There is no way to know for sure except by asking some of the people who have had the experience.

要想了解确切情况，最好的办法是询问有过这种经历的人。

Susie Steele took time off from the University of Vermont to teach disabled people to ski and eventually landed a plum full-time job at the Keystone Science School in Keystone, Colo.

苏茜•斯蒂尔(Susie Steele)从佛蒙特大学(University of Vermont)休学了一段时间，教残疾人滑雪，后来在科罗拉多州基斯通的基斯通科学学校(Keystone Science School)获得了一份待遇很好的全职工作。

Now a middle-school biology teacher in Louisville, Colo., Ms Steele, 44, figures her odds would have been quite long without the gap year.

44岁的斯蒂尔现在是科罗拉多州路易斯维尔的一名中学生物教师。她说，如果没有那个间隔年，她的成功之路会曲折很多。

Akiima Price took a break from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to work with the Student Conservation Association in Nevada.

阿奇玛•普赖斯(Akiima Price)从马里兰大学东海岸分校(University of Maryland Eastern Shore)休学，去内华达州的学生环境保护协会(Student Conservation Association)工作了一段时间。

The organization eventually hired her full time, and she has forged a career in and around environmental education and community work.

该协会最终聘用她为全职员工，后来她在环境教育和社区工作方面开创了一番事业。

Now, looking back on my résumé, all of the dots ended up connecting, said Ms Price, 44, who lives in Washington.

现在，回头看看我的简历，所有的点都连上了，现年44岁、在华盛顿生活的普赖斯说。

I would tell younger Akiima to trust the process.

我会对年少时的阿奇玛说，相信这个过程会有收获。

Parents would be wise to adopt that mantra, too, and not just because tens of thousands of tuition dollars may go to waste if a college student has a burning desire to be elsewhere.

父母们也应该明智地相信这些箴言，不只是因为如果一名大学生强烈地想去其他地方，那么，勉强留在学校就是白白浪费数万美元的学费。

Even if a gap year does not lead to a job offer and an obvious career track, it can light a spark that ends up burning in a different way many years later.

即使间隔年没有让你获得一份工作或找到明确的事业方向，它也可能点亮星星之火，在多年后以不同的方式燃烧成熊熊大火。

Cory Mason spent his gap year as a project manager for Habitat for Humanity in Savannah, Ga.

科里•梅森(Cory Mason)在间隔年担任乔治亚州萨凡纳市仁人家园(Habitat for Humanity)的项目经理。

Today, he’s a Wisconsin state representative who calls on his experience quite often, even if he doesn’t pick up a hammer much these days.

而今他是威斯康星州众议员，他经常回忆起自己的那段经历——尽管现在他很少拿起锤子干活。

It wasn’t just about housing but more about poverty and how hard it is for working people who still make poverty wages to move into the middle class, he said.

它不只是关于住房，更多的是关于贫穷以及依然只能挣到微薄薪水的工薪阶级想要成为中产阶级是多么困难，他说

It gave me as much of a lesson on that as it did on how to frame a house or put shingles on a roof.

它在这方面给我上了一课，而不仅是教我如何搭建房子的框架，如何把木瓦放到屋顶上。

Mr Mason earned room, board and a tiny stipend during his gap year.

梅森在间隔年的项目中获得了食宿和一点奖学金。

And plenty of revenue-neutral or moneymaking gap year experiences are available, despite the phenomenon’s reputation as a sort of rich kid’s layabout.

还有很多人的间隔年是收入中立甚至赚钱的，尽管有人认为这种现象是富家子弟游手好闲的行为。

Still, some educators question whether there isn’t some class privilege at work here.

不过，有些教育者质疑其中是否有阶级特权在起作用。

Chad Hammett, who took three semesters off from the University of Texas,

查德•哈米特(Chad Hammett)曾从德克萨斯大学(University of Texas)休学三个学期。

now teaches English at Texas State University.

如今他在德克萨斯州立大学(Texas State University)教英语。

He figures that maybe a quarter of the students he encounters would have been better served by a gap year, but he worries about the momentum of the students he sees who are the first in their families to go to college.

他说自己遇见的学生中约有四分之一更适合去体验间隔年，不过他担心那些是家中首个大学生的学生对此没有太大动力。

This may be their one chance, and any kind of delay would be admitting that they’re not ready and don’t belong, he said.

