Class of 2015: One Year After The Academy
From Porto, Portugal to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, several members of the class of 2015 have traveled across the globe this past academic year instead of beginning their freshman year in college. Gap years, as their stories and journeys present, remain a viable and desirable option for time immediately after Exeter.
In the past, Exonians participated in various activities and engaged in various events as part of their gap year programs. From working in political campaigns to hiking trips across famous mountain ranges, every self-designed schedule differs from others; diversity characterized the gap years of last years’ seniors as well.
Hannah Sessler ’15, for example, participated in the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program. Sessler, with the intention to learn how to take care of her mental health, decided to take a gap year and first traveled from Porto, Portugal without any set plans, unaware of the fact that “[she] would be meeting [her] boyfriend Rui for the first time, meeting a close friend named Valdemar for the first time, making art and WWOOFing on a farm for the first time.”
“I learned so much about myself, my limits and my abilities, what I need to focus on and the world.”
Sessler noted that the first few months of her gap year revolved around time spent on destressing and unwinding from Exeter—“starting to learn what it was like to not be [constantly] in such a busy, high stress environment.”
“The farm I worked on, called Verde Agua, was a strawberry and grape farm that made wine and took care of sheep,” Sessler said. “It was beautiful in the countryside.”
After Portugal, Sessler traveled to Japan, where she continued her work with WWOOF and aimed to “study Buddhism ... visit temples and improve [her] Japanese.”
She first worked on an apple farm in Omachi city in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. Then she “worked at a bed and breakfast Onsen in Yufuin, Oita, [where she] cleaned, took care of the pet goat and pig and [checked] the chicken pen daily for eggs.” Her final destination was Ichihana, Tochigi, where she continued to work at a farm, owned by a ceramicist and his Austrian wife.
“We did a lot of bean harvesting as well as jam and concentrate making,” Sessler said. “I learned much about pottery and clay, as well as how radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster was affecting locals.”
Sessler concluded her journey in Portugal after spending several months in Japan. During the final months of her gap year, she “focused on mental health once again, learning Portuguese and making art, with the help of [her] friends and boyfriend.”
Like Sessler, Victoria Prend ’15 also traveled to Japan for her gap year. Prend said that because she felt unconfident and unprepared to begin her college life, she decided to go on a gap year. She initially started working at Green Bean to be able to fund a part of her journey on her own. Then, on Dec. 1, she traveled to Japan and spent a few months exploring the island on her own, meeting new people and volunteering at various organizations.
Then Prend traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and volunteered at a daycare center. She emphasized that her days in both Cambodia and Japan were incomparable to anything she had experienced before in her life.
Prend spent the final months of her gap year in various places across Asia and Europe. She noted that though at times figuring out the logistics of her was challenging, the freedom and independence during these last weeks provided her time for introspection and meditation. Along with Prend and Sessler, Harry Tibbetts ’15 was another one of a few members of his class who decided to take a break from school.
Tibbets said that he was “generally disaffected by [his] future plans and took the only opportunity [he] could see to take matters into [his]own hands.” He worked at a Japanese farm then embarked on a journey across Asia and Europe, during which Tibbets crossed paths with Prend a few times in Japan as well as Cambodia.
Tibbets said that “going from Bangkok to southern Cambodia” was the time he remembers most fondly. “I took a seven-legged overland trip with a nine-kilogram pack that included bribing border guards, stay[ing] overnight in the same bed as a Thai doctor who was a political dissenter, [riding] in a truck bed, [riding] on the back of a motorcycle, [riding] in an old Chevy with no windshield all with drivers who spoke almost no English,” Tibbets said. “It was the most exhausting 24 hours of my life but looking back on how I handled myself I could not be prouder and even though I was scared and anxious the entire trip I look back on it extremely fondly.”
All of the graduates agreed that taking a gap year was not only a rewarding, but also an affordable experience. Tibbets said, “It was the most worthwhile thing I have done with my life save attending Exeter. Its costs were minimal and the experiences I had and people I met have fulfilled me and changed me in ways I would never have expected and still don’t fully understand having been home for a few weeks.”
Prend agreed, “It was 100 percent worth it. I met so many amazing people with so many different views on pretty much any topic you can think of. I got exposed to so many situations that I could previously never have imagined and it also helped me to feel a lot more confident about what I’m studying and where I’m going.”
Sessler said that the most important accomplishment of her gap year was “unlearning a lot of the unhealthy notions and habits you [internalize at Exeter],” and that she deemed her gap year as the greatest gift, and opportunity she had received from the Exeter community. “I learned so much about myself, my limits and my abilities, what I need to focus on and the world. I learned especially how important it is to take a break after Exeter,” Sessler said. “I loved it here, besides for campus problems of sexual assault not being taken seriously, and underfunding of the Theater department, but I realized that Exeter is like an abusive ex,” Sessler added.
All of those who took a gap year said that every senior and Exonian should take a gap year. “I would recommend to all seniors to take a gap year,” Prend said. “Just buy a ticket to somewhere and show up with no plans and a backpack.”
“It’s so worth it,” Sessler said. “A lot can happen in a year.”