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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
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52nd GapperYeom Bo-yeol
Gap year period: August 2014 ~ March 2015 (8 months)
World trip to 60 cities in 22 countries
Currently, South Korea,
Each year 60,000 middle and high school students drop out of school, 346,000 people in their 20s are idle because they have no dreams, and the job turnover rate within one year of employment has reached the 40% range,75% of university students are dissatisfied with college life, and more than 80% of office workers report not feeling happy.Many people tell them to 'dream', but there are no practical methods or support to solve this problem,we aim to introduce the 'gap year' to South Korea.
'Gap year' (Gapyear)It is a time to either combine or temporarily pause study and work and engage in various activities such as volunteering, travel, internships, education, and entrepreneurship,to set the direction for the future; this is a culture encouraged in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.
*Visit the Gap Year homepage to explore a variety of experiences!
# Even If You Have Nothing, If You Have Youth You're Not a Beggar — The Start of the Youth-Beggar
After graduating from university, I suddenly realized I was 27. It was very different from the 27 I had imagined in my twenties. I hadn't achieved or built anything. So after thinking it over, I considered a working holiday for the money and to learn English.Our family motto is 'Your life is your life, my life is my life.' I felt I should tell my mother, so I said I was thinking about going on a working holiday, and she suggested that rather than a working holiday, why not travel around the world and come back.
I had thought I'd perfect myself as a person by thirty and then become an actor, so a thirty-year-old who had traveled the world seemed cooler than one who had done a working holiday. And because I was doing theater, I had lived like a beggar for a long time. One day, surviving a month on a tray of eggs, I felt pitiful but not unhappy. The phrase that came to mind then was 'youth-beggar.' I thought, 'Even if you have nothing, if you have youth you're not a beggar.' Maybe that's why I could leave without much hesitation.
# Preparing for a Round-the-World Trip: Raising Funds
1I started living on my own when I was six. At twenty I moved to Seoul and lived in a goshiwon that cost about 200,000 won a month. I lived there for about three months while preparing for theater and film school entrance exams and doing modeling work. I didn't realize how hard goshiwon life would be — I became depressed, lonely, and lethargic. So I decided I couldn't keep living like that and asked a friend who lived at a nearby goshiwon to move in together. The two of us pooled our deposits and rented a semi-basement room with a 2,000,000 won deposit and a 430,000 won monthly rent.After that, I always lived with between two and ten people, and over seven years I shared close quarters with more than 40 people.
Then at 23 I went to the military. I received a grade 4 physical rating due to a minor disability. But I didn't think I could support myself if assigned to public service work. The pay for public service wouldn't even cover rent, and as someone in that position I wouldn't be able to earn a living. So I researched industrial service assignments, prepared for six months, and secured a position in an industrial service.
After being discharged, while attending university I formed a theater club with a junior in a similar situation, and we got an empty classroom. We took an abandoned mattress into that classroom and ate and slept there for a semester. The money I had saved that way was about 10,000,000 won.But 10,000,000 won seemed a bit short for traveling the world.I thought, 'If I'm leaving to travel the world, I won't need a home in Korea, right?' So I withdrew the deposit from the place I was living.
# "Mom, I'm so tired. Am I doing this right?"
I had never dreamed of traveling or actually taken a trip, so I knew nothing about the act of travel. I didn't know what to do when I went, what I should feel, what to bring, or what to leave behind. So I worried about the unknowns—successes and failures of traveling the world and the pain I might feel there. Without knowledge and information, you can't prevent or respond to the risks that may come. But I...In fact, I'm not the kind of person who worries or fears things before they happen; I just thought, 'Let's leave and see.'
Maybe because I left without much worry, the first one to two months after starting the trip were extremely hard and I went through a lot of wandering.What am I doing here? Why am I doing this? While spending amounts of money I had never spent in Korea, what am I getting out of this? Am I going in the right direction and doing the right thing? I had so many worries like that.
When I lost my wallet, my scooter broke down, and I spent a time wandering in LA, I called my mother. I asked why she suggested a world trip to me, whether she wanted me to travel alone through such hardship, and whether I was doing the right thing.She said she wanted me to have those kinds of worries. There will be so many times in life when I have to make decisions about such concerns, so she hoped I would practice worrying and deciding through traveling.
I cried a lot then. NowI was being driven by my desire to immediately gain, learn, feel, and realize something. My mother who suggested the world trip to me, the love that waited for me in Korea, and other people weren't chasing me, but I was chasing myself. After that, I think I began to learn about traveling little by little with a peaceful heart. In that way I slowly faced myself and overcame the fears, anxieties, and worries within me.
