Realized it's not too late to take on challenges, Busan Gap Year Stay Review :: The Passionate Second City

#Realized I am still young; gained a sense of pride #Learned Spanish and had diverse travel experiences #Became an important turning point in my life

Author: Song Ji-won
Country / City: Asia/Cambodia/Phnom Penh
Views : 3176

I realized that it wasn''t too late — and maybe even early — for me to challenge something new, which made me feel proud of choosing to take a leave of absence. I haven''t yet decided on the career path that is the goal of my gap year, but it''s clear that the gap year program greatly helped me determine my dream. If I had to pick a turning point in my life after a long time, I''m confident I would count these two months of my gap year spent in Busan among them.

- Busan Gap Year Stay :: The Passionate Second City / Song Ji-won, Gapyear Tribe Gapper / 8-week gap year

From elementary school through university

When I filled out the leave of absence form, the first thing I thought was that during this time I should leave Jeonju and experience as much as possibleexperienceswas the idea.

The biggest reason was that from elementary school through university I had never once lived outside Jeonju.And secondly, I felt the need to try living independently from my parents.

Then I came across the gap year and the ''Gap Year Stay'' program, and among many regions I chose ''Busan'', a place I had never been to but had always wanted to visit.

The first week in Busan was pure chaos.

On March 1, 2015, my gap year program began in Busan; I had barely caught a substitute bus after the buses to Busan were sold out, and arrived after about four hours. The first week I spent in Busan was, quite literally, ''chaos'' itself. Once I arrived and tried to make plans, I felt like my head would explode from worrying about how to fill this empty time and how to cover living expenses.

Especially since I came to Busan planning to cover living costs with part-time work, I submitted resumes and interviewed here and there, but there were no places that needed someone for only two months, so I went to more than ten interviews and was rejected. For the first few days I constantly checked part-time job sites several times a day, and my mind was so anxious that even when I traveled alone I would find myself looking up job listings.Then, luckily, I found a short-term weekend part-time job, and from then on I worried much less about living expenses.

Happily and excitedly

Even while looking for work, I thought it would be a shame to come to Busan just to work, so I enrolled in aSpanish language school. Perhaps because I''d wanted to learn for a long time, I was able to study with joy and excitement throughout my stay in Busan. Among the choices I made in Busan, the thing I most want to praise myself for is deciding to learn Spanish.Although the Spanish school registration fee multiplied my worries about living expenses several times over, it was nonetheless an invaluable experience that couldn''t be compared to that.

Outside of classes and part-time work, in my other time I really did my best totravel. Even before going to Busan I drew maps to familiarize myself with its geography. The travel books about Busan that were in the guesthouse were especially helpful. I first divided the city by district and looked up the tourist attractions in each area, and for places that would take a long time I planned to visit them on holidays.

As a result, by the time the two months were nearly over I had traveled so much that there were hardly any places in Busan I hadn''t been to. I often traveled with an older sister (friend), but I also spent a lot of time wandering alone, and during those times I was able to think about many things that you can''t when traveling with others.

There were many truly enjoyable moments while staying at the guesthouse, and I had a great time with the older sisters and brothers. Especially with the roommate sister I lived with, we went out at dawn to buy late-night snacks and had a lot of fun. Thinking that without her I would have spent the two months lonely in my room is horrifying.

I am still young

What I realized most through this program was that I am still quite young and there are countless things I can do. At 22, if I had only stayed at school, by the time I''d be a third-year student organizing school events and taking care of juniors I might have been under the illusion that I had become an adult.

However, during the two months living in the guesthouse, the way the other older sisters and the aunt who helped with cleaning called me was not ''unni'' or ''nuna'' but ''the youngest~''. Even at the Spanish school I was the youngest, the real ''maknae''. When people heard my age they would say, ''Ah! Those were the good days! I''m jealous!''

Realizing that it''s not too late to challenge something, and even that it might be early to do so, I felt proud of choosing to take a leave of absence.gap yearI''m certain I could count them on one hand.