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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
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▶ Go to Sohee Lee's gap year story Part 1 (click)
# [May, Golden Holidays] Calling Busan City Hall.
In May the holidays were long, and because substitute holidays were added, I had days off from school.
That gave me another two weeks or so, and I decided to go to Busan to see my mom and dad.
'What should I do this time?'
I started thinking of fun ideas, and I remembered that my painting had been displayed at Busan Metropolitan City before, so this time I decided to contact them before going.
"Hello. I'm Sohee Lee, who drew the Busan painting last time. I'll be visiting Busan again—if I draw another Busan painting, could it be featured?"
"We would love that! Please contact us anytime if you create a painting~! ^^"
It was amazing how something that had been so difficult the first time came together relatively easily the second time, and I began to dream about what else I might be able to do.
So the next action was...
(Ring ring~)
'Hello. This is Busan City Hall. How can I help you?'
'Hello. I'm a university student, Sohee Lee, who draws travel paintings. I'm calling because I'd like to meet the Mayor of Busan.'
'...A university student who draws paintings... you want to meet the Mayor??'
'Yes! I want to promote Busan wonderfully through my paintings—I plan to do this and that~'
'Ah... I'll transfer you to the secretary's office.'
'Okay~'
.
.
.
'It's difficult for us to arrange a meeting with the mayor as well. I'll connect what you just mentioned to the marketing team.'
In the end, my bold plan to meet the Mayor of Busan did not come to fruition.
Instead, I met with the promotion and marketing team at Busan City Hall, and a three-week collaboration between Busan TokTok and Drawing Grasshopper was able to take place.
In fact, to carry out [Drawing Busan], for two weeks I slept 2–3 hours a day while painting and went around taking photos myself, and no matter how physically exhausted I was, my heart was so, so happy.Even when time was short and I walked around Busan with a map, sweating profusely,the very sight of myself smiling even while sweatingfelt so wonderful.
Staying up all night to do something I had planned myself felt like a meaningful act, as if conducting research for humanity, and running around taking photos made me feel as free as a fish in water.
It was truly a grateful moment to realize that if it's a path I chose, I can be thankful even for the difficult moments.
# [June, the last semester ends] Nationwide Hitchhiking Trip
There were exactly five rules for our hitchhiking trip.
- Travel by hitchhiking and on foot
- Meals were to be arranged by helping out at restaurants
- Sleep in churches, cathedrals, or at train stations
- When hitchhiking, ensure safety by using 'Facebook Live' broadcasting and location-tracking apps
- If we needed money, we would earn it by drawing busking (street art busking).
And we expected that by the end of the trip, everyone would have lost weight. To explain the outcome: except for rule number 5, the hitchhiking trip proceeded according to all plans. And everyone gained 2 kg. Haha.
If I had to choose the two most memorable episodes,
The first is 'the mother and father who traveled with us for eight hours.' While hitchhiking from Sokcho to Gangneung, a black car stopped in front of us.
'We're traveling without a plan; do you want to hang out together?'
The mother and father, who were traveling with no set itinerary, suggested we travel together, and for a full eight hours we sang in the car, went to popular restaurants, and visited tourist attractions. We still keep in touch even now, after the hitchhiking trip ended.
The second is the story of walking nine hours to get from Daegu to Chilgok.
During the hitchhiking trip, we met two people traveling the country on foot in Daegu. We, who had been traveling by hitchhiking, wanted to try moving without hitchhiking, and decided to travel together the next day.
Everyone started walking along the highway carrying heavy backpacks of about 15 kg or more, and because it was the rainy season it began to rain. We wore large raincoats together and walked in a single line, and every time vehicles passed, water splashed onto our faces. We cheerfully stayed moisturized, calling it the 'highway mist'.
In fact, there are so many episodes from the hitchhiking trip.
We pulled weeds at a cathedral and were provided accommodation, helped out at a restaurant and got meals, and we tried 'painting busking' to pay the Seoraksan entrance fee but were driven away when we were told it was legally problematic.
If there is a lesson learned from all these episodes, it is: 'Just try it.'
When we first tried hitchhiking and when we first went to a church to find accommodation, we all started with doubts like, 'Will this really work?' But each time we said and acted, 'Let's just try. Believe it will work and give it a shot,' and in the end more interesting stories were created than we could have imagined.
