Students reconcile wanderlust and academics with gap years

Wanderlust, the desire to travel, explore and be immersed in the world, can be difficult to reconcile with the stresses and pressures of college life. For sophomores Betta Hobbins, Gavi Rawson and Audrey Holt, the solution was taking a gap year before college.

“I had always been a very goal-oriented person, always trying to do everything the right way,” Hobbins said. “I thought, ‘No, I can’t go abroad! I need to go to school right away. It will just take me off track!’”

Encouraged by her parents, Hobbins went against her initial instinct and applied to Rotary International’s exchange program. She listed South Africa and India as some of her top choices and was ultimately placed in Lima, Peru.

“Rotary International integrates not only the traditional exchange program where you go to school, but it integrates it with service,” Hobbins said.

Rawson, like Hobbins, was encouraged to take a gap year by his parents. He enrolled in a religious studies program based on Modern Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem, Israel.

“The program wasn’t right for [my peers and I]. We weren’t very religious, but we found a way to make our year,” Rawson said. “We would travel all over Israel — it’s a beautiful place — camping out for a week or going to some commune for a week.”

Holt received a scholarship from her high school in Boston to study in Paris for a year. She studied French Literature and Linguistics at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV).

Both Holt and Hobbins stayed with local host families.

“I was lucky enough to be able to live with a lovely French woman in the 13ème [13th] arrondissement.” Holt said. “We got to know each other very well. She didn’t speak any English, so it was a great opportunity to really work out the details of my French. I met much of her extended family, and we exchanged plenty of stories.”

Rawson stayed in a dorm with other students in his program.

“I went into the program knowing no one and came out with the best friends I’ll ever have,” Rawson said. However, unlike many gap year students, Rawson was familiar with his surrounding environment and had extended family nearby.

“I went [to Israel] a bunch of times for bar mitzvahs, summer trips [and] family trips,” he said. “We are very connected to Israel. I have family in Jerusalem and all over — between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.”

Although Hobbins spoke no Spanish and had never been to Peru prior to her exchange, she adjusted quickly.

“I grew up in an Italian household, and Latino culture is kind of comparable.” Hobbins, whose mother was born and raised in Italy, said. “So it wasn’t weird for me to be touched and hugged and kissed all the time, whereas for other [exchange students] it was uncomfortable.”

All three students felt their experiences abroad were defined more by the activities they participated in during their free time than by the classes they were taking.

Hobbins, a Public Health Studies and anthropology double major who plans to attend medical school, spent a month and a half working and living at an orphanage outside Lima.

“This orphanage that I worked at was for kids with medical problems,” Hobbins said. “It definitely opened my eyes to public health because the health disparities in Peru are gigantic. I was living with an upper-class family with a big house — owned a hotel [with a] maid, cook, all that kind of stuff. From that, going to an orphanage outside of Lima was just like a huge shock.”

Rawson found that he became immersed in Israeli culture during his time off from classes.

“We would go ATVing, we would go to Tel Aviv, we’d go out to music festivals at night or we’d play basketball in the park with Israelis,” Rawson said. “We just took off and went camping by the Dead Sea for four days. We walked through the desert, and we called a friend and asked if we could crash a kibbutz. We just lived life and did anything we could find and just did it, because it was a very free program.”

Rawson also noticed major differences between Israeli and American lifestyles throughout his time abroad.

“You realize that we have become so attached to things here and a high standard of living, but there’s nothing to it; it doesn’t make you happy,” he said. “You can go to Israel and live a much simpler life, but you experience a much greater sense of happiness. There’s a beauty and just this amazing sense of unity within the land.”

He also learned about the challenges of the regional conflicts that shape Israeli culture.

“There’s this sense in Israel that life goes on,” he said. “Things are going on and everyone’s affected by it, but the only thing that a person can do is just live on and not let it affect them and not let them stay home from work or let kids stay home from school.”

On a Friday evening during his gap year, Rawson was praying with his group when a siren for an approaching missile sounded. A few missiles were fired, and the group had to hide in a bomb shelter.

“Israelis have become very resilient and strong,” he said. “Seeing them brought this sense of unity: ‘Look at what we’re going through together. There are rockets being shot at us and we’re hiding in a bomb shelter together.’ There’s this greater sense of connection that you don’t get from life here. We’re not faced with such hardships that bring us closer together.”

Holt also felt that her time abroad changed her perspective on the world.

“I think that the year abroad made me much more willing to experiment in general,” she said. “Even in a foreign country, speaking a different language and surrounded by unfamiliar customs and conventions, things aren’t ever going to go so wrong that you can’t make the most of it by asking the right questions and being open to the answers.”

Hobbins found that her experiences strengthened her character.

“I think it helped me become more culturally relativistic, even though I was before,” she said.

In terms of her long-term goals, Hobbins’s outlook remained the same.

“At the end of the year, it only reinstated my goals, only reaffirmed what I want to do,” she said. “I want to be a medical missionary. I have always wanted to since I was like five years old. My experiences there, especially at the orphanage, reaffirmed my goals and my aspirations. Really, it just kept me on the right track.”

Although she was initially concerned about falling behind academically, when she started classes at Hopkins, she felt that it was an easy adjustment.

“I kind of burned out after high school,” she said. “Taking the year off refreshed me and got me excited to get working again. When I came in, I was psyched to study.”

Rawson found the transition back to be more challenging.

“It was tough,” he said. “Hopkins life is very different from the type of life I lived [in Israel]. That whole entire year, I felt like I was at a high point in my life in terms of self-discovery and self-awareness, and then you transition back to real life.”

Despite this, Rawson recommends the gap year experience.

“You finally become you over your year,” he said. “Whether it’s before college or after college, everyone should have a gap year sort of experience. It’s a big year of self-discovery. You’re just looking at yourself and finding your place in the world — how you treat other people, how you deal with other people, what you want to be.”

Hobbins also strongly encourages Hopkins students to try the experience.

“I would tell any high school student to do a gap year, even college students,” she said. “Take a gap year before med school or grad school or starting your career. It’s the time to do it. You just put yourself in the situation and experience it fully. Hopkins [students are] very studious, stressed out and sleep-deprived people. I think it’s a great experience to have.”

Hobbins added that spending time abroad is not necessarily expensive.

“It wasn’t as expensive as study abroad here, not even close,” she said. “If you count all the trips I did — probably a few thousand for the whole year including travelling all over and the program and stuff — I don’t think I hit $10,000.”

She hopes to continue traveling throughout her college career and beyond.

“I’m planning to go back [to Peru] if money and time allow. The sooner the better,” she said.

Rawson not only wants to visit Israel again, he has considered moving there.

“I think about it a lot and my friends do, too,” Rawson said. “We have this ultimate happiness there, so there must be something connected to the land.“

Holt is also grateful for her time abroad.

“I met so many amazing people. I’m so happy that I was able to hear their stories,” she said.