# Endless Wandering, Failures, and the Happiness Found Among People
I traveled roughly 4,000 miles around the western United States by scooter, then continued east and returned to Korea via Central America, South America, Europe, North Africa, Turkey, and India. Over eight months I visited 22 countries and 60 cities.At first, because it was a world trip I wanted to look cool. I wanted to do something others hadn't done—something uncommon and not easy. So I chose to tour the U.S. by scooter. Even though some people had toured Europe and Asia by scooter, no one had traveled the American continent that way. While traveling the West I gave up halfway; fear overwhelmed the difficulty.
In truth, whatever the reason, it was giving up and a failure. That failure made me resolve not to give up.Failure isn't anything else; the moment you give up on yourself, that is failure. If you haven't given up, failure is just a fall and not the end. You can get up again and keep running. Only those who endure to the end can see that end.Whether or not what I wanted awaited at the end doesn't really matter. Just having not given up and making it to the end is satisfying. If what I wanted is there, it's not something to take for granted but something to be grateful for!
From South America I went to Europe. Because my loved one was coming to Europe, I went to meet them. In Europe I traveled for them, focusing on what they wanted to see, hear, and keep. I had never traveled before, nor had I ever traveled with my loved one. That our first trip together was to Europe felt so dramatic and romantic. After that happy month and a half ended, my loved one returned to Korea from Prague, Czech Republic. Afterward I had many thoughts. At the time there were so many reasons we had to part, but now I can hardly think of any reasons why we shouldn't have. In any case, we parted in Budapest, Hungary. Thanks to that person, my solo trip hadn't felt lonely. But when they left and I was alone, an unimaginable loneliness came over me.
I wandered again through Hungary, Greece, and Egypt. Then I met people in Dahab, Egypt.There I learned how to travel with others instead of alone. I went to Dahab for healing and truly came back healed. I dove into the deep, dark Blue Hole and consoled myself there. I still can't forget the feeling of that deep abyss embracing me.Although it is an area where IS had a presence and is officially off-limits to tourists, in reality Dahab itself was more peaceful than any other place in Egypt.
After that I went to Turkey and met a close junior. They said they wanted to travel after graduation, so I invited them to come to Turkey and travel together. Their reason for traveling was people—they travel to meet people. Until then I had traveled alone and believed solo travel was the only true travel. But in Dahab I felt the happiness of being with others, and curious about my junior's way of traveling, I traveled to meet people. In Turkey I met many people and was happy. This is why, after returning to Korea, I organize and go on many trips with others. Passing through Turkey and finally India, I finished my world trip and returned to Korea—this was the end of my gap year.
# Machu Picchu, Peru: The Worst and Best Memories at the Same Time
I walked all the way to Machu Picchu. It was one of the three reasons I wanted to come to South America, so I wanted to visit it in a special way. At first I wanted to do the Inca Trail, but I hesitated at the high price and was shaken when I learned there were so many bookings that I would have to wait another week. Around that time a very skinny Korean man arrived at the hostel. He said he was going to walk to Machu Picchu over four nights and five days via a mountain called Salkantay. I decided to join him right away.
On the first day of the trek I felt something was wrong. Cusco, Peru is already at 3,399 meters above sea level, but Salkantay is a high mountain at 6,271 meters. As it turned out, the man I met was a mountaineer who had conquered Everest. The hike was an extremely difficult course, as if to mock me for setting off wearing only a windbreaker and Nike sneakers. The air was thin at high altitude, rain soaked me and my body temperature fell, a strap on my bag snapped after only an hour of climbing so I dragged it, and after eight hours of hiking I collapsed at base camp as if fainting. That night the guide looked at my condition and said I couldn't reach the summit like that and should give up and ride a horse up. I was so exhausted that I agreed. Even when I went to sleep, the lack of oxygen made me wake up and fall asleep repeatedly through the night until morning.
I sat on the hill like my soul had left my body when the guide told me to get on a horse. I asked the older man if anyone had died from altitude sickness; he said no. I asked the guide how many people had given up like me; he said six, including me.At that moment I suddenly remembered my failed scooter trip around the U.S. If I gave up this time too, I thought I would be very disappointed in myself. That earlier giving up had weighed on my mind and hurt me throughout the trip. Although people were quitting because of their condition and altitude sickness, I didn't want to be one of those six.
So I told the guide I wouldn't ride the horse. I walked for four nights and five days and arrived at Machu Picchu. On the day we climbed up to Machu Picchu it rained heavily. Everything was completely white. It wasn't the Machu Picchu I had dreamed of. Still, it was fine because I hadn't given up. I had arrived here on foot and come to the place I had wanted to visit, so I was satisfied. Then around 10 a.m., as if by magic, the clouds were sucked up into the sky. When the rain stopped and the clouds cleared, the Machu Picchu I had dreamed of appeared before my eyes.
