So many of us follow the traditional path post-high school and head straight to college. Isn’t that what senior year was about? Filling out endless applications, taking tests and waiting indefinitely to be accepted. But, there exists a couple subtler, equally amazing routes that you can take post-high school. One of these is called “The Gap Year” and has recently been receiving a great deal of media attention as an alternative to the traditional route. For me personally, the gap year seemed like a glamorous, mystical experience which I only caught glimpses of in rad Instagram feeds—until I met Clara.
Clara Lietz, a freshman environmental ethics and policy major from Boulder, Colorado, told me about her decision to travel abroad last year. She spent a semester living in Mexico and a semester in Australia and had the opportunity to visit many other countries along the way. When I asked her how she would describe her year in a word, she said that it was “eye-opening,” and then laughingly apologized for the cliché. She continued on to describe how living and traveling with a group of people aged teen to thirty (from eight different countries!) helped her to learn about other cultures but also become more aware of her own. For example, one of her best friends is from South Africa and another’s a famous Columbian YouTuber. It also gave her the confidence to talk to older people, rather than just her peers. She said, “I became aware of how we do have such an age divide—especially in America.” This unique group allowed her to learn from the experiences of her older friends.
Aside from the people she traveled with, she met amazing people in every city she visited. “I feel like a lot of the beauty you see comes from the people.” Many of these were amazing, independent women. Part of her group’s mission, especially in South America, was to tell women of their value and freedom to make choices. Clara said that this experience made her far more aware of how amazing it’s that, in the US, women are encouraged to see themselves in a positive light. But, she also discovered that “the way we see ourselves as women isn’t how they see us.” In Bolivia and Mexico, the “machismo” culture, or exaggerated sense of masculinity, is super influential and damaging to female self-esteem. So, Clara was so excited to help introduce these women to the power and freedom in feminism.
After spending a year traveling, she describes coming to college as “weird, especially socially.” Once again, she’s surrounded by peers and in a structured, academic environment. Additionally, where college eases people right out of high school into adulthood, a gap year threw her right into emotional independence. But, she says that while college’s “less exciting day-to-day, it’s more exciting with what you get to learn about.” She said that while abroad, “I became more aware of my passion. It got me way more jazzed.” Seeing the lack of knowledge and practice globally about environmental issues truly solidified her desire to major in it. So much so, that she was known to her group as “Hippie Clara.” Her long, curly hair with a single wrapped dreadlock and Coloradan style definitely contributed to this image.
Does this kind of sound like I dream? I certainly think so. Clara said to anyone considering taking a gap year, to “dive in, take risks, and embrace the spur-of-the-moment.” She said that “nothing prepares you for college better than being outside your boundaries” and what better way to do that than going abroad? The experience truly enhanced her desire to be challenged intellectually and tackle new concepts with an open and curious perspective.