When high school had run it's course, I was spurt into the big wide world, confused, unconfident, and entirely unsure of myself. I didn't know who I was, or what I wanted to do with my life - which had me questioning what the whole school thing really did for me.
Tutorial mode was over, and the world's spinning eyes were staring at me, unforgiving. I recoiled in terror - I had nothing to fight with, no skills for basic survival in the modern world. Physically weak, socially awkward, lazy, and unconfident, I knew that University would crush me. By the end of my school years, I still had no job, no girlfriend, no drivers license, and no real ambition. I declared myself in desperate need of training. Real life training. So, I took a working gap year.
A gap year is such a brilliant thing. It's like a pause button that you can press after high school, or any institution for that matter. And instead of proceeding to the next racecourse, you rest in the pitstop for a year, and go do something awesome. For me, it was a chance at redemption. What's one year in the grand scheme of life? I thought. I saw it as a chance to train my life skills, learn some valuable lessons and prepare myself for the big dance of life.
I took this endeavour quite seriously too, making a list of goals and really investigating how I can improve myself. I stumbled upon the realm of 'self help', which was all about getting more control over the various elements of your life, like career, health, finances, and relationships. This really resonated with me, and I was thrilled to discover that it was certainly possible to train these life skills, and that all I had to do was read the books, watch the Youtube videos, and do what they were saying.
And when I was delving into these ideas of self-help, all I could think of was 'why didn't they teach this stuff at school?!' I really felt like this was the path that I should have been following all along, because I was fixing all the areas of my life that were previously disregarded, and evolving into a better version of myself.
Since I was venturing into unknown territory, the first two months were shaky. But otherwise, things went remarkably smooth. It was all kicked into motion when I landed the perfect job in a humble cafe called Ristretto, as the dishwasher. It was a start, and the most necessary one too, because I was forced to the adapt to the demands of a full time working life. A level of discipline, duty and work ethic was required of me, and I met with the challenge at 7:00am every day. And as if rewarded for my willingness to improve, I was quickly thrown into the deep end and forced to operate the till due to unforeseen issues with the previous till girl. To meet with the social environment face to face was stressful and challenging at the time. But in fact, it was a blessing, and a perfect opportunity for me to develop my social skills.
I saw a flourishing in my confidence as a result of my noticeable improvements, and things seemed to only get better. I was earning money for the first time ever, and it was nice to have the freedom to spend and enjoy certain momentary luxuries. But I found more fulfilment in saving my money up as an investment for something important later down the road.
By the end of the year I had achieved all the goals I set for myself, and far exceeded my expectations. And so I found myself on the opposite side of the spectrum - feeling confident and absolutely sure of myself.
Working in the cafe really paid off too, because I discovered that I actually really enjoyed hospitality, and was pleased that I had found a career path to follow that was somewhat aligned with who I was. I enrolled into a hospitality college in Queenstown, and was even lucky enough to receive a scholarship. I couldn't have been a happier and more assured man. In my gap year, I seemed to alchemise myself from a confused boy into a young man.
And that was probably the biggest lesson - that it was possible to evolve into the person I knew I could become. And it seemed that the more I improved, the more genuine boons I received - boons like confidence, happiness, contentment, enhanced enjoyment of life, and self-awareness. I really felt that self-improvement was the ultimate key to unlock a truly rich life. I was able to discover and fully embody this all thanks to the gap year.
With my weaknesses cured, the time had come to leave the roost, and journey onwards to Queenstown.
Tutorial mode was over, and the world's spinning eyes were staring at me, unforgiving. I recoiled in terror - I had nothing to fight with, no skills for basic survival in the modern world. Physically weak, socially awkward, lazy, and unconfident, I knew that University would crush me. By the end of my school years, I still had no job, no girlfriend, no drivers license, and no real ambition. I declared myself in desperate need of training. Real life training. So, I took a working gap year.
A gap year is such a brilliant thing. It's like a pause button that you can press after high school, or any institution for that matter. And instead of proceeding to the next racecourse, you rest in the pitstop for a year, and go do something awesome. For me, it was a chance at redemption. What's one year in the grand scheme of life? I thought. I saw it as a chance to train my life skills, learn some valuable lessons and prepare myself for the big dance of life.
I took this endeavour quite seriously too, making a list of goals and really investigating how I can improve myself. I stumbled upon the realm of 'self help', which was all about getting more control over the various elements of your life, like career, health, finances, and relationships. This really resonated with me, and I was thrilled to discover that it was certainly possible to train these life skills, and that all I had to do was read the books, watch the Youtube videos, and do what they were saying.
And when I was delving into these ideas of self-help, all I could think of was 'why didn't they teach this stuff at school?!' I really felt like this was the path that I should have been following all along, because I was fixing all the areas of my life that were previously disregarded, and evolving into a better version of myself.
Since I was venturing into unknown territory, the first two months were shaky. But otherwise, things went remarkably smooth. It was all kicked into motion when I landed the perfect job in a humble cafe called Ristretto, as the dishwasher. It was a start, and the most necessary one too, because I was forced to the adapt to the demands of a full time working life. A level of discipline, duty and work ethic was required of me, and I met with the challenge at 7:00am every day. And as if rewarded for my willingness to improve, I was quickly thrown into the deep end and forced to operate the till due to unforeseen issues with the previous till girl. To meet with the social environment face to face was stressful and challenging at the time. But in fact, it was a blessing, and a perfect opportunity for me to develop my social skills.
I saw a flourishing in my confidence as a result of my noticeable improvements, and things seemed to only get better. I was earning money for the first time ever, and it was nice to have the freedom to spend and enjoy certain momentary luxuries. But I found more fulfilment in saving my money up as an investment for something important later down the road.
By the end of the year I had achieved all the goals I set for myself, and far exceeded my expectations. And so I found myself on the opposite side of the spectrum - feeling confident and absolutely sure of myself.
Working in the cafe really paid off too, because I discovered that I actually really enjoyed hospitality, and was pleased that I had found a career path to follow that was somewhat aligned with who I was. I enrolled into a hospitality college in Queenstown, and was even lucky enough to receive a scholarship. I couldn't have been a happier and more assured man. In my gap year, I seemed to alchemise myself from a confused boy into a young man.
And that was probably the biggest lesson - that it was possible to evolve into the person I knew I could become. And it seemed that the more I improved, the more genuine boons I received - boons like confidence, happiness, contentment, enhanced enjoyment of life, and self-awareness. I really felt that self-improvement was the ultimate key to unlock a truly rich life. I was able to discover and fully embody this all thanks to the gap year.
With my weaknesses cured, the time had come to leave the roost, and journey onwards to Queenstown.
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