1. My concerns before taking a gap year
I vividly remember the morning I woke up on the first day of my senior year of high school. As soon as I opened my eyes, I suddenly wondered, “Where is my life going?” That day was the day after I had officially finished all extracurricular activities because I was a senior. Giving up all the activities that had defined and characterized me and thinking I should now only study made my head spin. From then on I developed a yearning to know what I was studying for. In the end, it wasn’t because I studied well but because of the extracurricular activities I had worked hard at that I was able to enter a fairly well-known school in the metropolitan area from the countryside. Still, I didn’t know why I was going to university. I enrolled hoping, following adults’ advice, that going to college would solve it, but the problems inside me never disappeared. I still didn’t know what I was studying for.
2. What I did during my gap year
Right after finishing my first year of university, I took a leave of absence. I decided to live on my own, became independent, and started various part-time jobs. Working in society wasn’t easy, but with the money I earned in one year I was able to go abroad. (At the time I thought that if I earned money I should just go abroad.) On the recommendation of some adults around me, I learned about an NGO in the Philippines and applied to be its program manager.A program manager is someone who manages the NGO’s projects.and runs them. The NGO I belonged to was organized around regional coordinators, so it was important to manage the coordinators, connect them with each other to enhance project effectiveness, and monitor how ongoing projects were being operated. Therefore, at least twice a week I traveled around the Philippines to meet coordinators and evaluate project sites. I also created various promotional materials to connect project sites with sponsors. Because it was a small organization, I was able to try many different tasks and had many opportunities to plan initiatives myself and communicate with local people.
3. My life after the gap year
My NGO experience was recognized, which allowed me to participate in various other overseas volunteer activities and to work at KOICA. However, unlike an NGO, KOICA’s work was mainly administrative rather than field-based, so it didn’t suit my personality well. Above all, I became worried that I might get used to the overly comfortable atmosphere of a public institution and end up pursuing only stability instead of achieving what I truly wanted. Eventually I quit and decided to start my own business. Perhaps because I had the experience of deciding to take a gap year, I was able to start something new more easily. So now I am preparing an educational content distribution business as a young entrepreneur for my true dream: creating a society where each person’s individuality is expressed within citizenship.
© Korea Gapyear
4. What changed after the gap year
The biggest gain during my gap year was that I was able to discover for myself what I wanted. This led to a change in my attitude as well. Of course, the dream I discovered at that time was very vague. But I naturally came to think that I should continue studying to make it more concrete. So after finishing about a year and a half of NGO work (or two and a half years if you include the part-time job period), I returned to university. Once I made up my mind and started studying, I became an active university student before I knew it. Also, because I knew what I wanted and what I had to do, studying became enjoyable. Even before the gap year there were times when studying was fun, but I was anxious and wandering because I didn’t know the direction; after discovering myself through the gap year, whether studying or doing extracurricular activities, I gained confidence in everything.
5. If I were to recommend a gap year
I recommend a gap year to teenagers or young adults who haven’t had enough time to explore themselves.
In our country’s education system, having ‘leisure’ is like reaching for the stars. There’s so much to study and so much to do. But during my gap year I was able to invest a whole year or more entirely in myself and I could vaguely understand what I wanted. Of course, taking a gap year doesn’t suddenly bring a great epiphany or transform you into a wonderful person with a flourish. However, by living out and practicing the true thoughts and feelings I discovered during the gap year in real life, my dream became clearer and my emotions became more definite. (In a way, I’m still exploring ‘myself’ that began with the gap year.) Therefore, I hope young people who need time to reflect on themselves can discover themselves through a gap year.
© Korea Gapyear
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