Working gap years have the potential to turn education leavers into education leavers with perspective...

I live in what could only be described as a big white building. It has Oasis themed orange shutters on the windows, four floors and two movement censored showers that don’t work when you move about in front of them (when they suddenly stopped working I was lathered up ready for the rinse. Not the nicest experience rinsing your whole self in a basin of tepid water). There are five residents in this big building: Me, Tim, Pete, his wife Becka and our little friend the mouse who lives on the ground floor. We don’t see much of mouse but he leaves his mark on every item of food left vulnerably on the worktops. The building used to be a health centre/ homeless hostel and so it has a institutional feel to it. For example there is a reception area outside my first floor bedroom. There is a large walk-in cupboard where they used to stock spare clothes for homeless people in the winter. Next door to my bedroom (an old treatment room) is a chiropody chair. It still works which makes for excellent entertainment when bored. It’s quite a lonely building and I still don’t feel quite at home in it. The building sits on the Lambeth Road, which means that it’s noisy throughout the night, seriously the noise never stops. I’ve just had to adjust to sleeping through it. Underneath the house runs the Bakerloo underground line, which often keeps me awake late at night….

This environment is far from the tranquil silence of my home in Perth. I’ll be honest and say that there is times I wish I could sleep there and then return to London every morning. However, in this noisy large building I’m learning more about myself than I ever have. I’m adapting to an environment that I’ve never had too. I’m overcoming fears and anxieties that I’ve had for years. It’s the learning curve that drives me on…. The knowledge that after this year I’ll be able to look back and say I stepped out of my comfort zone to have some experience of what it feels like to be uncomfortable. London is amazing. On Sunday I had the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, occasionally I eat the best doughnuts I’ve ever had (made fresh – melt in the mouth) and sometimes I eat these chips – crispy on the outside and fluffy in the centre. But there are aspects of London that make me uncomfortable. The shooting’s, the stabbings, the general way people just don’t look at each other (who can you trust?). Maybe I’ve not made much sense about why I’m here. If so maybe I can say it better. I reckon that experience is everything when working with people. Although you can get a degree to give you the relevant skills, life experience gives you the confidence to put those skills into practice. I feel the higher up the scale of need I work the more I’ll learn (the kids I work with here have put new demands on my skills, something which can only benefit me in my future work).

Oasis are very keen on the idea of mentorship and so very quickly I’ve been given a personal mentor. His names Ally and he’s trained counsellor (don’t worry I think it’s more chance than my actual need for counselling) originally from Edinburgh. Anyway, I had m first meeting with him, which was great. We ate a meal and then went for a pint. The whole thing was very relaxed and he gave me plenty opportunity to talk about any problems I was having (you know, my hair, my style, girl problems etc etc). Ally dropped me back at the institution (home) around 10pm and I went inside feeling very at peace. I always check the mail when I enter the building because we get a bunch of interesting stuff through the post mainly because it used to be a health centre (free drug samples, new receding hair treatments). Anyway, I was just walking to my room when I heard a door creak and I stopped a little freaked by the noise. I stood for sometime waiting for any follow up noise but none came and so I carried on walking to my room. You can imagine that I was a little anxious and was quite keen to get inside my room and lock the door; I’d be safe in there at least. However, as I walked to my door Tim and Pete jumped out in front of me and I screamed…. Screamed like I’d never screamed before. Holding my heart I collapsed to the floor in total shock at what had just happened…. At first, I’m told they thought they’d killed due to my reaction and then when I spoke the tension dropped and they started laughing. It’s the worst fright I’ve ever had and I still haven’t quite recovered. I think if my heart has ever been close to stopping it was then. No doubt this moment will go down in my Oasis Legacy ‘the time we gave Andrew a fright’. Had I died during the experience then it would have been my legacy….