KGY Tips

[People’s Gap Year] “Even if I take a break or go back, I can still get there” Park Haeri

Back to List

Name: Park Haeri
Gender: Female
Occupation: College student
Country of activity: India

Q. Please tell us about your gap year preparation process.

A. Because my college entrance exam score was not satisfactory, I couldn’t go to the university I wanted, and I wanted to go to the university I wanted through a half-year, but the half-year result was not satisfactory either, so I was too tired to repeat the third year, and I wanted to take a break while taking a gap year. And I wanted to think carefully about what I really wanted to do from the beginning.

However, I took a gap year without any preparation, so my anxiety about the future continued to grow. I vaguely thought that if I went on a trip, things would be okay, so I just left. After I came back, I decided to repeat the third year, but in the end, I didn’t repeat the third year, and I don’t have any anxiety about my qualifications now. Through this experience, I was able to get rid of my fear of various jobs, and as I looked at the wider world, I realized that qualifications are not that important in life.

Q. Tell me about your gap year.

A. First of all, I thought that if I hadn’t taken a gap year, my life might have been really boring. I thought that the college entrance exam was everything in life, and for the first time, I felt ‘failure’. I only felt despair. I lived with the thought, ‘Oh, the heavens are so indifferent. I studied so hard, but did they give me this result?’ However, after taking a gap year, I now think, ‘Taking a gap year was a golden opportunity.’ ‘What if I had gotten into the school I wanted?’ ‘What if I hadn’t taken a gap year and had just been satisfied with my school?’ I wonder if my life could have been this different. I probably would have been full of myself and not been afraid of the world, or I would have been going from one academy to another during every vacation, trying to build up my resume like everyone else. However, through my gap year, I experienced how vast the world is and how many things I can do there. What I wanted to find the most while taking a gap year was ‘What am I living for? Who am I?’ Of course, it is difficult to find the perfect answer to a question during a gap year. However, I think that there is a difference between someone who has never thought about it and someone who has thought about it for 1-2 years in advance.

I went on a trip to India in 2011. During the two-month trip, I spent one month traveling and one month volunteering at Rogpa, a cafe that raises funds for Tibetan refugees. There, I met a monk, taught math to a young monk, worked part-time braiding dreadlocks, and spent time with Tibetan friends. Then one day, while riding a rickshaw, my brake belt came off and I crashed into a wall on a downhill slope. I wasn’t seriously injured, but since the hospital facilities were not good, I went around to receive treatment by relying on folk remedies, and I had many thoughts. I thought, ‘You never know when or where you will die in life. What’s the point of taking the CSAT again when you don’t have anything you want to do?’ So I gave up on taking the college entrance exam a third time that year and decided to spend a little more time for myself. After returning to Korea, I took time to learn more about myself by doing internships and part-time jobs.

In August 2012, I finally went back to school after finishing my two-year gap year. My perspective on the world changed. I went back to school with the thought that ‘my background and the idea that my school is third-rate makes me third-rate. A person who does his best on the given stage is first-rate.’ Now, I live with the expectation of what kind of fun things I can do next, rather than vague fears about the future, based on my gap year experience.
My goal of ‘going on a trip every vacation’, and my major and double major (non-mainstream language & linguistics) that are far from employment. People might think that I have no intention of getting a job, but one thing is certain: the reason I live my life is not to get a job. You need to have various experiences to find what you truly want to do.
Saying that I don’t have time or money is just an excuse. I also bravely gave up at the crossroads of taking the third year of college and took the time, and since I didn’t have money, I earned it on my own, and even now, I travel to many places on my own during every vacation.
The position you are in now is the result of your own creation, whether you wanted it or not. If that position doesn’t change, it’s time for you to change. Think about it. ‘What am I living for?’ If it’s hard to answer this question, isn’t it time to take a break for a bit?

Q. Lastly, what would you like to say to young people preparing for a gap year?

A. Isn’t it a waste of youth to let it go without taking a gap year? Invest just one year in the 100-year era. One year in your 20s is different from one year in your 80s. One year now can change the value of the rest of your life. If you do it later, it’ll be too late.
Why on earth do you run so hard? Even if you take a break or go back, you can still get there.