After she graduated from high school, high-achieving student Lauren Clark decided to take a year off before heading to college. In a piece in The New York Times, she describes her gap year. She taught English and helped build a library in Ghana and then studied art in Venice. In Ghana she discovered a passion for development and studied economics, Africa and international relations when she began her studies at Tufts the following year. Now she is pursuing a career in microfinance, and will be moving to India. Her career path was forged during her gap year and she has found something she loves. Taking a year off worked for her.

Should you, or your child, consider this? Perhaps. But the problem is that students who will want to pursue a gap year are probably not well-suited to it. The ambitious types who would benefit and not suffer from it are likely to be more hesitant. As Clark writes, "Family friends were afraid that I would never go to college and get a good job if I chose a gap year. But I knew I was committed." The problem is that many people who decide to "take a year off" have a a way of taking a life off, and suffering the consequences.

But there's a lot to be said for taking a year off to do something interesting abroad. Julie Tilsner recently made the case for youth as the time for travel, and she has some great points. To look into programs, try this search engine.

I recently received a message from Reunion.com that looked like it was from a former employee who was searching for me on the site. Weird. Why would she look for me on a site targeted toward high school classmates? We grew up a country apart from each other.

Then I heard about the mess on a message board I frequent, and now the LA Times is writing about it... Reunion.com has found a sneaky way to email everyone in your address book without your permission.

The game goes like this: You get a message saying Bob Jones was looking for you at Reunion.com and you're supposed to visit the site to see who else has been searching for you. Once you get to the site, you're prompted to sign up for a free account. After you sign up, you receive a message like this: "We'll find your friends and family who are already members and also automatically invite any nonmembers to join (it's free!)."