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[People’s Gap Year] “If you prepare for a long time and work hard, you will definitely achieve it” Yu JiHwang

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Name: Yu JiHwang
Current job: Agricultural World Tour
Status at time of activity: College student
Main countries of activity: Egypt, China, Mongolia, Japan

Q. Please tell us about the reason you took a gap year or the preparation process.

” Ramses, secretly reading between textbooks during class time “
Hello. I am Yu Ji-Hwang, who is currently traveling around the world to learn about agriculture by visiting communities and farms around the world under the team name Emergency Food.

I first had the dream of traveling around the world when I was 17 years old, when I came across a book. I had no interest in studying, so I never really listened to class during high school. Looking back now, I feel so frustrated during class time that I wonder, ‘Why did I hate class so much?’

I didn’t study, but if there’s one thing I did well, it was hiding books under textbooks without the teacher knowing. I started with comic books at first, but I gradually got into deeper books, including magazines, novels, and old books. Later, the teachers must have felt that ‘he doesn’t study’, so they gave up and told me to just read books. They even recommended books.

Among the books I read at that time, there was a book called ‘Ramses’. Ramses is a story that reconstructs the history that took place centered around Egyptian civilization and the Egyptian royal family. Before, when I thought of Egypt, nothing came to mind other than ‘desert and sand’. I also thought that it was a place where people could not live. However, the fact that the world’s four major civilizations were created in such a place and that people lived there was a great thrill to me. In the book, I read about the coming-of-age ceremonies of Egyptian princes who fought and tamed bulls and were recognized as adults, and about Ramses, Anak-Su-Namun, the pharaohs, pyramids, and the Sphinx, and I made a promise to myself that I would definitely see Egyptian civilization with my own eyes. And I exaggerated this promise a bit, saying, ‘If I’m going to go, I have to see all four major civilizations in the world.’

After making that promise, I traveled to Egypt seven years later. There, I heard stories from friends of the same age who were traveling around the world, doctors who had traveled to South America, and brothers who had traveled to Southeast Asia, and I met children living on the street. At that time, I breathed life into the dream of ‘traveling around the world’ that I had only talked about when I was young. And exactly 10 years later, in December of last year, I set off on a trip around the world. Looking back, it took 10 years to gain the courage to travel around the world.

Q. Please tell us about your gap year experience.

” Thinking about others in Egypt “

This is a story from my sophomore year of college in 2010. I was an engineering major, and when I returned to school after being discharged from the military, the professors gave me so much homework that I couldn’t even breathe. I spent the first semester just doing classes and homework. After spending four months like this, I was sitting in the back row for the final exam. I was looking at the backs of my classmates who were diligently taking the exam, and it gave me goosebumps to think that all my friends were sitting there trying to print out the same answers on the exam. They looked like copy machines. It was really terrifying to think that I would have to spend four years of my college life using a copy machine. At that time, I thought, “People can’t be copy machines!!” and with the money I had saved from working for a year, I packed my backpack and ran away to Turkey as if I was running away right after my midterm exam.

At that time, rather than thinking that I would realize or meet something huge while backpacking, I was excited by the thought that I would be able to escape from being a “copy machine.” I still don’t know exactly why it was Turkey. I moved around like a frog in water. I thought it would take about a month, but I ended up traveling around western Turkey in 20 days. Eastern Turkey was a dangerous area to travel to because rebels were stationed there at the time, so I was wondering, “What should I do?” At that time, a woman I met while traveling said, “I’m going to Egypt, so if you want to come, come too,” and left for Egypt the next day. After hearing that story, Egypt, which I had forgotten about, came to mind after 7 years. I was traveling with a female friend, and she kept trying to persuade me to go even though she said it was dangerous and scary. I kept telling her to go all day, and she said, “Let’s go,” as if it was annoying. And the next day, I bought a ticket and went to Egypt.

“I cried so much that I couldn’t speak.”

My trip to Egypt was full of emotions. I’ve been to many countries, but there was no country I loved as much as Egypt. The sight of dozens of people hanging on to a van that looked older than me and the sight of stars that looked like the universe that I saw while camping in the Bahariya desert were like a microscope that revealed the innocence hidden inside people. More than anything, I found a dream that was like a life partner in Egypt.
It happened when I went to the local market in Cairo with my companions. I was leaving because I needed something, and I encountered a heartbreaking sight that made my heart stop. It was after dark and it was almost dinner time. In Korea, it would be dinner time for families to come. I saw a few kids who looked to be 6 to 9 years old get under the car. I thought, ‘Why are they going there when it’s dangerous?’ and looked under the car. But there were kids lying under the car in a row. I thought, ‘No way?’ and looked under another car. As expected, the kids under the other car were already asleep.

I cried so much that I couldn’t speak. I didn’t want to cry because I was embarrassed to show my crying, but I kept crying. I thought, ‘Why do the kids have to go in there and sleep?’, ‘How long have they been living there?’, ‘Will they continue to live under the car?’ And then I saw the kids on the street without protection and thought, ‘They’re pitiful.’ But that was such a stupid thought. The kids under the car were friends or siblings, but they were playing and laughing together. This could also be my imagination, but somehow they looked happy and warm.

