Sometimes the best way to make sense of something is just to listen. No judgment, no comments, just hear the words, and wisdom, of others. Recently at Gap Year Solutions, we received a note from someone who participated in one of our Gap Year information sessions. This totally unexpected email brightened our day, and made us immediately think how wonderful it would be if we could share this on our blog. Happily, this parent gave us permission to reproduce her letter!
October 4, 2022
Katherine,
I attended one of your virtual zoom sessions early in the pandemic. My middle son, Henry, just graduated from Waynflete in Portland, Maine. You were so convincing in the value of a Gap year that I convinced Henry to take a Gap year. He was accepted to University of Denver which he then deferred and is now at the Cordon Bleu in London studying Cuisine until June.
We just returned from dropping him off in a residence (that he had to find— CB does not provide housing but London is filled with dorms for the thousands of kids who go there to study every year). He’s one week into the program, meeting people from all over the world, learning a fabulous skill, learning what life in the most cosmopolitan city in the world is like and undoubtedly maturing in so many ways. So intense and amazing.
I’m a huge proponent of this concept, thanks to your inspiring us. When I told an American/British couple we met over there what my son was doing in London, the American man said, “That’s not very American of you!” I told him he was exactly right! Most schools over here do not promote Gap years (though I think I did learn about it in a newsletter our school sent out.) We definitely had to push against the grain of going straight into college. Not one of his friends did it.
Anyhoo— thank you for what you do. I have forwarded your emails to my friends still with high schoolers and am going to encourage my daughter (10th grade) to start thinking about her potential year. She’s from Guatemala, would like to learn Spanish and enjoys traveling so the Dragons website has some good Guatemalan Spanish programs that she can even try next summer while still in high school.
Thx again!
Sonja Florman
Portland, ME
Thank YOU, Sonja, for your Gap Year email and kind words, and for inspiring us to continue being ambassadors for the Gap Year movement!
