Gap Year In South America, South-East Asia and Europe

Erik spent his gap year on three continents. He learned outdoor leadership skills through a NOLS semester in Patagonia, volunteered on a conservation project in the Philippines and studied Italian culture and language in Florence, Italy. He is a freshman at CU Boulder studying engineering.

Before I begin to tell you about my gap year experiences, I feel like there should be some clarification about what a gap year is exactly. Firstly, a gap year is sort of a misleading term, one that is associated with many types of experiences that all encompass the same general purpose. To me a “gap year” in its most general definition is any amount of time spent away from a person’s normal lifestyle in which they experience new and different things in hopes to broaden their sense of self and of others. I guess the term gap year may have originally only applied to taking a whole year away to explore, but you can apply its meaning to almost any amount of time taken away to explore what is out there. This brings me to the second misconception about gap years. Most people think of a gap year as time spent recklessly or aimlessly wandering about the planet on some crazy youthful journey that ends with the person not really gaining anything from the experience. But really what a gap year consists of is a collection of experiences that help to broaden the person’s senses, expose them to new and different situations, and perhaps most importantly discover things about themselves that they may have never uncovered. This is what one taking a gap year truly sets out to accomplish. It is a way to give yourself a step up into the next phase of your life, to orient yourself towards a more focused and successful future.
Now my gap year experiences begin while I was filling out college applications and having to answer one question over and over. What is your intended major? At the time I had no idea, and I felt like I was being sucked into this next phase of my life too quickly. It was then that I really considered taking a year off from school to see what kinds of things were out there in this world. I started talking with my parents and at first they were hesitant. However, I stuck with it and really did some good research on what types of things were possible. I knew that I wanted to get a wide range of experiences out of my time off so I thought about traveling around to several very different regions. Having always been an outdoorsy person, I looked into several semester long programs offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School, and found one to use as the starting point for my gap year. Once my parents saw that I could really do some great things with my time off, they began to support me more and more. After some time I had come up with a plan that seemed to paint just the picture I had imagined for myself. But my parents still were concerned about what I would do after my time off. I knew that I wanted to go back to school after my year off, so we talked to the school that I had been accepted to and they agreed to let me defer my acceptance for a year until the next fall. That was what my parents needed to have for their own sense of comfort, the knowledge that I was accepted into a school and would have a spot reserved for me when I returned the following year. So after many months of planning, I was finally ready to embark on the first of my new experiences.
In the September of my gap year, I left to partake in a semester long outdoor leadership course run by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in the region of South America called Patagonia. The concept of a semester long outdoors course is to give the students a chance to really develop both outdoor skills as well as life and academic skills. NOLS does an amazing job designing their courses so that students get a full range of experiences from which they can learn many new things. The first part of our three-month semester was spent obtaining our Wilderness First Responder certifications. This involved a 10 day, 80 hour, EMT taught course at the NOLS base camp in Patagonia. We learned many medical skills that all applied to everyday environments as well as the wilderness environment we were about to enter. After this first segment of the semester, we set off on a 30-day sea kayaking expedition along the coast of the southern tip of Chile. During this expedition we learned all about reading charts, route planning, tides, reading sea conditions, handling the kayaks, setting sturdy camps, as well as all about the marine biology and habitats in which we were kayaking. The culmination of the expedition was reaching a gigantic glacier that poured right out into the sea. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, and the satisfaction of reaching such a remote place all under my own power was amazing. The next part of our semester was another 30-day expedition backpacking through the Andes mountain range of southern Chile and Argentina. Again we learned many technical outdoor skills as well as some great life skills such as how to be effective leaders, how group dynamics work and how to function as a single group. The highlight of this segment was being able to ice climb on a glacier using anchors and rigging that we set up ourselves. The final part of the NOLS semester was a 10-day small group expedition. This was an opportunity for us to get into small groups of 4 or 5 and put all the skills we had developed over the course to use. We planned our own routes, organized our own gear, and implemented our plans without the instructors there with us. It was a great sense of accomplishment to be out there on your own, under your own supervision, and feeling safe and secure with your knowledge. Thus ended the first experience of my gap year.
After some time spent back at home with family and friends, I planned it to be about the same time that my friends had off from school for the holidays, I prepared for the next part of my year. I had chosen a location that was quite different from Patagonia, being the Philippines. Originally I had no idea what I could do in the Philippines, but after researching different programs in the region I found a volunteer group that fit perfectly. The group is called Coral Cay Conservation and they run volunteer programs all over the world at different coral reef sites. Volunteers are brought in with or without previous SCUBA experience and trained to do survey work on damaged or endangered coral reefs. I had no experience in diving, but had always wanted to try it and this seemed like the perfect way to get that experience while doing something productive. I was trained to the level of Advanced Open Water diver within a week and within another week knew more about coral reef biology than I ever thought I would. After 2 weeks I was ready to begin surveying underwater. The whole mission of Coral Cay is to provide data for communities surrounding endangered reef systems about the status of their reefs so that they can better protect and maintain them. We worked very closely with local Philippinos and even helped educate many of the children about the importance of coral reefs. It was a very rewarding experience to know that you were doing positive things for both the environment and the community. All in all I spent 2 months in the Philippines and made many memories that will last me my entire life while also learning things that I never thought I would.
For the final part of my gap year, I again wanted to experience something that was different from the rest of my year. So while planning my year, I focused on Europe as my final experience. I felt that spending time in Europe would be a good way to experience a lifestyle that was similar to mine but in a completely different culture. I ended up choosing Italy as the place to spend my last 2 months of my year. I wanted to get a full exposure to the culture in Italy so I decided to do a home stay with a young couple living in Florence. It was a great way to experience how they lived their lives everyday and see what life was like in a different part of the world. While I was staying in Florence, I attended a language school and took classes in Italian. I had no intention of becoming fluent in the language, I just wanted to make my experience that much more meaningful by learning a little bit of the language. The school also offered courses in art, cooking, history, and wine. They also went on many trips to regions around Florence. I spent about 6 weeks living in Florence, and then spent the last 2 weeks traveling around Italy. From my experiences living in Florence I was able to get so much more out of my time traveling the country. I was able to visit almost every region of the country and the time was the best ending to a whole year of similar experiences.
Coming home from my gap year was a bit odd at first. I had been on the go for so long, seeing and learning new things everyday that it was kind of sad to be back to the same old scenery I had grew up in. But really the best part of taking a gap year begins when you return to your home. You have all these amazing memories, useful skills, and a heightened sense of yourself that you can now call upon everyday of your life. It is the purpose of the gap year to really shine only when you have come back. I feel like I have a real knowledge of who I am and what I am capable of now. Thinking back to when I was answering those college application questions, I cannot imagine what I would be like having not taken a gap year. I am now about 2 months into my freshman year of college and the undeclared person that I used to be is now a focused individual with a clear sense of what I want. Everyday I want to learn more and see more, and that energy is focused and directed towards my goals and desires in life. When people ask me about my gap year, I tell them it was the best thing I could have possibly done. The most common response I get is, “Wow, I wish I could have done something like that!” The thing that makes me laugh is the fact that anyone can do what I did. There is such a broad range of programs and opportunities to be explored and people with all types of interests and abilities can find what they are looking for. All it takes is a little perseverance and a little courage and you too can discover the amazing potential of the gap year.