My friend tells me that we need to try this Thai restaurant she just discovered. She tells me it’s called “Sawadee.” Elated, I immediately tell her that means “hello” in Thai. Instead of being impressed, she just rolls her eyes. “Oh right, now you’re going to go on forever about your time in Thailand.”
I don’t want to be ostracized every time I mention my year abroad. There is a stigma that people associate with those who took gap years. People automatically assume I think I’m better than everyone else since I spent a year dabbling in wanderlust and exploring the world outside of suburban Maryland. Just because I am technically a year older than most of my fellow freshmen and had amazing unusual experiences, like trekking the Himalayans in Nepal or spending a week in the highlands of Fiji bathing in a river and sharing a communal bathroom with the entire village, I don’t consider myself superior to my peers.
I’m not looking to dole out advice I learned over the course of my travels. If you want to look up to me as a role model, go ahead. But in all seriousness, I’m just another freshman trying to figure out the dynamics of college life. First semester was just as confusing and terrifying for me as it was for you… I actually can’t stop comparing it to this time when I was sitting on top of an 11th century pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar. The sunset created this ethereal golden haze over fields of a thousand pagodas, decorating the rural environment. As the sun lowered, another row of pagodas appeared. And then another. The vast expanse of pagodas looked as if they would fall off the earth and go down with the sun. I realized if we, as humans, never take chances or do things that scare us, we might miss something great. If I never took a gap year, I would have never witnessed the most beautiful sunset ever. With thanks to this beautiful land, I shed a tear. There, I realized that adjusting to college might be hard. It’s a big transition. If you don’t take the opportunity to open yourself up to a new environment, you’ll never know its greatness. In the end, it’s all worth it.
But I digress. Gap year students are totally normal. I had my own personal worries after coming back to school after a year off. I was so scared to go back to actual academic learning. Would I remember how to write an essay or take an exam? I even called my sister the first week of school and asked if I should take notes while I did my reading for class – I don’t, by the way. Whenever I stress, I just remember this time when I was in Railay Beach, a peninsula off the southwestern border of Thailand. We spent the whole day island hopping, going from different beaches snorkeling and sunbathing, surrounded by the gigantic limestone cliffs that lined the shore. That night we went night snorkeling and were able to see the bioluminescent plankton. It was as if I was swimming in the night sky. The plankton were a blanket of stars, embracing me as I jumped into the water. In that moment, I had no worries. There were no midterms I had to study for. It was just me and the ocean.
Others also don’t want to be associated with this gap year stigma. Just because fellow global citizen, Erin Lueck ’18, spent 3 months in Jordan, does not mean she thinks she’s better than everyone else, too. “I, too, was nervous to start college. But then I took a step back and realized how well desert life in Wadi Rum prepared me for Providence. I specifically remember when I had to get evacuated from Disi, a village of the nomadic Bedouin people within the desert, after a blood feud was initiated by one of the two predominate tribal families. Now at school, I’m the first one outside during a fire drill.”
We’re like everyone else, just living our lives. We took a year off to explore as much of the world as we can. So instead of assuming we’re better than you, just learn from the choices we made with our lives in deciding to take a gap year. Life’s short. Take a chance. You’re only young once. Dream big. Reach for the stars.
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