What did you do in your gap year? I worked as a full-time field organizer for the Mark Udall campaign in 2014 through November, volunteered a bit, and went to China for what would have been my second semester. The summer before I went to college, I interned in the House of Representatives.

 

Why did you decide to take a gap year? I had wanted to work on a campaign full time. I think when people talk about gap years, they often assume that it’s a course someone would take if they didn’t feel “ready” to go to college. That wasn’t the case with me at all. I wanted to go to college, and, frankly, it was hard to pull myself away from the collective momentum I had with my friends careening into the first year of college. I was going to get my four years of college no matter what, however, and a gap year was a chance for me to pursue interests and questions I had outside of an academic setting. I had interned for campaigns before, but I wouldn’t be able to work on one full-time unless I took a gap year. I wanted to “pay my dues” and prove myself as a baby politico. Parents and students may worry that a gap year puts you behind; I think it put me ahead.

 

Would you do it again, knowing what you know now? YES. My gap year has been a definitional year for me. I’m really proud of what I accomplished. My gap year is the best decision I’ve ever made! I haven’t met any one yet who has regretted a

gap year.

 

How do you think your gap year has impacted you? What’s changed about you? I got to come into a college with a perspective most kids didn’t have. It was an odd transition, in a way, because my best friends during my gap year were almost all in their late twenties, so it was an adjustment coming into a class of 18 years olds. I felt “older” coming into my first year, but the truth is that no one really cares about your age in college. I blend right in!

 

My gap year helped me connect ideas and interests with the real world. I can talk about political campaigns from a slightly different angle now, for example. I’m more confident in a professional or international setting than I might otherwise be, and I have more mentors than I can count. Learning doesn’t stop in the classroom; instead, I can take one of my mentors out for coffee, or give them a call, to learn the ins and outs of an arcane topic I may be interested in. For example, I took one of my mentors, a Congressional campaign manager, out to coffee over Spring Break so I could learn everything about the declining role of state and local party apparatuses in an era of the “professional campaign.” I have more resources to answer more questions, and more questions to pursue than ever! I have information and a perspective now that help me do more with my college experience. My gap year has informed the way I’m approaching my education, given my new questions to tackle, and the confidence to pursue them. At the same time, I’ve noticed I’m more relaxed about the details of college than some of my peers. The grades will come if you are honestly interested in the subjects, but the point of college isn’t to get that 4.8 GPA you were angling for in high school. My gap year showed me what I’ve only read about in school — that there’s a “real world” out there.