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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
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For me, leaving the country was the beginning of a journey, and I have simply been continuing that journey ever since. My current goal—and the biggest change since taking a gap year—is that if a decision is already made, don't make a U-turn; just keep going straight. Lately, especially proud of what I do, I really feel like I'm flying. - Heo Gan, Gap Year Tribe Gapper |
1st Gap Year Tribe GapperHeo Gan
Gap Year Activity School:Alternative Travel School
Currently, in South Korea,
60,000 middle and high school students drop out of school each year; 346,000 people in their twenties are just idling 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 not satisfied with their college life, and more than 80% of workers say they do not feel 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 as well.
'Gap Year (Gapyear)'is a period to either combine studies and work or to pause temporarily and engage in various activities such as volunteering, travel, internships, education, or starting a business,serving as a time to set the direction for the future; it is a culture encouraged in the United States, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.
*Visit the Gap Year website to learn about various experience opportunities!(Click)
# In fact, at that time I...I needed a school that would help me find my dreams and aptitudes, and I wanted to go.
I may have been different from others in some ways, but I kept my educational options open, and my parents thought the same.I believed that schools are not limited to regular schools. There were alternative schools, homeschooling, and community-style education; each school simply offered different things to learn.At that time, I...I think I believed that I could treat high school itself as a gap year period and start studying for entrance exams later.
As I kept searching for a school...Two schools lay before me. One was a boarding school that prepared students for the college entrance exam so they could attend their desired university, and the other was a travel alternative school that studied on the road. Each school had pros and cons, and they weren't necessarily places I could attend just because I wanted to.
In fact, at that time I...I needed a school that would help me find my dreams and aptitudes, and I wanted to go.I questioned whether general public education—subjects like Korean, math, history, and science—could draw out this potential, so I sought schools other than regular ones.But I remained conflicted.
This seemed to be the crux of my dilemma: whether to spend high school finding myself and exploring my dreams, or to enter the university that everyone goes to. If I chose the former, what risks would I take on; if I chose the latter, what regrets would I have? The studies I would do in high school were extremely important to me, so I worried a lot.
Before I submitted my school application, I attended an admissions information session for the travel alternative school. Among the many things they said, the line that stuck in my ears was that here you study, meet people, listen to their stories with your heart, and write down that resonance in words.
I thought those words were so beautiful. I couldn't fully understand what "writing the resonance into words" precisely meant at the time, but the phrase itself resonated with me. Traveling while writing, taking photos, and traveling long journeys with friends seemed so much fun to my younger self, and I became convinced it would be a good experience. So I filled out the application, had an interview, and was admitted.
# I just want to travel to broaden my perspective and reflect on myself first.
Korean society dismisses people who don't follow the path everyone else takes, those who study differently for whatever reason.To be more precise, they're looked down on because they lack the commonly known basics.
That's right. I don't know math. I don't know geometry and vectors, and I don't know how to thermally decompose sodium bicarbonate. But through the pain of our country, I met ethnic Koreans from the former Soviet Union whom people now do not remember, heard their stories and reflected on myself; I saw Jeju Island, an island of hopeful dreams, not just as a place for tourism but as holding the tears of the April 3 Incident, and in that I saw human cruelty and my own selfishness.
I didn't come to the alternative school as a challenge. It's about learning different things and having different priorities. Students at regular schools study to go to university first, and I just want to travel, broaden my perspective, and think about myself first.There's no need to look down on someone for not knowing, and no need to be disappointed for not knowing. I think we should come together, teach one another, and live together.
#Finding dreams through experience. This is the method that suits me best, and I learned that it is more valuable than any study.
The travel alternative school I entered by choosing the path of travel was very different from how it appeared on the surface. When I set off on my first trip to Jeju Island, I had a strong desire to gain something. So I participated wholeheartedly in everything, and I overdid it to the point of getting sick.
I think I expected absurd things like finding my dream immediately upon enrolling. However, what I learned at school were things I had never imagined.For example, by seeing the pains in history and the history that continues to the present—the so-called living history—and empathizing with those emotions, and by living with twenty-two friends for a month, I personally felt the difficulties of human relationships and the process of overcoming them.
I traveled a lot, but one of the most impressive trips was a week on the Trans-Siberian Railway.This train is truly special. I could see my own end and my friends' ends. Also, because it was a route once traveled by ethnic Koreans from the former Soviet Union, the emotions that came to me became more complicated.
The week on the train, spent with two friends including myself, was wild. From mornings that began with the sound of farts to not being able to tell the current time because the train crossed time zones in reverse—so when the meal bell rang we ate lunch or dinner—the foul smell from unwashed hair, and the starlight that gradually sent its glow after the sun set—the fantastic Siberian train was truly fantastic.
