When high schoolers start thinking about taking gap years there are many questions that rush into their minds. Can I afford it? Do I have a passport? What if I don’t speak another language? Why not just go straight to college? All of these are valid concerns, deciding to take a gap year is a big choice! But it’s time to dispel the idea that taking a gap year makes you feel behind when, or if, you decide to go to college.
This April, I returned home after eight months living with a host family in Pambal, Thiés, Senegal. I had taken a gap year with Global Citizen Year, an innovative gap year program that helps recent high school graduates engage in the wider global community and become leaders through leadership training, apprenticeships, initiative building, and home-stays. My time in Senegal was everything you expect a gap year to be: full of personal growth, language learning, culture shock, miscommunications, new friends, a new family, homesickness, love, donkeys, heat, and enough sand for a lifetime. Because this gap year had such a big impact on my life, I decided I wanted to continue my connection with Global Citizen Year and ended up being selected as an interviewer for the 2020 Global Citizen Year cohort. During one of my first interviews, I was asked the question, “How does it feel being a late freshman?” This was a unique question that caused me to really think about my transition from taking a gap year to becoming a college student.
Me with my host sister Aunta, Marie, and Cas. (names listed from left to right)
It didn’t take long for me to realize that while in Senegal I wasn’t receiving a traditional form of education, I was learning every single day. Every day I would go to bed mentally exhausted from the day. I was speaking up to four different languages in a day- English with the other fellows and my teaching supervisor, Serer Laala, with my host family and community, French with my Senegalese friends, and Wolof with vendors and taxi drivers. I was always in my stretch zone. I was never 100% comfortable which pushed me to take chances and try new things and not be afraid to fail because if I didn’t push myself, I wouldn’t be comfortable anyway. So why not try to do the traditional dance with all the women in my community? I was always experiencing new parts of the Senegalese culture. From watching a bull be loaded onto the back of a pickup truck to seeing how gender roles affect access to education in Senegal, I was always learning and always pushing myself. This caused me to become more self-confident, a better leader, more willing to take risks and eager to pursue a higher education. Because I want to work with international women’s reproductive health access development, I’ve realized that I need an education that will help me go into that line of work with the ability to make effective, positive, responsible and sustainable changes instead of simply working internationally with good intentions which can often times do more harm than good in the long run, something I saw often during my time in Senegal.
All of these developments and all that I learned from my time in Senegal have come with me into the classroom. Just because I’m coming into school a year later than what’s traditionally expected, I feel like I’m coming in more prepared, more ready to take on the workload of school, more ready to take initiative to become a part of my new school community, and more committed to my education. In nearly every class I’ve taken so far, I’ve been able to relate my classroom education to my real life experience in Senegal. For example, when talking about microfinance in my social entrepreneurship class, I was able to talk about the small women’s groups from my community in Senegal that had a similar technique to support the women’s small businesses. Taking real-world experiences into an academic setting makes complicated concepts much easier to grasp and more compelling to learn about. I’ve never once felt like I’m a “late” freshman. In fact, I feel more prepared and less burned out than I would have if I had come straight from high school.
Speaking of being prepared, another concern I had coming into my first year was the fact that I hadn’t been in a traditional school setting in over a year and if that would make it harder for me to adjust to the workload of college. I’ve found though that it’s been easy for me to transition back into school. There’s no denying that the workload can be overwhelming at times, but that’s a difficulty all college students face. I’ve found that I’ve been able to get back into the swing of things easily and that the amount of downtime my gap year provided me with was actually a break I needed to come back into the school setting more energized and ready to take on the workload of college. I believe a big part of this was the new value I placed on being privileged enough to have access to a higher education which is a mindset I gained during my gap year after seeing how so many people don’t have that same access. This mindset allows me to have a positive outlook on all the challenges that come with being at a very competitive university. Instead of seeing challenges as frustrating or upsetting, I’m able to take a step back and see that at least I’m lucky enough to even have the opportunity to be faced with academic challenges. This helps me keep a level head and allows me to focus on my own goals instead of constantly comparing myself and my academic achievements to others.
Me with another GCY Fellow, Elise, with the Pambal High School English Club after finishing the mural we all painted in their English Club classroom.
All of that being said, it doesn’t mean the transition is easy in all senses. At times, it can be hard to relate to others who haven’t had similar experiences making you feel a bit lonely. But I’ve been able to find wonderful friends, some who’ve had international experiences and some who haven’t! And after my gap year, I really learned about the type of people I want to surround myself with. I know that the people I become friends with are people who will support me, encourage me, be positive, be trustworthy and be open minded. No matter what, you’ll be able to find a community of people who support you.
So don’t be worried that a gap year will cause you to feel out of place when you decide to pursue further education. My gap year opened doors for me, helped me to mature and is overall helping me to better value the education that I’m now getting at American University. There will always be questions and worries when deciding to take a big leap like a gap year, but don’t let being a “late” freshman be one of them. You will be able to thrive both during you’re gap year and in your transition to college.
Photos were all from the author’s personal experiences and are hers.