Some have missed out on adventure, others on university places – but as well as turmoil, the pandemic has thrown up some surprising consolations
When Daisy Davis imagined her gap year, she pictured global adventure. Building schools as a volunteer in Tanzania or Ghana, perhaps, Interrailing through Europe, or travelling in Thailand. Finally 18 and with a year of blissful freedom before university, Daisy presumed that the world was there to be explored.
At school near her home in East Sussex, where she lives with her teacher parents and 11-year-old brother, there was a lot of talk about gap years. “People would come back and describe the fun things they’d been doing. And you’d see it on social media. All these different cities. Elephants and white sand. Travelling to Asia.” The hope that she could do the same got her through her exams.