I don't think I've ever cried like that before. At the time I couldn't understand the meaning of those tears — I didn't know whether they were from joy or happiness. Now I know: they were tears of relief. Tears of gratitude. I felt blessed that my life could shine like this...The four nights and five days to reach Machu Picchu were the hardest, and the moment I looked at Machu Picchu was the happiest.
# After My Gap Year: I Gained a Stronger Heart That Can Endure a Little More
If I compare before and after my gap year, ...I think the gap year brought me a little closer to myself. I got to know who I am, what I like, and what I want better than before. As I learned about myself bit by bit, I also gained confidence.Rather than gambling with unknown cards, betting with cards you know increases your chances of winning and lets you be bolder. I have come to know, at least somewhat, what cards I'm holding.But I'm still shaken, wandering, and struggling. Still, I feel like I'm trying to cultivate a steadier heart that can endure a little longer.
As a result, after finishing my gap year I've been doing various things. Traveling the world broadened my perspective when I had only dreamed of being an actor, and it increased the things I want to do. I travel with many people under my own name, write books, hold photo exhibitions, give travel lectures, and through a project called Ploproject I give flowers to third parties to convey feelings and inspiration. I work part-time to earn money and, to pursue my original dream of acting, I also shoot commercials, films, and dramas… I can't describe what I do now as a single job, but my ultimate goal is to experience and learn more of the world and become an actor who makes people cry and laugh.
# A message to those who will take a gap year: Don't accept limits set by others—truly test your own limits!
Try experiencing your own limits. It's really not as easy as you think. I mean your own limits, not the limits others set. To do that, you have to take on many challenges without giving up. Among many challenges there will naturally be things you end up giving up on. There will also be thousands of doubts before reaching that point. If your decision to give up comes after that process, it can become fertile ground—you'll gain the courage to let go and the perseverance not to give up.
Take your time testing your own limits.You'll be surprised to realize there are many things you can accomplish. If you don't challenge yourself, you can't gauge your limits. If you give up, you can't see the end. Only those who persevere to the end can see it.Challenging your limits, not giving up, and seeing it through—there's nothing more great or remarkable than that, I think. Through travel, to look at your true self amid countless environments and situations. I hope you have that kind of time.
This is something I always tell people who are struggling: 'A compass that doesn't wobble cannot point in the right direction.'One day I was mesmerized by the scenery and sounds made by bamboo swaying in a bamboo grove and stood there for a long time. I thought then: if those swaying things are beautiful, then we who are swaying must be beautiful too. Youth is something that wavers. That's why it's beautiful.
Therefore,I hope you don't lose confidence because you're struggling, worrying, or wandering. Being shaken means you're going in the right direction. On the contrary, if you don't waver and walk a path with only stubbornness and obstinacy, you are more likely to go in the wrong direction. You should always question yourself and examine yourself to bring things out.Ask whether the path I'm taking is right and whether it's what I want. It doesn't have to be a shortcut or a road that many people take. Sometimes the wonderful scenery you encounter after taking a wrong turn can be more valuable and deeply engraved. I hope you waver but don't lose confidence, keep moving in the right direction without giving up, and stand at the end.
Lastly, I hope you don't blame your environment. Recently terms like 'gold spoon' and 'dirt spoon' have emerged to describe family background, and I find that very sad. It hurt my heart to see the love that raised us being graded by financial standards. Didn't we grow up because of our parents' hearts, not money? Then shouldn't the criterion be the heart, not money? I think this mindset arose from blaming the environment. One of the reasons I tried to travel alone was because I wanted to feel my own full responsibility without blaming the environment.
Don't blame others and take sole responsibility for the decisions I've made. Travel makes that possible. There are many issues you must decide in a new environment and responsibilities that immediately follow those choices. Through that, I think I learned to blame myself rather than the environment.If I had been a bit more careful, if I had researched a bit more, if I had woken up a bit earlier, if I had arrived a bit sooner, etc. — you learn about yourself by blaming the different circumstances and yourself rather than others. You realize you're more clumsy than you thought, more complacent than you thought, more lazy than you thought. And in doing so, you seem to grow.
I hope we think about what kind of child we are and what kind of vessel we are.Before blaming the spoon that raised us, why not first look at the vessel that will hold that spoon?
Introduction to '100 People's Gap Year'
'100 People's Gap Year' is not about mentors who exist on TV or in books.It's the stories of people who had a little more courage and acted a little earlier than I did.We hope the stories of 100 people who were in similar situations and had similar concerns will provide a small help when you face important decisions in your life.
Recommendations and submissions for the 100 Gap Year are always welcome.
Please leave a comment or a message, or email our marketing manager Da-young Choi (choi@koreagapyear.com)!