Thinking about a gap year (again)

These days I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of taking a gap year — which, if it happens, would be the third one in my life.

The first was right after graduation.
Pure exploration, freedom, and figuring out who I was before fully stepping into work life.

The second came when I was already feeling burned out during COVID times, and everything shifted in an unexpected way. That break turned into relocation to another country, rebuilding life from scratch, even redoing things like getting a driving license again. It reset everything, but it also came with constraints: needing to stay employed for residency reasons, keeping things stable for three years.

Now, something important is changing.

I’m finally receiving my permanent residency, which removes the requirement of having an employer to stay. That one condition has shaped so many decisions over the last years and suddenly, it’s gone.

With that, a new kind of freedom appears.

So today I officially started thinking about it more seriously:

• Do I stay with my employer for another 1–2 years, build more security, and keep things safe?

• Or do I take the leap, slow down, and focus more intentionally on side projects and ideas I genuinely care about?

There’s no decision yet. Just questions, pros and cons, and a lot of honest reflection.

But I feel excited, not anxious and that tells me something.

Tomorrow I’ll officially pick up my new residency card, and with it, the option to choose more freely than I’ve been able to for a long time.

For now, I’m letting the idea sit and seeing where it wants to grow.