At the same time, when I saw those kids, I felt sorry for myself. I felt really pitiful for myself for not being satisfied, being greedy, endlessly dissatisfied, and anxious, even though I had a family to go back to, and was in an environment where I could eat and have what I wanted, and do whatever I wanted. Before I met these kids, I had never cared about others. I had never really thought about people who had a harder life than me. But after my trip to Egypt, I became interested in people in difficult situations. After my trip to Egypt, whenever I had the chance, I traveled to Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines, and met children in difficult situations.

“The Innocence of Children”

I went to the Ulaanbaatar City Orphanage in Mongolia with my college friends to do volunteer work. The children at the orphanage prepared a performance for us when we came from Korea. They played Wonder Girls’ choreography, Mongolian traditional songs, and musical instruments that were popular at the time. And at the end, one child held up a piece of paper full of writing and started reading. The thought crossed my mind, ‘Is she reciting poetry?’ But strangely enough, all my Korean friends who were listening to her reading began to cry.

She read it in Mongolian, but I didn’t know what it meant. I, too, and more than half of my Korean friends who were next to me were crying. I heard later that it was a ‘letter to parents’ asking them to come back, to miss them, and to live together. I’m sure they must have resented their parents for abandoning them, but I can’t forget the sight of them whispering love and hoping that they would come back. I learned what innocence is from Mongolian children. And I made a promise to myself at that time that I would work hard to protect the children’s innocence.

“It hurts both my body and mind.”

I had the opportunity to do an internship in Beijing, China, and I visited an orphanage near Beijing every weekend. I went through an organization run by a Korean person. Unlike typical volunteer organizations that are run on donations, the director contacted the orphanage to check on the necessary items, and the students and workers who participated that day would pay a small amount of money and go shopping together at the market. As a result, I was able to see for myself how the money I paid was being used for the children, and it was a fascinating structure that naturally became transparent.

There were disabled children in the orphanage who were not protected by their parents. There were children between the ages of 3 and 6, and most of them had difficulty eating on their own without help. Since they were weak, I heard that dust was fatal to their health, so I cleaned diligently.

Then the director came and asked, “Do you think something is strange when you see the children?” I thought about it for a while, but I told him that I didn’t know what was strange. “Have you ever seen the children smiling when you come here?” He asked me. I thought about it for a while, but I had never seen them before. All the children were expressionless or kept crying. “The children can’t speak or express themselves yet, but they feel in their hearts that their parents have abandoned them.”, “This orphanage takes in children who were secretly abandoned by their parents in places like garbage dumps and takes care of them. And when the children find stability, they find places to adopt them. The Chinese government provides benefits for adoption, but many children are adopted for adoption benefits and then abandoned again.”, “The children are deeply hurt and don’t open their hearts to anyone. They are children who are in so much pain both physically and mentally.” I felt so sad when I heard this story.
After that, whenever I visited them, I was so worried that my gaze might hurt them that I couldn’t even look them in the eye.

“Thinking about what the children need”

I returned to Korea after finishing my internship in China. While interning, I learned a lot about China, but the time I spent seeing, hearing, and feeling at the orphanage every week really touched me. I felt like I had learned too much to live for my own satisfaction. I started to worry about how I should live in the future. I thought for a long time about what I needed most to protect my children’s happy future based on my abilities.

There was only one thing I could do well. It was dreaming. Looking back on the past, I always ran towards the ‘ideal’, so this time I decided to dream an ideal dream for my children. In this dream, I decided to include the three rights of food, shelter, and education to protect the children’s innocence and happiness. I thought that the ‘right to eat for health’, ‘right to have a place to be protected’, and ‘right to education’ were the most necessary things for the children.

However, I thought that it would be difficult to support these three rights for the children financially and time-wise while working. So I decided to create a farm called ‘Boy’s Farm’. I thought that if I created a farm, grew crops, gave them to the children, or sold them to make a profit, they would be able to eat, learn, and be protected. I had no specific plan on how I would create the farm and how I would help them in the future, but I thought that if I prepared and worked hard for a long time, I would definitely be able to achieve it.

When people around me heard my dream, they said that it would be better to help the children in the form of donations. But that didn’t really resonate with me. Also, I wanted to provide continuous help, not just temporary help. For the past three years, whenever I had the time, I sent and brought essential items such as deworming medicine, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to Laos, but since June of last year, I haven’t been able to send the items because I didn’t have the money. I decided to help the children, but I became an irresponsible adult who couldn’t take responsibility until the end.

“Emergency food?? “

After dreaming of creating a farm, I worked at an agricultural supplies distribution company with my younger sibling, who was part of a team called Emergency Food. In order to farm, I needed to know about agricultural supplies and basic farming funds. While working as a deliveryman, I met mothers and fathers in rural areas. I told everyone I met about my dream. They all said that I was so special and great. However, most of them told me not to farm. They said that if your family had not been farming for generations, you wouldn’t be able to make a living from farming, and they discouraged me. They said that there was a reason why young people leave rural areas, and that I should find another job early since I was young. I was really shaken by their sincere concern. Seeing my wavering heart, I realized that I needed more confidence in farming than my dream, and I decided to try farming myself to see how difficult it was.

