Traveling, Juggling, Modeling, Working, Interning: The Gap Year Plan

Now, when someone decides to forego college for a year, they usually have a specific reason for doing so. Whether they are applying to college for the first time, or going on a life-changing trek around the globe, or volunteering to help the starving in Africa, there’s usually some well-laid plan that was thought out ahead of time. But, as per usual, I figured I would just make it up as I went along. Now, I had a general outline of how I wanted to divide up my time: I wanted to further my resume through intern for a lab or clinic, preferably at one involving neuroscience, I wanted to go to Japan, I wanted to work on my different types of juggling, and I was offered the chance to potentially do some modeling gigs after being scouted by a casting agency, so there was that too. Keeping these goals in mind, I tried to work them all into a coherent plan somehow.

                The first step was finding an internship, so I drafted a résumé, wrote a cover letter, and tried my luck for a position at the Manhattan Headache Center. I was called in for an interview, and it went amazingly (or so I thought.) They expressed that I seemed to be a genuinely good fit for the position, menial as it was, and promised to contact me by the end of the week. Well, the end of the week rolled around, and I had heard all of nothing from the Manhattan Headache Center. I told myself I would give them until Monday before sending my résumé elsewhere. It was Monday when they called me, and had another intern tell me that I wasn’t picked for the position. Speaking to my mom about it the next morning, I realized that I didn’t really want to do an internship at all. I had taken this gap year to explore my passions and interests, to do things that I couldn’t otherwise do while in college, and that’s really how I wanted to spend my year.

                Shortly after that, my casting agency told me they wanted to use me for fashion work, and I started a weekend circus club with my friend and fellow juggler in the Hamptons. I am currently working in a quirky health food store to save up money for a spring semester trip to Japan, and I’m going to Europe this fall. This is my gap year plan: to travel, to learn, to juggle, to adventure, to model (maybe) and to record all of it here, on this blog. This should be interesting.