August 30, 2022 by Ginny McReynolds · Personal Development

Why Every Grown-Up Woman Needs a Gap Year

As she stood between an interesting career and an unknown future, a gap year gave Ginny McReynolds time for structured reflection.

I’m standing in a small demonstration kitchen in Paris, nervously gripping a pastry bag as my teacher explains the intricacies of making choux buns. Despite the challenge and my anxiety I'm grinning from ear to ear, because I'm deep in the middle of a late-in-life gap year, something I wasn't sure would actually happen.

At 70, I may seem too old for a gap year, but I realized I needed a structured bucket list for at least 12 months after retirement, rather than simply retiring and seeing where life takes me.

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