How to Mentally Prepare Yourself for Your Gap Year
Before you go on a gap year with expectations of exotic luxury and a relaxing year out, take a careful look at what you’re planning to do. Particularly if you’re volunteering on your gap year, you’ll be travelling to some of the poorest regions of the world. Exotic it might be, but luxurious it’s probably not.
Know what you’re getting yourself into. You’ll probably be sleeping in very modest accommodation, without air conditioning or television. Don’t expect hot water or familiar foods. Depending on where and when you travel, you might be doing manual labour in tropical weather where it’s inappropriate to wear sleeveless shirts. You might spend hours in the mud or get urinated on by rehabilitated animals.
If that sounds like something you won’t enjoy, then don’t lie to yourself. Maybe volunteering isn’t for you. If you can’t bear to leave your mobile behind and are terrified of the occasional spider in your bedroom, you might want to think twice about committing to a volunteer experience.
On the other hand, don’t expect the people you’ll meet to be completely destitute either. They may have a far lower standard of living than you do, but they aren’t savages. They have seen westerners before, and you may be surprised to find local children singing pop songs and wearing Adidas T-shirts. You may also be surprised that despite poverty, illness or disabilities, many of the people you meet are actually quite happy.
When going to a place that is very different from what you know requires you to be pretty open minded. There are things in other cultures that we may think are “wrong.” Firstly, you have to rid yourself of this idea. There are many ways to live, loads of possibilities for what to eat, what to believe, who to marry, etc. That yours is right and theirs is wrong is a very narrow-minded viewpoint. Judging and looking down on people will only offend and prevent you from learning anything. Instead, be willing to discuss new ideas, be open to learning about other cultures and respect these differences. Begin getting yourself into this mindset at home, try to get rid of the concept of right and wrong and start trying to see the other point of view.
Also begin to prepare yourself by researching your destination. Know the proper etiquette and customs. Start learning some of the language or exploring the predominant religion.
If you really want to prepare yourself for your gap year, you can always ease off those little luxuries: turn off the telly, take cold showers or give up the internet. If you haven’t interacted much with people who are very different from you, maybe you should try to spend some time with people from a lower income bracket or another race, sexuality, religion or political affiliation.
If you’re not a very social person and you’re travelling alone on your gap year, you’re going to have to make friends. To psych yourself up for this, you may want to try being more outgoing. Perfect the art of small talk and chat with strangers. Practise wearing a big smile and appearing approachable. To physically prepare yourself for your gap year, it wouldn’t hurt to get in shape, since you might be doing more walking than you’re used to.
Everyone has a different experience on their gap year. Some people can adjust really easily to life in a third world country, and some people take a much longer time. Since every experience is different, it’s hard to know what to expect.
Basically, you can try to mentally prepare yourself for your gap year, but the truth is that you really can’t, and that’s probably a good thing. While you don’t want to have specific expectations and end up disappointed, you don’t want to know exactly what’s going to happen either. Part of the fun of a gap year is the surprise and adventure.