With the money I saved from working, I rented a garden near my house and started farming. I grew cherry tomatoes, mini peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and peppers. It was my first time farming, so it was hard, but it was so much fun. Watching the crops grow day by day, both of us burst into laughter. We had never raised children before, but we raised them with love and care, just like our own children. We went there every day to talk to them, played them music, and gave them plenty of eco-friendly nutritional supplements. Three months later, it was time to harvest, and we shared the crops with our family, friends, and professors. We were so proud of the crops we grew, and I still laugh when I think about it.

But after one harvest, our rented farming was over. The owner of the field said he couldn’t rent the land anymore due to circumstances. Although it was only one season, I felt a lot from farming. There were many difficult parts as well as joy. Growing crops with marketability wasn’t easy. Also, it didn’t seem possible to make a profit from the labor and capital we invested.

We decided to take some more time to prepare and jump in. At that time, I was reading a lot of books related to agriculture, and I heard that there was an organization in Japan that was creating 1 million jobs and 100 trillion won in value with agricultural resources. I decided to go there once, pretending to be fooled. I didn’t have the money to go all the way to Japan, and I wondered how I could go, so I participated in a college student dream support program called ‘Asiana Dream Wings.’

“Japanese people’s perception of agriculture”

‘Asiana Dream Wings’ is a program run by Asiana, and the competition rate was quite high because it allowed me to visit other countries. Film, design, woodworking, acting, desert marathon, appropriate technology. Most of the friends who applied had extraordinary dreams and abilities. I thought a lot about how I could go on a dream trip to Japan. I was born and raised on an island in Tongyeong, so I decided to find something that only country bumpkins can do. It’s about 500km from Tongyeong to Seoul, so I decided to ride my bike up there. Through the bike tour, we showed how desperately we needed this dream trip. We spent 17 days, including Jeju Island, sleeping only, traveling around rural villages, and going up to the Dream Wings presentation hall. I think our efforts touched people’s hearts and we ended up going on a trip to Japan.

I learned so much when I went to Japan. Because it is very similar to Korea in terms of geography and climate, the farming methods and tools were similar. However, the types of farming methods and tools were incomparably diverse. One time, I went to a place that sold agricultural supplies, and there was an agricultural supplies mart the size of a large Korean supermarket. They sold everything related to agriculture there. In this way, I could see the traces of efforts to develop agriculture. Japan was even further segmenting, automating, and developing eco-friendly vinyl greenhouse systems, which can be considered the representative technology of Korean agriculture. Traces of agriculture were also seen here and there in the city.

Above all, I remember the people’s perception of agriculture. They knew the importance of agriculture and did not treat agriculture as something unsophisticated.
On weekends, many urban residents came down to the countryside to work, and I was very envious of that sight.
After returning from Japan, I packed my bags right away. I decided to learn more about agriculture and nature by visiting world community villages, farms, and markets. Since everyone in Korea said that farming was difficult, I decided to see how farmers living around the world made a living. I set out on a world tour for 1-2 years to meet and absorb various forms of agriculture.

Q. Lastly, what would you like to say to young people who are planning a gap year?

“Rather than saying something, there are two things I felt while traveling and doing various things to chase my dreams.”

First, get on the road.
Before traveling to Australia and Vietnam, when I heard information or stories about Vietnam and Australia, most of the stories were negative rather than positive, such as ‘it’s dangerous’, ‘there’s nothing to gain’, ‘I got scammed’, and ‘I got hit’. Even before going to Vietnam, I was so exposed to so much negative information that I groaned the day before because I didn’t want to go. However, Vietnam, which I visited in person, was different. There were times when I got scammed by locals or got into fights during my trip, but I really enjoyed the unpredictable moments that happened when I interacted with locals. And I looked forward to what would happen next.
However, this fact was not limited to traveling. I was very greedy and was interested in many fields such as video, photography, writing, art, woodworking, farming, IT, cars, and marketing. During my nine years of college life, I tried them one by one and cut them off one by one like pruning branches. And now, there are only two fields left: farming and carpentry. If you have something you want to do or something you like, but are hesitating because of uncertainty about the future, I hope you will step out of the endless thoughts that come to you or the stories that people around you tell you and take the first step.

Second, find your characteristics.
There are three things I always consider when starting something. Is it something I can do together, is it something I can share, and is it something worthwhile? One day, I discovered that I act very proactively when two or more of these three things are included. In the past, I planned and acted my life based on ‘things I want to do’ and ‘things I like to do,’ but these actions only made me question, “What on earth do I want to do?” So I looked back on my past actions and looked for characteristics hidden in them. And I found the three characteristics above, and these characteristics became the standards for my actions.

Are you also wondering what you want to do? What do you like? Or, if you have too many likes, try identifying the characteristics of moments from your childhood or college years that brought you joy.