My Gap Year

On February 12 2006, I nervously got off an aeroplane and was immediately struck by a humidity and hullabaloo which I had previously never encountered. It has now been ten years to the day that I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City for a week of TEFL training, followed by five months of teaching English in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was to be the start of my Gap Year and most definitely one of the biggest life-changing decisions I have made so far, in terms of becoming who I am and where I am today.

During TEFL training in HCMC

Since then, I have read some negative articles about Gap Years. These opinions are generally based around the belief that Gap Years are funded by wealthy parents who send their children away for a year to “discover themselves” while lazing on tropical beaches. But Gap Years should not be synonymous with teenagers who rely on the Bank Of Mum And Dad to fund drunken binges with other backpackers and getting tattoos or dreadlocks.

Of course, I did drink alcohol during my Gap Year and I did enjoy relaxing on beautiful beaches with powdery soft sand and crystal clear seawater. However, these experiences were paid for by myself and are additional memories to what I would consider a significant life event. I wouldn’t say that I “found myself” on my Gap Year, but it certainly equipped me with some of the life skills required to become more adventurous, self-aware and self-confident. This in turn, resulted in me liking myself a whole lot more.

Some people say that school years are the best of your life, but as a painfully shy teenager who struggled to choose a career path, I found it very difficult to be either outgoing or studious. Disillusioned with my own education and future profession, I decided that I would spend some time travelling. But I didn’t want to just travel to some far-flung location for a few weeks and then move on to a new place. I wanted to get to really know a new country, language and culture.

Luckily, I had heard of an organisation that offered young people the opportunity to do volunteer work in a number of different countries. Latitude Global Volunteering (formerly Gap Activity Projects) offers people the chance to give something back to the community they are visiting, meanwhile meeting new people and beginning to understand the culture and traditions of their Gap Year home. Furthermore, it was a relief to know that I had the support of an organisation, who would help me in the event of any troubles that may arise when living in a new (and initially daunting) country. I was in Vietnam from February to August, so technically it was more of a Gap-Half-Year, but in those six months I had so many enriching experiences.

Having a Gap Year to fund, not only taught me the basics of budgeting, it also gave me something to plan for. As a nineteen year old who was unsure of what I wanted to be in the future, becoming a volunteer English teacher gave me aspirations and a purpose that had long eluded me during my Secondary School education.

It also made me step outside of my comfort zone. For too long I had suffered from social anxiety and worried about meeting new people. I would become stressed about whether or not others would care about the things I wanted to say and therefore became awkwardly silent. Living and working abroad required me to communicate and put me in situations where I had to socialise and make myself heard. I began to see that some people did like listening to me. Moreover, I became unperturbed by people who were indifferent towards me.

My time in Hanoi was special for a number of reasons. I formed a good circle of friends – both fellow volunteers and locals from the capital city of Vietnam. The diversity of the food, landscape and people resulted in me falling in love with Vietnam; which I have written about in a previous blog post here. At the time of writing this blog post, I have been to Vietnam a total of five times. I have learned a few Vietnamese karaoke songs, attended a traditional Vietnamese wedding and gained a beautiful Vietnamese Goddaughter. I will of course return again in the future.

Nhung, Hung and I in 2007

Hung and Chung's wedding, 2009

Tam Dao, 2014

My Goddaughter, Quynh in July 2014

With former student and now friend Quy, July 2014

My time spent teaching high school students in Hanoi confirmed my love of teaching and set me on the path of university in order to become a Primary School teacher. I do cringe when I think back to my pre-teacher training English language lessons in a crowded Hanoi classroom, but it really did cement my enjoyment of helping others. Additionally, the frequent language barrier involved in teaching English to Vietnamese speakers forced me to become more patient.

Finally, my enjoyment of learning so much about a new country and being welcomed into a new community, has undoubtedly contributed to my decision to be a primary school teacher in Beijing, China. My Gap Year gave me the confidence to know that I can communicate, make decisions and be happy in a completely different place to what I am accustomed to. The challenges of being in a foreign place make me a stronger person and for now, the benefits of living abroad far outweigh the negatives. 

My Gap Year affected me in such a positive way that I regularly think about all of the fun activities and events that unfurled in 2006. There are too many friends and fond thoughts to include in this one post. People who regard all Gap Years as unproductive and solely for “lazy rich kids” really irritate me. I would highly recommend a similar “Constructive Gap Year” to anybody who is fortunate and able to spend the time and money on doing so. Whether or not you have hopes for your own prospects, a Gap Year will certainly give you the most wonderful memories of the past and a set of skills that will help you in the future.