The Voices Project: Nan on Growing Up and Overcoming Hardship on a Gap Year

Nan’s Gap Year Overview

High school: Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn, NY

University: Stanford 2020

September-December: Ballymaloe Cookery School 12-week intensive course

December-January: Hung out at home

January-May: ISA Spring 4 Semester in Spain at the University of Salamanca

Memorable Moment

Taking a road trip to a food festival in Dingle, Ireland with two of my friends from cooking school. We pulled up to the beach in the dark and slept there in the car, and when we woke up everything was so bright and clear and beautiful; green fields with cows stretching out toward mountains behind us, the sand and gray water in front of us.

We went skinny dipping even though it was FREEZING and not at all sunny (typical Irish weather). Then we went to the food festival and ate all day.

Do You Regret Taking a Gap Year?

Never for a second, even when I dislocated my shoulder in rural Ireland, and it was stuck out of its socket for 2.5 hours because we weren’t near a hospital!!!

Why Did You Take a Gap Year?

A good family friend took a gap year about 5 years ago and loved it, so the idea had been on my radar for quite a while. In high school I took Spanish and French and was getting pretty good at both, but I felt like my rate of improvement had slowed down a lot since I’d learned all the grammar and what I really needed was experience talking to native speakers, which I wasn’t going to have an opportunity to get in college classes.

My parents were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea of me taking a gap year, so the decision was a pretty easy one. How many opportunities are you going to get to travel and learn without worrying about work or taxes? I spoke to a lot of students who had taken gap years and didn’t meet a single one who regretted it–they all raved about their experiences! I also know some people who considered taking gap years but decided not to, and ended up taking a semester or year off in the middle of college.

Originally my plan was to study in France in the fall and Spain in the Spring, but then my downstairs neighbor told me about a cooking program she did in Ireland that sounded fantastic, so I decided to do that.

What do You Wish You Knew Going In?

It’s going to feel like you have all the time in the world, but really the year will fly by! Take advantage of everything as much as you can. Even when you’re feeling lazy, go out and explore! I wish I’d done more!

How Has Your Gap Year Impacted You?

In a lot of ways I’m a different person than I was at the beginning of this year! I’ve gained so much perspective, I’m much more sure of myself and confident and happy in who I am, and I’ve learned what’s important for me to do to take care of myself on my own. I’m sure some of that comes from just getting older, but I don’t see it as much in my friends who didn’t take gap years, and I’m so grateful to have it myself. And I now have an amazing network of friends from all over the world to visit!

Biggest Surprise

Technically I knew that there was a hell of a lot more of the world out there that I hadn’t seen, but I don’t think I understood just how small my world had been (and is!) until I really experienced living in other cultures. The world is HUGE! There is SO MUCH to see, you could spend your whole life traveling and never know half of it!!

Biggest Fears

My biggest worry was that I would feel like I had fallen behind my high school friends and no longer related to them, or that I would feel like I was missing out on sharing the experience of being a new freshman with them. But the fact that I took a gap year didn’t affect my relationships with my friends at all!

Just because you take a gap year doesn’t mean you stop maturing–if anything, I feel like I’ve matured more than my friends have, so I’ve definitely never felt like I fell behind them or couldn’t relate! I talked to them a lot about what was going on with them and they were always eager to hear about what I was doing. I actually feel better equipped to be heading into freshman year now, having talked my friends through theirs and seen what it was like for them. Plus, I got to visit my friends at their schools, which was fun!

I also worried that after a year off I wouldn’t want to do any work ever again, which was ridiculous. Taking a year off and focusing on other types of working/learning (like learning to cook!) really made me appreciate the value of classes and school, and I think I will appreciate and take better advantage of everything I am offered in college than I would have been if I’d just gone straight there.

Anything Else?

Not everything goes according to plan! I dislocated my shoulder at the end of my time in Ireland and did PT for months for it, during which time I tore two ligaments in my ankle and ended up wearing a gigantic boot around for 6 weeks. It’s now May and I’m writing this from my home in New York City, where I’ve just had an operation to repair the damage I did to my shoulder in December.

I’ve really had to adjust to not being able to do everything I want to be doing because I physically haven’t been able to, which was a major bummer. When you read about people’s gap years you usually only get the highlights. There have definitely been really difficult moments for me this year, but all of it has made me grow so much and learn so much about myself and I could not be more grateful for all of it!