There is considerable discussion in higher education these days about the attractiveness and utility of gap years. How this for a gap year?
It was 1831 when a wayward, 22-year-old student dropped out of Edinburgh University and then the University of Cambridge. He was initially studying to be a medical doctor, but hated it. His father suggested he study Greek and Latin instead and enter the ministry, but he was too suspicious of the church for this idea to have much traction, either. In truth, as with many college students then and now, he had little idea what he wanted to do.
His uncle convinced the boy's father to let him sail for a year or two on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America. The ship was the HMS Beagle. The journey took five years. The young man was Charles Darwin. The rest is history.
HMS Beagle image courtesy of Scrimshaw Gallery