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[People’s Gap Year] “Youth Outside the Chicken Coop Becomes NGO CEO” Kim Heebeom

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Name: Kim Hee-beom
Current job: NGO representative (http://www.givueffect.com/)
Activity period: April ~ December 2012 (total 10 months)
Countries traveled: Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Germany, Nepal, India

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

“Unwanted study… a waste of time”
I went to college. I thought it would be meaningful and educational. I thought I would learn how to live well and happily. However, contrary to my expectations, in high school, I only grew a little bigger. So I abandoned school on my own. I also thought that it would be better. So I wandered around school and joined the military. I volunteered for the Marine Corps. I volunteered for the Marine Corps with the determination to suffer, but the training and barracks life were bearable, but what I actually felt during that time was different.

I was a “frog in a well.” At that time, I didn’t even know the concept of a passport or visa, and I had only been on a plane once when I went on a school trip, but the friends I met there were different. We were similar in age, but our experiences were different. None of my friends had been overseas, and they had done a lot of different things. That’s why I felt so small. I couldn’t adapt to college and came to the military, and I felt the same way in the military, so I made up my mind. After I was discharged from the military, I decided to go backpacking. So after I was discharged, I started traveling around the country, then traveled around the country, backpacked around Europe, and went to many places like Baekdudaegan. Then I went back to school.

But now I can feel it. What do I like? I actually went to the electrical engineering department because it was easy to get a job, but it wasn’t something I liked at all. So I made a big decision. I’ll change my major. I’m interested in travel and business, so I applied for a major in tourism management. But for some reason, the school wouldn’t accept me. I still wonder why I failed. There were 10 vacancies, but they only accepted 4 and rejected 6. So I became extremely dissatisfied with the school and society in general, and I quit school.
Studying something I didn’t want to do seemed like a waste of time. So I went abroad for a gap year. It was an escape. I dreamed of traveling the world for a year. But where would be easy to go? I quit my good school and went to a tourism business that didn’t pay well, and I said I was going on a trip for a year. So I lied to my family. I was going to study abroad. I got permission and went to Turkey with a one-way ticket.

Q. Tell us about your gap year experience.

“Leaving without a plan”
I quit my school and left for a trip. Before I left, I was worried that people would give up after making up their minds. I told people that I would go on a trip for a year next year. But as the day approached, I was worried. I didn’t have any travel expenses and I couldn’t tell my family. But then I made up my mind. If I don’t have money, I’ll just go and try it. Many people say that they travel without money, so why can’t I? I had a lot of time but no money, so I walked. From Istanbul, Turkey, the easternmost point of Europe, to Fisterra, Spain, the westernmost town. It’s one continent, eight countries, and a total of 4,800km. I never used public transportation, and I never used hotels or hostels. I tried to solve my problems only through people. After walking for 170 days, I finally arrived. It’s not easy to carry a 28kg backpack and walk 35km every day. That’s the distance you can travel from Seoul to Busan 10 times round trip. The total cost of traveling Europe for 170 days was 700,000 won. It’s ridiculous.

“The ‘people’ and ‘children’ I met”
There were so many incidents and accidents. I made over 300 foreign friends and met many Korean friends. The biggest thing I felt while traveling Europe for 170 days was ‘people.’ I had a strong belief that if I just did well and worked hard, everything would go well, but that wasn’t the case. We have to meet people to live in society, and funny enough, money comes from people. I realized that and found a vision. After traveling in Europe for 6 months, I went to Morocco, traveled to Germany, Nepal, and India, and came back to Korea. I wanted to go to Nepal and India, the poorest countries in Europe. I wanted to see with my own eyes. The richest and poorest countries. I wanted to see different things happening in the same time frame. It was really horrible. I once volunteered to serve breakfast, and hundreds of children came to eat that breakfast. Some of them walked for two hours to eat the breakfast and then walked another two hours to go home. I saw things I had to do. I thought I should at least go to Korea and not complain. I was so engrossed in consumer culture that I didn’t even know what was precious, but seeing those children made me reflect on myself. After traveling for about 10 months, I returned to Korea.

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

“You can only be a chicken in a chicken coop.”
I went to the electrical engineering department simply because it was easy to get a job. Of course, I studied, so I got good grades and received a scholarship. If I had graduated like that, I would have gotten a job anywhere. However, at the age of 24 and in my fourth semester, I asked myself this question. “Hee-beom, you’re still young. Shouldn’t you do what you want to do?” All humans are born as hawks that aim for prey 30 meters away, but school and society turn us into chickens that chase after things 30 centimeters away. School is a chicken coop. You can only be a chicken in a chicken coop. Through this question to myself, I made a promise to myself that I really had to do what I liked while I was young.

Actually, I’m anxious. The thing I really liked was a major that was far from getting a job and it didn’t make much money. On top of that, people pointed at me and said, “Why are you doing such a thing?” But think about it seriously. You live your own life, not others. You have to do something you enjoy yourself. If you do something you enjoy just to show off to others, you will eventually fall apart. That is why people who were doing well at large companies quit, and I was the same. When I said I was going to do tourism management, everyone tried to talk me out of it. They told me to just graduate and get a job.

But what is the result now? I didn’t even graduate from college, and I don’t have any qualifications or TOEIC scores, but now I am invited to give lectures at companies and I am being scouted by several companies. Of course, I get a salary from a large company. The bottom line is, find something you like. If you find something you really like, enjoy it, and work hard, the money will definitely follow. If you haven’t found something you like yet, take a gap year.
Don’t drag it out, take a break from school right now and try everything.
Finding good people requires meeting a lot of people, so how is it different for a good job? Try a lot of things.