Take some time out to broaden your horizons

With almost everyone on holiday as we celebrate the UAE’s 47th birthday this weekend, I thought it was important to shed a light on the concept of taking breaks in life.

Taking a year after school to go backpacking in Europe, or to find oneself, is not something unheard of in the West. In fact, many high school graduates use that time to intern, find their passion in their life or simply to just do nothing.

When I obtained my Master’s degree I was only 21, and I decided to take a oneyear break before I joined the workforce. I had crammed in a lot of studying over four years and just wanted to relax, discover where I really wanted to work and try out different things.

It was during that time that I took oil painting and calligraphy classes, learnt French, submitted my writing pieces to local publications and started a fashion sideline that eventually became a fully-fledged online business.

While my parents were supportive of my decision, many were questioning it. They weren’t convinced by a conscious and deliberate decision to take a break. To them, it was some form of failure. It was going against the norm, especially when I was a young, smart and accomplished student.

I remember I was at a dinner event once when one of my mom’s friends, a proud career woman, started asking me about my career plans. I told her that I don’t intend to work for the time being.

She was so appalled that I still remember her exact words: “I never thought you’d be a person who wouldn’t want to develop herself, Manar”.

I took that same step again, also deliberately, when I left my role in the government and decided to manage my businesses full-time. I wanted to take a break to travel, empty my brain and relax.

When people graduate in the UAE, they are expected to join the workforce straight away and if the organisation is good, specifically if it is in the government sector, they rarely leave it and basically work their way to retirement.

Taking a break after school or in-between jobs to find one’s self or just to relax is unheard of in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf countries in general. But I believe it’s very important and should be considered, especially after high school.

In our final years of school, we were so busy with finals I remember some of my classmates enrolled in college programmes that they may have never pursued if they had proper time to experience that field. Later, some switched courses during their second year or just suffered, pursuing a major they disliked because they had no other choice.

Taking a year after school to properly explore college degrees, future employment prospects and interning in different organisations to have a sense of what it would be like to pursue accounting or engineering is vital.

Think about how much time and money would be saved instead of having students request to switch majors, or drop out of one college to go to the next. In the end it’s only one year after high school, not 10, and we would have students and young people who are pursuing degrees they are passionate about.

Many entities’ internship programmes only cater to fresh graduates or those in their final years of university. So having a nationwide scheme aimed at high school graduates would fill a niche.

In addition, high school students may find it interesting to work in the private sector, thus increasing the number of Emiratis. Pursuing new and unconventional career paths also helps the UAE diversify its economy.