8 Women Predict What Malia Obama Will Learn During Her Gap Year
Before Malia Obama heads to Harvard, the first daughter will take a year off to explore the world - and herself. After all that collegiate prep, more college-bound students are taking time to mind the gap between high school and adulthood (we all deserve some slack). Even Emma Watson's taking a yearlong "break" for personal development. Here, eight ladies who took gap years share their takeaways from that oh-so-important, life-changing transition period full of fantastic memories, bouts of loneliness, and maybe, no regrets.
"I thought I wanted to study marine biology. I went to an aquaculture research center in Oahu. I got a sense of people in the working world, and was able to follow up on an interest and check it out. The second part of my year was an academic cultural program in Greece and [I] came away really excited about learning for its own sake. And I took another one after my sophomore year. There are lessons from everything. You're going to get a lot of information in a short amount of time and everything you do goes on a résumé. Those two gap years are still really vivid [for me] in a way classes tend not to be." -Holly Bull, president of Center for Interim Programs
"I spent my gap year taking acting classes in New York, my hometown, volunteering at an NGO in Ghana, working at a horse farm in France, and teaching English in South Korea. It was, of course, incredibly amazing, in many ways. I was exposed to an incredible amount of stuff in a short amount of time. That said, I was often really, really lonely, and it didn't help that most of my friends were now at college, picking their majors, making lifelong friends. My life, by contrast, seemed to be on pause. If I could do it again, I would've spent that year in one place - I would've really learned French or I would've stayed at home and gotten some work experience, maybe traveled a bit in the summer." -Emma Windsor Wood
"After years of over-achieving and under-adventuring, I pulled a 180 on my life to slow down and experience life. I escaped to the mountains where I transformed from honors student to ski bum, working odd jobs and living in a cheap apartment. My gap year not only gave me the time I needed to relax and reload, but it also gave me a taste of freedom, adventure, and life that most don't get until retirement." -Kate Lysinger
"I had the opportunity to travel, live, and work in 15 different countries on four different continents in the span of 13 unforgettable months. I worked in a rural hospital in Tanzania and assisted in delivering a beautiful baby girl. I worked alongside lions in Zimbabwe getting to walk with them, feed them, and give them daily medications. I bungee jumped off of the biggest bungee bridge in the world! I backpacked through southeast Asia and became a travel connoisseur. I met the most incredible people on this planet while embracing beauty I did not before know existed. I gained invaluable internship experience that has led me to get awesome jobs in college." -Shelby Booker
"I really started to struggle with dyslexia and ADHD, so when it came time to apply for school, I opted to just focus on finishing high school and then reevaluate how I felt about continuing my education after a year of working. Having always nannied during summers and babysat during the school year, that was a natural transition to do [it] full-time. After working for six months, I booked a solo summer Euro trip. I decided that the idea of going back into the stressful school environment just wasn't for me. There are times where it's tough but I truly think taking the time to see what I wanted out of life has led me down a path that is truly what's best for me." -Tori Moore
"I took a gap year upon graduating from college working as an English teaching assistant in Altkirch in the Alsace region of France. As the only American, I had the advantage of immersing myself completely in French, which really improved my language skills. The main lesson I learned was that learning to be an adult while abroad can be challenging, since you are far away from your support system and have to navigate the world in a foreign language. Still, I found it to be a very empowering experience because now I'm much better at life in general, and at teaching, budgeting, and planning long trips. Working abroad, especially in a rural area, took me outside of my comfort zone, and I grew as a person because of it." -Molly Montgomery
"I spent time in Australia, Costa Rica, Italy, France, Barcelona, New Zealand, and Fiji. I also experienced loneliness that I could not have previously imagined. This loneliness was so important for me to experience because it forced me to create my own happiness and taught me self-reliance. When I arrived at school, I was more able and inspired to complete my work because of how grateful I was to have been able to escape from academic stress for a year. I also feel like I have a healthier perspective about what I want out of my college experience than I would [have] if I had gone directly from high school." -Serena McNiff
"Started out in Spain, where I had spent my senior year of high school, because I wasn't quite ready to leave my Spanish boyfriend or the idea of bohemian poverty, but after a few months, ended up listless and going back to my native China to reconnect with my roots. Was by myself when the magnitude [7.0] earthquake hit Sichuan and ended up joining relief efforts, which put me in direct contact for the first time with the military of any sort. From there, I started getting really interested in civil-military relations, which eventually led me to taking classes in counterinsurgency, post-conflict reconstruction, and related topics in university, which in turn brought me to Afghanistan, where I ended up moving and starting a business. It was pretty life-changing, though not in the romantic way I thought it would be." -Eileen Guo
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