Even now, when I hesitate a lot, I recall memories of the hitchhiking trip.
'Ah, I did that back then too. It worked when I tried. Believe it will work and just give it a try!'
That mindset makes me—the coward—move again.
I think this might be the kind of gift a gap year gives us.
'A year is a time that, through experiences and thoughts I hadn't tried before and the lessons learned, gives me the courage to choose for myself the path that will make me happier.'
To me, a gap year seems to mean that.
# [July, August] The slump finally arrived
After the hitchhiking trip ended, an inexplicable slump came.
I kept taking small challenges like going alone on a painting trip, applying for the Ulsan calligraphy contest, and emceeing a photo exhibition, but the inexplicable emptiness and fear did not go away.
The reason for this slump became clear around the time my one-year gap year was ending.
#'[September, October, November, December 2016 Time for the final challenge] First exhibition'
Two-thirds of the year had passed with the goal of 'taking on one challenge each month.'
I wondered, 'What should I do now…' and suddenly the thought of holding an 'exhibition' came to me.
Because I had never lived this diligently before, and had never confronted and learned like this before, I wanted to conclude my precious 2016 with an 'exhibition'.
I wanted to bring together in one space the paintings I had drawn over the year, the roughly 370 people I met through the 'Gyeongbokgung postcard sharing' during that year, and my year's story.
When this thought came to me, I wanted to put it into action immediately, but the cost of holding an exhibition was the problem.
After that day, I started saving money by working part-time on weekdays and weekends, and began raising exhibition funds by posting my story on crowdfunding and pre-selling original artworks.
When I received my salary I bought frames; with the next month's salary I ordered custom picture postcards; with the following month's salary I made mugs featuring my paintings — gradually filling the exhibition space one by one.
And then, December 23, 2016 — exactly 365 days since the day I first painted in Jeju.
I held my first solo exhibition.
Through the solo exhibition that took about 3–4 months to prepare, I learned a great deal.
I gained practical experience in everything from producing posters, banners, and tags needed for the exhibition, to creating card-news to share my story for the crowdfunding I started to raise funds, to contacting promotional product companies to produce rewards for all supporters. I also reconsidered all the relationships I had formed during that time and felt sincere gratitude toward those who supported all my challenges over the year.
And I grew that much.Above all, what I learned most was feeling gratitude toward people through the exhibition, which was attended by about 100 visitors, and rethinking my future actions.I realized I am a better person than I thought and was able to be a little kinder to myself.
Thus, my one-year gap year came to an end.
#[January 2017] A slump returns and a new dream
After the exhibition ended, another slump hit me. And I learned the reason.
It's like 'running hard toward a destination, arriving there, then suddenly slamming on the brakes and stopping — the emptiness you feel in that moment'...
When I challenge myself with something I've never tried, I immerse myself solely with the mindset of 'I'll do it well.' Then, when the challenge finishes successfully, the tasks suddenly disappear and a slight emptiness seems to come over me.
Before I knew the reason...I felt scared and pressured by the thought, 'I'm living diligently, so why do I feel empty?' and the impatience that I had to do something made it even harder.
However, this time, because I anticipated while preparing for the exhibition that 'a slump would come after the exhibition ends...' I wasn't as anxious as I might have been.
Of course, not every slump comes for the same reason, but now I can trust myself and wait until I'm ready to slowly start again.
#Concluding the one-year gap year period
What is the first thing we should do in order to find our way?
It's to find where I am standing right now.
To get to the destination I want, I must first know where I am so I can determine the direction to walk.
For me, the time called a 'gap year' allowed me to find 'where I am' and 'which direction I want to go.'
In the future, on the journey toward my destination, I will sometimes get lost and sometimes sit down exhausted. But because I know 'where I stand,' I believe that if I keep walking, I will be able to reach my destination.
My new goal is to become a flight attendant and capture the whole world in my paintings. After that, my dream is to create, one by one, the things I can do with my paintings.
To immediately break away from everyday life, travel the world, and find my path requires a great deal of courage.
However, creating my path by taking small challenges I can do within everyday life was the 'gap year' that suited 'Lee So-hee' best.
If you want to have a gap year but are not in a situation where you can immediately leave your daily life, or you want to find it while maintaining your routine, I want to tell you, "It's okay to do it that way! ^^"
Have the 'gapyear period...! I'm cheering for you! Let's do it together~!
