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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
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22nd Gapper Yoon Jimin
Gap year period: Apr 2014 – Feb 2015 (10 months)
Gap year experience: An 8-month trip focused on my area of interest, "tourism," and the "people" who work in it.
What led me to take a gap year
"Finally, I got to do the job I had always dreamed of. And "
In my third year of university, during an exchange program in Singapore, for the first timetourismAfter becoming interested in it, I dedicated my university years to building related credentials. I was so into "building my resume" that it was almost a hobby—I spent four years filling it with experiences like an internship at the tourism board, working as a travel agency marketer, a part-time travel guide, and overseas volunteer work.
After graduating without taking a single leave of absence, I interned at the Blue House Office of the Presidential Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism. With a vision to shape the tourism industry's direction through policy at a public institution, I went abroad to study policy. When my studies ended, I started working immediately as the Hallyu tourism officer in the Tourism Industry Department at Seoul City Hall.
At that time, I told people around me that I had alwaysdream workplaceI was so happy, telling people I had gotten into my dream workplace. It was a role where I could make full use of the experiences I had worked hard to build. Promoting my beloved city, Seoul, abroad through culture and showing tourists Seoul's appeal was truly compelling.
While in charge of Hallyu marketing and Hallyu tourism at Seoul City Hall, I did and learned a great deal. I stayed up for several nights preparing for the PSY concert in front of Seoul City Hall, produced a Hallyu tourism guidebook, and wrestled with copyright and portrait-right issues with hundreds of agencies. I loved the work and thought it was the best workplace for me, so I worked very hard.
"Quit"
However, no matter how hard I worked to promote Seoul, the people around me always...'Is there anywhere worth going to in Korea?' 'Honestly, Korea doesn't really have any good places.'They said things like that, and when I visited Myeong-dong, Seoul's representative tourist attraction, I felt like I was being unfairly disadvantaged as a Seoul resident because of the overflowing Chinese and Japanese tourists. Every time that happened, I started to question whether this is really the right direction for tourism: as a city hall employee I work for tourists, but as a Seoul citizen I have to put up with these inconveniences because of tourists.
That experience triggered constant doubts about whether the work I was doing was truly meaningful both to foreign tourists and to Seoul residents. When I finally asked myself whether the work I was doing was a proper use of the citizens' taxes, I didn't have 100% confidence.
So I decided I should quit. Then, thinking about what I could do after quitting to learn and experience 'tourism' more deeply...I realized I could actually become a 'tourist' myself.With that thought, I decided to take a trip around the world to experience 'real tourism' and to find the kind of work I could do within it.
My Gap Year Story
"Thinking more deeply about my dream"
During the eight months I planned the trip, there was only one thing I was determined to focus on: meeting many people involved in 'tourism'.In the field I love most—'tourism'—meeting people and learning from them was both what I did best and what I enjoyed most. As a result, every moment of my trip became...'a trip to learn about tourism'it became.
During the 260-day trip, I interviewed experts from 30 tourism-related organizations across 19 countries, attended two international conferences, and visited nine Korean cultural centers and one promotional center. When I counted the business cards I received after returning from the trip, there were about 150.
Of course, I learned a lot from meeting professionals who work in offices, but by traveling every daya consumer of the tourism industryThe everyday life of becoming one was such a great learning experience. From every person I met daily—the hostel owners, tour guides, attendants, souvenir sellers, backpackers—I could see how 'real tourism' was changing many people's lives.
When working, I was able to physically experience and live tourism that I had only imagined or understood intellectually in the office, and I had time to think more deeply about the field of 'tourism' with my own expertise and insight. Above all, meeting and building relationships with more than 150 tourism professionals from around the world seems to be the most precious asset left by this trip.
"Not credentials recognized by others, but credentials to understand myself"
Looking back at my life before taking a gap year, it was truly suffocatingwithout restI kept running, only looking forward.
I was happy that the results of my efforts—proof that I was living diligently—appeared as a line on my résumé and as a line in my job title, and I thought that was only natural.
However, while taking a gap year and traveling the world, I had to admit that I had been moving away from the values I thought were important, and that was the hardest part. After the trip, I returned with no stable job and no savings, but nevertheless I gained confidence in everything.
If you have spent your time building credentials that others recognize,
it's because, through a gap year, you accumulated experiences that let you truly know yourself.
On this trip,bungee jumpI did it. Bungee jumping, which requires you to jump from a high place of your own free will, was really difficult for me and at the same time it was on my bucket list. Just imagining it is scary. So I did a lot of imagery training and practice. I dived from 7 meters and tried diving from 10 meters.
Over time I developed a know-how. Just before jumping, when you're standing there it's scary, but at that point...one stepIf you take just one step, you'll feel a huge thrill, joy, and a sense of accomplishment that dwarfs the fear. But these experiences and emotions aren't limited to bungee jumping.
It was the same when I arrived in an unfamiliar city with no information, when I had to set off to a new place, or when I met new people to interview. But these...thrill, joy, and a sense of prideare not credentials you can put on a resume. You can't explain them to others, and you don't even need to explain them —a 'spec' that's fine if only I know about it.
By accumulating these kinds of 'specs' through a gap year, I was able to...just one steptake, I gained the belief in myself that if I took just one step, everything would be resolved.
Are you planning a gap year?
"Can you let go of what you have now?"
If you're hesitant about a new challenge, think about whether you can give up everything you currently have.
It can be really hard to distance yourself from everything that others recognize you for and to come to terms with that.
It wasn't easy for me either. But if you overcome the fear of letting go of everything and have the courage to leave, you'll return as someone for whom the fear of facing uncertainty upon return is nothing.
If you're prepared like that, travel isn't simply getting on a plane and going somewhere.
On the contrary, it can become a new opportunity to design your future life more wonderfully. Just as I received so much inspiration about what I want to do, what I can do, and what I'm good at by meeting many people around the world with 'tourism' as a keyword, you too your own keywordsIf you take a gap year where you can learn and grow with your own keywords, by pausing for a while you'll be able to gain things that are bigger and more valuable than what you have to give up.
