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#I changed from being reserved to becoming more proactive #Experience solving problems on my own and connecting with the children #I gained a lot from the people I met
Before taking a gap year, my goal was to be more proactive and active in everything than I was in Korea — from spending time with people to doing the tasks I was assigned. I wanted to fix the problems I learned about through consulting.
-Make your heart race with music! Cambodian cultural and arts volunteer work / Jeong Sojin, gap-year participant / 12 weeks of gap year |
At first, I was taken aback.
One day, while on academic leave and deeply considering my future plans, I happened to watch a SeBaSi lecture video by CEO An Si-jun.
After watching the lecture, I thought what I needed now was a gap year, so I took gap-year consulting without hesitation. At first, I was taken aback. I was already very shy, so opening up everything to someone I’d just met felt awkward and difficult.
But as the consulting progressed, I liked being able to hear things I hadn''t heard from people around me. Above all, I was able to confront the problems I had held only abstractly and hadn''t been able to define properly myself.
I wanted to fix them.
Through the gap-year consulting I was recommended a cultural and arts volunteer program in Cambodia. I decided to take a gap year without much hesitation because I felt that if I didn''t do it now I''d just return to my old life — that period when I wasn''t making any decisions or taking on challenges.
I had always been interested in volunteering because I was thinking about medical school or pharmacy school. But it was more about filling volunteer hours for extra points than the volunteering itself, and I hadn''t even carried that out. This gap year was a process of putting into practice plans I had only thought about.
Before leaving for my gap year my goal was to be more proactive and lively than I was in Korea — from socializing with people to carrying out my responsibilities. I wanted to fix the problems I learned about through consulting. But during the gap year, while volunteering, there wasn''t even time to think about those initial goals. Spending time with the children and working with the friends I was with, action came before thought more than I expected. Without realizing it I became lively and proactive toward the children and my friends.
The children, the people, and me.
To be honest, when I first arrived in Cambodia I wasn''t sure. I kept wondering whether I belonged there. Yet now that the gap year is over, I have no regrets about the time I spent because I gained so much from the people and the children I lived with there.
The day starts with three hours in the morning teaching kindergarten children. We teach the alphabet and Korean through songs and movement. Elementary school children also start with alphabet learning, and we run arts-and-crafts classes that the kids enjoy. The arts classes include drawing or making fans out of paper and spoons.
Also, after school we had ocarina lessons. I had started playing the ocarina in middle school and brought it prepared to teach the children; they were fascinated and really liked the instrument since they had never seen it before. At first they were curious and tried to blow it, so thinking that would work, I let them play with the instrument to get familiar with it, then taught them the note names.
The most enjoyable part of the gap year in Cambodia was the memories with the people I lived with. I spent the most time with a teacher my age who shared a room with me. We often went into town together by tuk-tuk to shop; she was a great cook and always made me delicious food. She also spoke Korean surprisingly well, which helped me a lot in learning Khmer.
I changed a lot.
From the day I arrived in Cambodia to the day I returned to Korea — that is, the local teachers who were there at the start and end of my gap year — all said the same thing: ''Compared to when you first came you have a brighter expression, you speak more, you''ve changed a lot.'' I, too, while working with the children I taught who had difficulty expressing themselves like I did, and observing their process of change, learned things and had an opportunity to look at myself objectively.
To me, a gap year is
a time when I could work on problems I hadn''t realized I had.
My nickname in my department was ''the chic girl.'' I hadn''t thought much about the nickname and didn''t dislike it. But I came to think that the nickname might mean, ''They want to get closer to me, but there''s a wall around me.''
Now that I''ve finished my gap year and returned, I want to be the one to start conversations with friends. I also want to meet more people and laugh more.
Before taking a gap year, my goal was to be more proactive and active in everything than I was in Korea — from spending time with people to doing the tasks I was assigned. I wanted to fix the problems I learned about through consulting.
-Make your heart race with music! Cambodian cultural and arts volunteer work / Jeong Sojin, gap-year participant / 12 weeks of gap year |
At first, I was taken aback.
One day, while on academic leave and deeply considering my future plans, I happened to watch a SeBaSi lecture video by CEO An Si-jun.
After watching the lecture, I thought what I needed now was a gap year, so I took gap-year consulting without hesitation. At first, I was taken aback. I was already very shy, so opening up everything to someone I’d just met felt awkward and difficult.
But as the consulting progressed, I liked being able to hear things I hadn''t heard from people around me. Above all, I was able to confront the problems I had held only abstractly and hadn''t been able to define properly myself.
I wanted to fix them.
Through the gap-year consulting I was recommended a cultural and arts volunteer program in Cambodia. I decided to take a gap year without much hesitation because I felt that if I didn''t do it now I''d just return to my old life — that period when I wasn''t making any decisions or taking on challenges.
I had always been interested in volunteering because I was thinking about medical school or pharmacy school. But it was more about filling volunteer hours for extra points than the volunteering itself, and I hadn''t even carried that out. This gap year was a process of putting into practice plans I had only thought about.
Before leaving for my gap year my goal was to be more proactive and lively than I was in Korea — from socializing with people to carrying out my responsibilities. I wanted to fix the problems I learned about through consulting. But during the gap year, while volunteering, there wasn''t even time to think about those initial goals. Spending time with the children and working with the friends I was with, action came before thought more than I expected. Without realizing it I became lively and proactive toward the children and my friends.
The children, the people, and me.
To be honest, when I first arrived in Cambodia I wasn''t sure. I kept wondering whether I belonged there. Yet now that the gap year is over, I have no regrets about the time I spent because I gained so much from the people and the children I lived with there.
The day starts with three hours in the morning teaching kindergarten children. We teach the alphabet and Korean through songs and movement. Elementary school children also start with alphabet learning, and we run arts-and-crafts classes that the kids enjoy. The arts classes include drawing or making fans out of paper and spoons.
Also, after school we had ocarina lessons. I had started playing the ocarina in middle school and brought it prepared to teach the children; they were fascinated and really liked the instrument since they had never seen it before. At first they were curious and tried to blow it, so thinking that would work, I let them play with the instrument to get familiar with it, then taught them the note names.
The most enjoyable part of the gap year in Cambodia was the memories with the people I lived with. I spent the most time with a teacher my age who shared a room with me. We often went into town together by tuk-tuk to shop; she was a great cook and always made me delicious food. She also spoke Korean surprisingly well, which helped me a lot in learning Khmer.
I changed a lot.
From the day I arrived in Cambodia to the day I returned to Korea — that is, the local teachers who were there at the start and end of my gap year — all said the same thing: ''Compared to when you first came you have a brighter expression, you speak more, you''ve changed a lot.'' I, too, while working with the children I taught who had difficulty expressing themselves like I did, and observing their process of change, learned things and had an opportunity to look at myself objectively.
To me, a gap year is
a time when I could work on problems I hadn''t realized I had.
My nickname in my department was ''the chic girl.'' I hadn''t thought much about the nickname and didn''t dislike it. But I came to think that the nickname might mean, ''They want to get closer to me, but there''s a wall around me.''
Now that I''ve finished my gap year and returned, I want to be the one to start conversations with friends. I also want to meet more people and laugh more.
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