Voices Project: Kempie Blythe on Redefining Paradise

I remember that day vividly. I was on a road trip down the East Coast visiting a few friends who had just started college. Before I left Baltimore, I squeezed in breakfast at a local diner. In between bites of eggs and hash browns, I glanced up at the TV and assumed a “Die Hard” movie was playing, though 9am seemed a little early for the Bruce Willis franchise. I got in my car and headed south through Washington D.C. only later to find out the images I had seen were the Twin Towers falling. It was September 11th, 2001. Six days later, I would board a plane bound for Micronesia to begin my gap semester teaching English on a remote island in the Pacific.

When I look back at the palm tree lined beach brochure for my gap semester, I cannot help but chuckle. I remember thinking…

… I will be living in paradise!

While I had a life-changing experience, my gap semester was far from paradise – constant mosquito attacks, giardia, an ulcer, isolation, absence of a sanitation system, and unwanted sexual advances were just a few challenges I faced. There was one satellite phone on the island that I used twice during my three month semester and the boat that collected mail came every month or so. Despite these challenges, I loved my experience – my host family, living on an island that had little use for monetary exchanges, my daily cups of coffee with the chief, teaching my 8th grade class (pop. 3), and swimming in the ocean every day (and dare I admit pooping in it as well)!

When I returned to the States, I entered a new America filled with tangible patriotism coupled with fear and growing xenophobia. Although only three months had passed, I had missed a critical shift in American history. I did not know it at the time, but this experience would lead me to study comparative religion in college, study abroad in Morocco and later lead gap year programs in Morocco as well.

My hope was (and still is) to build bridges of connection and humanity amidst confusion, misunderstanding, and fear.

My gap semester was a time of deep personal development and growth in which I expanded my understanding of a world outside of the one I had known; challenged my assumptions; explored my own conceptions of self, and learned to sit with myself. Since my gap semester, I have traveled, worked and lived in many countries, but to date, this experience was the most memorable – partly because it was so far outside of what I knew, but also because it was a moment particular to the development of my own identity in the world – a time in which I had the luxury and privilege of exploring who I was and wanted to be.

Over the past decade I have worked with hundreds of high school, gap year, and college students in the field. Although my first job “in the field” just happen to be with gap year students, I was drawn to working with this age group in part because of my own challenging, yet transformative experience.

I also recognized how valuable a facilitator, mentor, and guide would have been during these difficult, pivotal moments.

Although my own experience lured me in, the qualities of this particular group of students kept me returning semester after semester. Their openness and curiosity to explore themselves; to examine their role in the world (beyond the cultural safety of their homes); to struggle with and try to understand difference; to embrace vulnerability; and to make meaning and use of any source of knowledge or experience inspired and motivated me.

Although students enter gap year programs with certain qualities, it is my opinion that the leaders of these programs greatly contribute to the “transformative” element of these experiences. As a facilitator, I meet my students where they are individually and collectively at, foster the development of the necessary hard and soft skills they need to thrive in their new surroundings, support them when they need assistance, yet also challenge them to push their limits of personal growth. It is managing this delicate balance of enough challenge and support for each student as well as the group that makes the role dynamic and the responsibility great.

As a leader, I am entrusted with the task of creating access to disorienting, yet enriching experiences and then helping students reflect on and eventually incorporate their new understandings into their lives abroad as well as providing the tools to help them continue to process at home. This is no small feat. At times I succeed and other times I did not. It was often an imperfect, non-linear learning process. Family, friends, and acquaintances would praise my role as a dream job – and while I do not dispute that – it, like my experience in Micronesia, has not been paradise – there has been sickness, struggle, and risk. But it has all been worth it.

Leading these experiences has also been transformative for me as a leader and a person. It has challenged me to become a better version of myself – more empathetic, compassionate, grateful, and curious. Each student prompted me to think differently and embrace new ways of being in the world. The role challenged me to be confident in myself, my abilities, and my decisions. It also challenged me to be vulnerable and embrace my weaknesses in an environment of growth. Every student uniquely reflected my own image back to me – reminding me of the ways I needed to continue to seek greater understanding and awareness. I am grateful to have worked in a space where my professional development was so deeply intertwined with my personal growth.

My own gap experience led me to my career in international experiential education, but my quest to know myself more fully and understand diverse and unique perspectives motivated me to continue in this pursuit. In no other role have I had the privilege of working with and learning from such exceptional individuals – students, colleagues, and host communities – and furthering my own development as a human. While none of it has been my initial vision of paradise, it has been my own personal mosquito-laden beach – imperfect and challenging, but more than worthwhile – continually pushing me to become a more authentic version of myself.