Should I take a gap year before going to college?

I think you should go to college immediately, but use the college experience to study abroad. If you think you may lose drive, you probably will and you will be travelling this country gaining experience and language skills but no real doentation of what you learned that will help you in your career. Employers wont consider it favorable that you took a year long vacation, instead you will just be a year behind starting your career. If you study abroad you get all the same experience while earning a degree, plus you will be learning from other students, taking language cles, and have options for room and board, volunteer work etc. I studied abroad and it was an incredible experience, i am now looking to go to graduate school in Europe since I got my undergrad degree out of the way and can really focus on international business skills.