Believe me, the material for this picture has been four months coming. It looks like a pretty rough jot down of general ideas spanning three months from September to December. And it is, yes, that's what it is.... But this whole planning thing is not as simple as it sounds!
Oh wait, before I overwhelm you with all of my research and emails, let me back up to the spring of 2016.
Yes, I was wait-listed and rejected from more schools than I expected as a rather successful, and might I say a little over-confident senior. I did, however, get into my top three choices at the time and felt sure that I couldn't make a wrong decision in attending any of them. At the same time I never felt the excited nervousness I saw in friends around me when they described their favorite school.
In a way, things at college seemed too familiar. I don't know how else to explain that. Maybe the feeling came from visiting so many, or having three older siblings go through the same process. I think I was scared that I wouldn't uncover anything new about myself if I lived in such a comfortable place for another four years.
I decided that I wanted to be uncomfortable. I never actually gave serious thought to a gap year until this realization and about three average days in April during which this possibility dominated my thoughts almost entirely.
"You could always take a gap year, Lauren." Mom was onto something there! Gretchen took a gap year she will never regret. The word "travel" simply made me so much more excited than the idea of hanging up pictures of my friends on a dorm room wall and eating questionable Sodexo food. Once I started making connections about who else had taken gap years, what they had done, and what I could do, it only took one teary visit to my guidance counselor, AKA second mother, to commit to a whole year of adventures and new surroundings. The tears were "I'm scared-but excited-and very relieved that I have a little more time to think about my future-and proud to tell everyone what I'm doing-and thankful that this is possible" tears, which probably only come once in a life time to a very small percentage of the world's population.
And so realizations arose that I have a whole year that is completely in my power to control, I can make any of my dreams come true (sorry, hopefully that is the cheesiest I will get on this blog). Europe and New Zealand just felt like givens to me, because I adore NZ and there are so many places to experience in such a small continent as Europe. Plus, if Gretchen can do it so can I.
*side note: props to all the first children out there who had to pave the way for their younger sibling[s]. I recognize how hard it probably is to have to set expectations and make decisions, and learn the hard way instead of being able to take note to not make the same mistake as a (nonexistent) older sibling.
As I had more to say than I thought about 'why a gap year', my next post is about plans!