Moreover, being on the route of the forced deportation of ethnic Koreans from the former Soviet Union that we were studying, I felt like a link between past and present. The people who would have brushed past these mountains and fields, trembling with anxiety not knowing where they were going, clinging to the warmth in their bodies to survive cold nights together; and me, thinking of them inside the warm train, going to meet them. Empathizing with people of the past was more astonishing and precious than any fresh experience I had until then.
In the end, these small actions and thoughts came together to create experiences and allowed me to find what makes me happy and joyful. Finding a dream through experience—this is the method that suits me best, and I also learned that it is more valuable than any study.
#By meeting many people, I learned how to convey my feelings, and I came to understand, just a little, how to empathize through travel.
I like people. I really enjoy talking with people and tend to be talkative. Maybe that's why I'm very sensitive to people's stories.
When we went to Samarkand in Uzbekistan, I met an older sister who was a university student and an ethnic Korean living there. She guided us and told us the story of her life. Although she had lived there from birth until now, life as an ethnic Korean in Uzbekistan was very different.
Discrimination arising from different ethnicities was still present, and although they lived in the same country, were born there, and were citizens, their culture and way of life were completely different, she said.
In particular, when she said, "No matter where I go, I'm a foreigner. When I walk around my neighborhood people sometimes greet me with 'hello' (a Japanese greeting). I'm not Japanese, and even if I go to Korea, I'm still a foreigner," and when I heard that about a hundred of them now live in Samarkand and that they were preparing to emigrate—that their migration story was not yet over—I cannot forget that moment.
And the confusion that came to me was, 'Why am I feeling sad? Why am I hurting? Is it right for me to do something for them?' We felt pain together and were sad.After returning to Korea, to keep that connection from fading, we prepared a play about the ethnic Koreans and expressed the stories we had seen of them through the play.
Of course, we know that just because we performed a play and the audience learned a little about the ethnic Koreans, it doesn't mean that that sister's life will change.But if, even a little, our—my—feelings were conveyed and if that gave them strength, I think I could be satisfied with that. In this way, by meeting many people, I learned how to express my feelings and came to understand, just a little, how to empathize through travel.
# Realizing that I could do it was a huge opportunity for me.
We focused on people's stories, on people's lives and the lives they would live afterward.We traveled like that, prepared for trips, and after returning we produced results in various forms such as videos, guidebooks, exhibitions, photographs, theater, and music. These thorough preparation processes, the trips, and even the communal living we had to do were all great opportunities for me.
Through new methods of study I had never tried, beginning to pick up books I hadn't read, and listening to histories I had previously had no interest in, new versions of myself began to appear. I liked it. I was proud of myself.
Realizing that I could do it was a huge opportunity for me. That meant, in short, that I had a major experience showing I could do whatever I set out to do. Going abroad to study during my adolescence, encountering the world firsthand, and learning to listen to the wind and the sound of water.And I was truly happy to be able to do this kind of study with people like my parents, who were always a strong support behind me enabling me to attend such a school; the confidence in myself became a very important foundation.
# In a way, the story I have been telling might be seen as portraying an ideal life.
People often ask me this question: "You might fall behind others in terms of qualifications—can you handle that?" Honestly, this is a realistic concern that can't be ignored.
As I said, my story may seem to depict an ideal life. And everyone knows, as do I, that such ideals are hard to survive with in Korea—at least from society's point of view.
The Korean society I see seems to live by pursuing money as the first goal. It's true that you can't live without money. But I don't understand a society where getting a job at a large corporation is the dream. I think a dream or a job should naturally include happiness, enjoyment, and time for oneself.
I believe that, at the very least, whether you have money should not be the primary criterion for choosing a dream.But reality is different, and I began to see people increasingly dominated by money. I simply didn't want to be like that. I really like money. Delicious food, stylish clothes, cars, houses—all require money, and these things especially raise my self-esteem.
However, II decided I would never live a life led by money.There are many temptations of money and many apparent ways to earn more now, but I decided to trust myself and follow my own path. To summarize, rather than placing money as the primary goal when envisioning a job or future, I believe that if I do what I want, it will be more efficient and money will follow.
'Read the Mind of Money' has the subtitle 'Then the world's money will follow me,' which is a phrase I really like. It's also a phrase you often see on TV or the internet these days. 'Don't chase money; let money follow you.' With that mindset, I will take hold of one thing to do and see it through to the end. I like money, but the value I pursue is not money.
▶ Go to Heo Gan's gap year story Part 2 (Click)