The times I took off between high school, in the summer after I finished my Bachelor degree and now the almost 12 months after my Master degree were some of the juciest, funnest, fulfilling times of my life. They allowed to see myself in a completely different life, to find out so much about myself and to learn about ways of living I never ever imagined. I still finished both my degrees in the allotted times. I fit in multiple internships in that time frame. I worked hard and now a year out of university I have my dream job lined up. I am 26 now. If I had missed out on all these amazing travels and the time just to figure myself out I should have finished school at 18 (went on exchange to America and had to repeat a year), started university the same year (went to Chile, Brasil and Asia to travel and worked beforehand), finished my Bachelor at 21 and my Master degree at 23 to head into the work-field right away (went to Bali and Australia and since the vocational training I am starting now only hires once a year I am set another four months back). So for some people I wasted 3 years. For some people I am lazy and entitled and don´t want to grow up. But I cherish my memories so incredibly much. I am so excited I never have to look back and think: What if. I am thrilled, that I have already seen so much of our gorgeous planet without the pressure of only being able to take two weeks off. I speak two languages on top of English very well, I speak one somewhat, I really found myself and I know what I want. And as much as it seems like I am wasting my time at the moment by just going to the swimming pool and going out for drinks with my friends or just sleeping all day it makes me so happy. It makes me actually excited to return to work. And I do truly hope if you consider going abroad or taking some time off to figure yourself out, you can allow yourself that luxury without listening to judgemental comments or some artificial pressure to do things at a certain age. Life is not a to do list to finish as quickly as possible it is an enormous wonderful gift, that we all should use exactly like we want to no matter what other people think.

Read: Continued the wonderful Neapolitan novel series by Elena Ferrante and still absolutely adore her writing

Reconnected: with my love for running, it was a goal of mine to get back into running and fit in at least one run every week

Spent my time: almost a hundred per cent outside. Went to the pool three days in a row, am back to Australian levels of tan and spent my evenings outside with friends.

Felt: very relaxed about some areas of my life. And incredibly stressed, anxious and sad about

others.

Lived off: the uni canteen, which has now extended their offers to fancy bowls and fruits.