group of kids who would form a community over the next nine months. As John says: "The longer you go without showering in the company of someone else, the stronger the bond gets." The Outward Bound experience also alerts the Dynamy staff as to who can live most peacefully with whom--important information when you're assigning roommates.

"We didn't really think about any of that stuff, though. We were just happy to get a break from the routine of school that had left us feeling robotic. This was a really achievement-oriented group. For the most part; we just needed to achieve outside the realm of the classroom for awhile."

During the course of his time away from school, John worked for a commercial photographer, a television station, and an elementary school. There were bumps along the way, to be sure, but that turned out to be the basic point of the whole experience.

"We weren't adults yet, and didn't want to be. We just wanted to see what happened when we acted like adults. We were free to fail, and did often, but the sense that we knew a little more about what it meant to try was enormously informative."

Once his sense of where he was, and where he was heading, was reestablished, John set off for the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "I had a better sense of what I was really studying for," he says. In his first semester back, he started working toward a film degree and earned a 4.0.

Catherine F. also took a year off after high school. She says "the decision to take a gap year was easy. I was burnt out and needed time for some soul-searching, a break from the school routine I'd endured my whole life. I planned a two-month road trip around the U.S. alone. I wanted to get to know my own country."

There were, of course, skeptics: "Some friends and relatives worried that I'd never go on to college. My uncle told my mom, 'She's going to be permanently behind her peers.' But after my year off, I knew I was permanently ahead."

And permanently ready to learn: "I wanted a higher education. And after being away, school didn't have that 'back to the grind' feeling. I felt fresh and motivated, and it showed." She got back into the swing of things quickly at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, where she scored high marks, was asked to lead a student environmental group, and "excelled all around."

Eric S. also deferred admission, working as a medical assistant at a children's medical clinic in the South Bronx of New York City. He says he was motivated by the fact that "too much of my high school education was just getting the work done for the sake of grades. With college being such an investment of time and money, I wanted to be more motivated to learn the material, not just to get through it."

He also "saw this as a rare time to take a year off without any pressure. I knew I could do these things after college, but then I felt that real life would be knocking at the door, and I wouldn't feel as free to do what I wanted."

Once comfortably situated at Yale, Eric used his real-world experience in the classroom. He embarked on the long journey that is medical school with a whole new outlook: "I feel that having a year off gave me the confidence to take more risks and be more focused in my decision making."

Your school years mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. They last a long time because it's a major transition and it takes time to get it right. If you're not careful about tending to that transition, and aren't aware of your specific needs within it, you can enter into the next phase unprepared. For some, a step back can actually be a great way to stay on course.