Hey friends, we're off on the fourth but wanted to share an episode of another Slate show that we think you'll love.

It's from our colleagues at How To. They'll tell you the story of Leo, a high-achieving high school senior on the cusp of graduation.

He's always been pushed to attend four-year college and get a job, but Leo feels unfulfilled and is curious what an alternative path might look like.

So this episode of How To, Carvel Wallace, is joined by Avi Fallick, founder of the Flight School,

an organization dedicated to helping students and parents take control of their education

and use those gap years to find their own way. We'll be back on Monday, but till then, we hope you enjoyed this episode of how to.

I think my biggest anxiety about taking gap year was sort of just like, would it be a good

use of my year? Would I feel like bored to no end? Or would I get as much out of it as I would from a year

of college?

Welcome to how to. I'm Carvel Wallace. You know, when I was about 21 years old and in college,

I went overseas to work for a theater company in the summer. And when I got back to New York

in the fall, it was time to register for classes in my senior year. But I just didn't. It wasn't

like I had a plan. I just kind of sat in my apartment as the deadline for registration came and went.

I ended up spending a year working two jobs, one is a bike messenger, one is a fundraiser

for a social justice organization and just eeked out a living in New York.

It was a wild time, weird and exhausting.

I had bike accidents, I got hit by taxis, I showed up to work at 6 a.m.

I worked 14-hour days sometimes. When it was all over, there was really one main thing I had learned.

Life out here is hard. I learned that work is real and college was actually a privilege and an

opportunity. And if I didn't want to spend

the rest of my life bleeding on the pavement in Midtown Manhattan I'd better take advantage of my

education but it's also hard to know that sometimes until you go through it and that was

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