An open letter about my gap year | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)
The post explores Abigail Africa’s uncertainty about returning to USC during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether taking a gap year would better serve her education, finances, and career. She argues that remote classes cannot fully replace the community, hands-on projects, and extracurricular experiences she planned for her senior year. Her decision is also shaped by family expectations, cultural background, and Silicon Valley’s complicated “dropout” mythology. ## The Case for a Gap Year - Africa had envisioned her final year around a senior capstone involving pitching, running, and growing a startup. - A remote semester would mean losing experiences such as: - Collaborating in makerspaces - Experimenting with hardware - Recording podcasts and producing videos - Building close relationships with classmates and professors - Many students faced different constraints: - Some would attend classes from their childhood bedrooms. - Others questioned paying full tuition for Zoom-based education. - International students risked visa complications if they did not return. - Africa’s reasons for considering time off were: - Waiting to return until she could fully participate in campus life - Working during the pandemic and building savings - Gaining more startup experience before potentially founding a company ## Family Expectations and the Value of Education - Africa’s family worried that a gap year could become permanent and prevent her from finishing her degree. - Her immigrant grandparents sacrificed established careers and worked minimum-wage jobs to support their children’s education. - Her parents similarly prioritized education over luxuries and invested heavily in her schooling. - For Africa’s family, education is the reliable path to success, while gap years and dropping out appear risky and difficult to justify. - Africa recognizes that she does not yet have a convincing answer to the fear that delaying graduation could mean never returning. ## Education, Economics, and Cultural Identity - Students were weighing the practical consequences of enrolling, taking time off, or graduating during an unstable economy. - Key questions included: - How employers would interpret a gap year - What a degree is worth under these circumstances - How losing access to a campus community would affect students - Whether delaying school would create financial advantages - Africa also considers whether these calculations differ for her as a woman of color, particularly in an industry shaped by unequal access and representation. ## Silicon Valley’s Dropout Mythology - Technology culture often celebrates the highly privileged, frequently male, elite-university dropout who becomes a successful founder. - Africa has rarely seen herself represented in that narrative. - Her startup internship gives her hope that the industry may be opening to broader kinds of talent and that meaningful opportunities can exist without a completed degree. - At the same time, she questions whether apparent meritocracy is truly based only on ability, since representation, privilege, and access strongly influence who receives opportunities. Ultimately, Africa presents the gap-year decision as more than an academic or financial calculation. It is also a question of identity, family history, opportunity, and whether traditional educational paths remain the best route during a period of extraordinary disruption.