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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
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35th GapperKim Jun-ho
12-month gap year
"The best trip and the best gap year shaped by adversity"
# A young man who, after going to college, grew tired of the dream he once wanted
Many people change their future aspirations, but I always, since childhood,Engineerwas my dream. So I chose mechanical engineering in college and was passionate about studying engineering.
Habut I got fed up with the mechanics courses filled with countless math and physics formulas rather than learning about machines.I grew tired of simply solving math problems, and my interests shifted from my major to philosophy and photography.
Especially after becoming an officer in the photography club, I became absorbed solely in photography. Because my family wasn't well-off, I worked part-time while focusing on the photography club I loved, and naturally my grades plummeted.
# The gap year I chose after two academic warnings, and the predictable routine of taking a leave of absence
In the end, I received academic probation twice — something others say is hard to receive even once.On the day the grades were posted, I sat dazed and thought I had been living too complacently; to reflect on myself and figure out what my true dream was, I decided to take a gap year..
It was a leave of absence to take a gap year, born out of shock and to find my real dream.However, when I first started the leave, I didn't have any particular plans. So, wanting to do something during the leave, I enrolled in a TOEIC academy just like everyone else. But as expected, TOEIC was extremely uninteresting.
The thing I loved had become study and exams, and I grew sick of a 20-year dream; therefore, the result of taking a leave and enrolling in a TOEIC academy was predictable. English felt like a test rather than the learning I wanted, so I hated doing it even more.
For living experiences, the English I wanted to learn, and the studies I wanted to pursue,I quit the TOEIC academy after one month and set a goal to do language study abroad or travel around Europe.Perhaps, with tuition barely covered, going on a language program abroad was harder than getting a good TOEIC score.
Still, it was a leave I chose because I felt it was necessary,I didn't want to spend my gap year doing things I didn't want to do,I didn't want to spend it that way.During the day I worked as an IT management assistant at a power plant, and after finishing work I worked closing shifts at a city movie theater. After the closing shift, it was around 2 a.m. and there was no public transportation, so to save on fares I commuted by bicycle every day.
Free from obligation, I began to like machines again.
I was only able to sleep an average of four hours a day, but I worked hard.After working for about three months, the contract with the power plant ended.However, I felt a desire to challenge myself further and took a new part-time job at a ski resort.
I had a mechanical certification, so I worked operating lifts and gondolas, and as a new part-time worker with some experience I was assigned to the summit at 1,300 meters, which was rumored to be the most extreme environment. With no one I knew, the unfamiliar setting, temperatures around -20°C, and the cold, driving wind made me shiver. On top of that, as a lift operator I had to memorize various manuals written in English and became responsible for many people’s safety, which added to the pressure.
However, through the part-time job I was able to experience many personal stories I wouldn’t have seen at school. I gained experience in service work and met a wide variety of people from across the country who came to the ski resort. I was somewhat shy at first, but afterwards my personality became more outgoing.
And directly from life rather than from books,Managing lift safety for the well-being of many people became an opportunity for me to renew my interest in mechanical engineering, which I was studying.
Thanks to the renewed interest in machinery I developed during the part-time job, I was able to think more about machines while traveling in Europe.
I often found myself thinking about ways to improve the world through engineering. Based on the ideas I conceived then, I was able to carry out and succeed in a project after returning to school.
Most importantlygained through the part-time jobThe more outgoing personality I developed changed more than I had expected.Based on that, I founded a convergence idea club at school, which has now grown to 70 members. Through ideas, I filed four patent applications, won about 30 competition awards including the Korea Talent Award, and went on to start a technology-based startup.
Going to Heaven Through Part-Time Work.
Finally! With the money I earned from part-time jobs, I was able to go on a trip to Europe. When it came time to travel to Europe, I planned it without any knowledge. I had a weak understanding of airline tickets, and on a whim, thinking I should just go, I went ahead and booked the plane tickets. I had wanted to visit Turkeythe reason was that I wanted to visit.I included Turkey in the route for that single reason.It was that simple a travel route..
If I planned every detail in advance, I would be controlled by that planand feel like I was traveling in a rush, so I decided to only choose the cities I wanted to visit and book accommodations as I traveled.
Europe, as it began, made me feel as if I had stepped into a movie and was watching scenes from it.
Watching the clear skies and the relaxed pace of the people, I realized that I had been living as if I were always being chased. Experiencing the sense of leisure firsthand...as I felt itI kept thinking, over and over, that I should live a little more relaxed and with more abundance now.But my personality didn't change easily.Because of the part-time jobs I'd done,I had plenty of money. However,I saved money by taking the hostel's breakfast bread for lunch, stopping at a supermarket on the way back to buy groceries, and cooking dinner myself at the hostel.
Living leisurely without plans
I wasn't free even when faced with freedom, and in situations where I could relax I kept repressing myself.A turning point came.I accidentally lost about 300,000 won. Despite being able to enjoy myself, I reflected on how I had been repressing myself by saving more money than necessary.From then on, not just in mindset but in reality, I genuinely enjoyed traveling around Europe at a relaxed pace.
Because I didn't book accommodations in advance, I could travel a bit more leisurely than others.In particular, the route from Nice to Florence is usually traveled by airplane.II traveled by train along the coast, watching the sea and enjoying relaxation and daydreams. I also came up with a business idea.
In Prague, timed to the Prague Spring Music Festival, I spent three days attending only classical concerts I barely knew and thus got introduced to classical music.
# Traveling Through Turkey with Only One Book
And I again had the chance to enjoy another fun trip in Munich.A crisis hit my trip again when I got off the subway and left my smartphone behind.
So,I traveled around Turkey purely using a single book, with no other information about the country.I relied on gestures to ask a man who shared a bus with me to help find accommodation, and on long overnight buses—without the smartphone that had always been at my side—I would zone out and ride for 10 hours at a time.
# You don't have to follow the exact same path as everyone else.
Although my European trip was short, I went through a lot, and things I had taken for granted in everyday life turned into various uncertainties during the trip.
Traveling gave me much time to reflect, and I learned that you don't have to be bound to follow the same path as everyone else.The most important takeaway from this trip was realizing that, no matter the situation or environment, I can change the world by changing the way I look at it.
AlsoThrough this gap year, I was able to courageously choose the new dream of starting a business rather than having the same uniform goals as others. In a world where people in their twenties are forced to endure pain and employment at a large company is seen as the only predetermined dream, in fact, Imay be seen as an unusual person in society. HoweverWith the lesson I personally learned on my trip to Europe—"You don't have to be bound and walk the same path as others"—I am moving toward my dreamI am walking toward it.
# To juniors planning a gap year: "Your youth now is the most beautiful and precious thing"
I always recommend to juniors that they should take a gap year.Later, when you look back, you will think that your youth now was the most beautiful and precious time.It is depressing to be trapped in the library during this period thinking only about getting a job at a large company. I believe that the experiences and memories from this time can surpass the monetary rewards of securing a good job.
In this era where young people are forced to endure pain, there is no need to have predetermined, uniform goals and dreams. Through a gap year, you can find the dream you truly want.
We always welcome recommendations and submissions for the 100 Gap Year. Please leave a comment or a message, or email Marketing Manager Da-young Choi (choi@koreagapyear.com)!
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