这可能是他们上大学的唯一机会，任何拖延都会被认为是承认自己还没准备好，或不适合上大学，他说。

For others, however, a year in between was just the thing they needed.

不过，对其他人来说，间隔年正是他们所需要的。

Celia Quezada was a first-generation college student and spent a year in Belgium in a Rotary program before beginning her freshman year at Williams College.

塞莉娅•克萨达(Celia Quezada)是家中的第一代大学生，在去威廉斯学院(Williams College)上大一之前，她参加扶轮社(Rotary)的一个项目，在比利时待了一年。

Had I not done the exchange program, I would have dropped out just from the culture shock, she said.

如果没有参加那个交换项目，我可能因为文化冲击就退学了，她说。

Ms Quezada, 44, lives in Greenfield, Calif., and is now a first-grade teacher.

44岁的克萨达住在加利福尼亚州格林菲尔德，现在是一名一年级教师。

Her students are too young for any advice from her about possible college paths.

她的学生们太小，不需要在上大学的路径方面得到她的建议。

But even the people who took the biggest risks during their gap year wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the experience to their own children.

不过，甚至连那些在间隔年最冒险的人也会毫不犹豫地建议自己的孩子去经历这样的体验。

Eric Van Dusen traveled over land from Argentina to California during his time off, while his wife, Kara Nelson, taught in a migrant camp in Zimbabwe.

埃里克•范杜森(Eric Van Dusen)在自己的间隔年从阿根廷穿越大陆来到加利福尼亚州，而他的妻子卡拉•纳尔逊(Kara Nelson)则在津巴布韦的一个难民营教书。

They have two children, ages 8 and 12, who will be making their own educational choices soon, or will try to convince their parents that an alternative path is a swell idea.

他们有两个孩子，分别是8岁和12岁，他们将很快做出自己的教育选择或努力说服父母其他道路也很好。

The idea of knowing that my kids would be out there being autonomous and feeling self-directed and empowered by making decisions themselves makes me really happy, Ms Nelson said.

想到我的孩子们将独立自主，进行自我指导，有能力自己做决定，我感到非常高兴，纳尔逊说。

Any risk may well be part of the point.

任何冒险都可能有它的意义。

Ted Conover took plenty of risks when he rode freight trains with hobos during his time off from Amherst College, and eventually wrote about the experience in his book, Rolling Nowhere.

特德•康诺弗(Ted Conover)从安默斯特学院(Amherst College)休学期间与流浪汉一起搭乘货运列车，冒了很多险，最后他把那些经历写进了自己的书《漫无目的地前进》(Rolling Nowhere)中。

You get to define the terms of the risk, he said.

你要自己确定冒险的含义，他说，

Could I hop a train? Handle police? Defend myself? Deal with a blizzard in October or a rainstorm while out in the open? All kinds of things had never been asked of me, and I thought that the time was right to ask myself, to test myself.

我能扒火车吗？我能应付警察吗？我能保护自己吗？我能在户外应对10月的暴风雪或暴风雨吗？之前我从没想过这些事，当时我觉得是时候该问问自己、考验自己了。

But even if you or your children have no stomach for riding the rails or hitchhiking in Central America, allowing for the possibility of something outside the norm just seems like good parenting.

但是，即使你或你的孩子没兴趣在中美洲扒火车或搭便车，但是允许常规之外的事情发生似乎是良好的养育方法。

Tracy Johnston Zager took time off to work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992, later studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and is the author of a coming book called Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had.

1992年，特蕾西•约翰斯顿•扎格(Tracy Johnston Zager)休学去为比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)的总统竞选团队工作，后来以罗德学者(Rhodes Scholar)的身份在牛津大学(Oxford)学习，她即将出版一本书，名叫《成为你自己理想中的数学老师》(Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had)。

Recently, however, she found herself in a teaching moment in her own home in Portland, Me.

不过前不久，她在缅因州波特兰自己家中发现了一个进行教育的机会。

Her two young daughters found her examining artifacts from her days of political adventuring.

她的两个年幼的女儿发现她在整理自己政治探险时期留下的物品。

They didn’t know about any of it, she said.

她们对此一无所知，她说，

They looked at me in a picture with the president and said, ‘Who’s that?’ Maybe it’s time they know this story.

她们看着与总统合影照片中的我问道：‘那是谁？’也许是时候让她们知道这个故事了。