Projects
|
FAQ
|
Announcements
#Gained a positive outlook and increased confidence #Experienced the process of pursuing my childhood dream #Felt the freedom of not worrying about others' opinions
I dropped out of high school and started working. What began as serving at a restaurant led to managing the store, and through further experience in the service industry I realized that service work suited me. Wanting to learn properly, I entered university late, but I felt the education was completely different from what I had expected and decided to drop out after one semester. After quitting the job I had restarted, I felt the need to find — or rather, to find and solve — the problems I couldn’t, or hadn’t wanted to, identify: where things had gone wrong.
-A Harvard student leaves for Thailand to brighten the world / Park Mi-ae, gap-year tribe gapper / 12-week gap year |
"An experience you can have in your youth"
It was a keyword I typed into the internet search bar during the gap created after I quit my job.
And thanks to that search I happened to discover a gap year blog.
I dropped out of high school and started working. What began as serving at a restaurant led to managing the store, and through further experience in the service industry I realized that service work suited me. Wanting to learn properly, I entered university late, but I felt the education was completely different from what I had expected and decided to drop out after one semester.After quitting the job I had restarted, I couldn’t—or rather hadn’t wanted to—find where things had gone wrong, and I sought to find that problem.solveI felt I had to.
The first time I sought out the gap year I’d learned about was to get gap year consulting. Originally I planned to look at gap year sites and decide on a project by myself, but it felt overwhelming. I couldn’t easily think of what I liked or what experiences I needed. So I decided to start by getting consultation.
To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations for the consulting.
I had had counseling elsewhere before, so I expected it would be similar. I chose it thinking that even a little help when planning a gap year would make it easier to plan and carry out afterward.
But the consulting was completely different from what I had expected.
First of all, my perspective widened. I had thought of myself as a negative person, but that perception changed and I felt like my life itself changed. Above all, I’m not someone who shares much about myself, but they helped bring out things I couldn’t easily tell anyone and helped me organize them, which I appreciated. Once I made concrete and organized the thoughts and problems I’d only held vaguely to myself,it also clarified what and how I should do going forward..
During the gap year consulting I decided to study language in the Philippines and then intern at an NGO in Chiang Mai, Thailand.I wasn’t particularly interested in volunteering. Even while staying in the Philippines to study language, I often worried and struggled with whether I could really go and do well. But I didn’t want to give up after worrying, so I had no choice but to simply believe.
I was able to adapt to life in the Philippines easily.
My friends were from similar Asian cultures like Japan and Taiwan, so we became close quickly. Although I wasn’t good at English, living with foreign friends helped me gain confidence in English.
Classes are run differently in each class. In my case, I had three hours one-on-one, three hours in a small group, three hours in a large group, and two hours of self-study. On weekends we traveled with friends to islands near the language school such as Camotes, Oslob, and Moalboal.
All the friends I spent time with got along well, but the person I remember most was my Japanese roommate, who was like an older sister. Even though neither of us were good at English, we would spread out a dictionary and talk until we fell asleep every night. She listened well and gave me advice about things I had only thought about alone—trivial matters that friends might say, "Why are you talking about that?"
Chiang Mai, Thailand
After finishing language study in the Philippines, I returned to Korea for about a week and then left again for Chiang Mai, Thailand.
When I started my gap year I didn’t really have any goals I absolutely had to achieve. However,goalarose naturally while having the gap year in Thailand.
In the early days in Thailand, the hardest thing was having to work in an environment where communication wasn’t smooth due to unfamiliar people and language issues. But as I became friends with people little by little and began to hear frequently used expressions one by one, I gained confidence. I also gained the courage to overcome the problems and worries I had in Korea.
My first goal was to fix my habit of being overly conscious of other people’s eyes. I also wanted to see how much I could do in an unfamiliar environment with my own abilities. Lastly, since this gap year was one I had after quitting my job, during this period I wanted to assess myaptitudeI wanted to find it. My gap year in Chiang Mai, Thailand began with three goals.
My first impression of the organization was, ''it''s much more rural than I expected.'' Looking around, there was nothing but trees and grass. But as time passed, I came to like this environment. With clean air, quietness, and a relaxed atmosphere, life here was wonderful every day.
The work I did was for the organization.Photography.It involved promoting the organization using photographs. I worked on the social marketing team: I captured the organization''s events, news, and fundraising activities in photos, edited those photos, and posted them on Facebook or used them in promotional materials. Since I was in charge of taking photos, my work was used in many places and there was a lot to do.
Another project wasteaching Korean.The students were middle and high school kids who liked Korea; when I taught Korean to these kids, younger children would gather around and we would sometimes learn simple words together.
As for a typical day, I usually woke up around 8:30 andwent to work by 9:00.I arrived at work by that time.
Looking at that day''s schedule, if I had to go outto take photographs,I would go out; if not, I mostly used Photoshop toeditimages. I mainly did that. I usually finished work at5:00but on days when I had Korean lessons, I would teach for another 30 minutes to an hour before going home.
After work, I ate dinner with friends, did laundry, or spent personal time.
The friends I lived with came from various countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, the Dominican Republic, and Poland. They were all kind and cheerful, so I was able to enjoy my gap year without trouble. With these friends I often rode motorcycles andwent on trips.We rode motorcycles to hike Thailand''s highest mountain, and we rode to Chiang Dao near Chiang Mai, where we spent a night in a cabin nestled deep in the forest at the mountain''s summit.
During the gap year, the hardest thing was my personality.
Because I was passive and overly concerned with what others thought, I often agonized alone over things people weren''t even worried about. The English difficulties I had at first were also connected to that aspect of my personality.
As for English,I just waited until I could understand. I didn''t get impatient; I kept trying to comprehend when my friends spoke. My friends knew I wasn''t good at English, so they spoke slowly. After about a month of focusing on listening, I began to hear commonly used expressions, gained confidence, and started using English more and more.
Being overly conscious of others'' eyeswas overcome thanks to this environment. There is an episode that became a turning point. Because the overall atmosphere of the organization was autonomous, there was no sense of being rushed, and work proceeded in a free, relaxed manner.
One day, I finished all my work in the middle of the workday and, feeling too awkward to just sit there, I rode my motorcycle out to have a coffee. On the way back I began to worry. Would I be scolded for leaving during working hours? Would someone notice I was gone and look for me? However, when I returned to the organization, there was not a single person who had been concerned about me.
This incident turned out to be a bigger turning point than I expected. I realized that others weren''t worrying about me the way I thought, and once I accepted that, I stopped worrying about other people. As I stopped worrying about every action or expression of others, naturally...MyselfI began to focus on myself — on how I’m feeling now and what I want.
Capturing the growth journeys
of our participants.
