{"id":5326,"date":"2021-09-09T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=5326"},"modified":"2021-09-07T22:53:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T02:53:16","slug":"jessica-h-lessons-learned-from-a-gap-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2021\/09\/09\/jessica-h-lessons-learned-from-a-gap-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica H: Lessons Learned from a Gap Semester"},"content":{"rendered":"
Taking a Break Doesn’t Mean Wasting Time.\"IMG_5891\"<\/h6>\n

If someone told me two years ago that I would end up taking a gap semester during my college career, I would\u2019ve had my doubts. Then again, if someone had told me that a global pandemic would ensue, I would have laughed it off as a joke.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now, in my sixth semester of college \u2014 after nearly a year of remote classes and stay-at-home orders, followed by a semester-long break from school \u2014 I am now back on campus with a new, refreshed mindset.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flashback to 2020 fall semester:<\/strong> I was living on campus in Boston, taking classes (most of which were virtual) and interacting with people mainly through a screen. I rarely left the safety of my dorm room, and my dreams of studying abroad in London and finding an internship in the spring weren\u2019t looking too great. My time as a college undergrad student was slipping away faster than I could grasp, and I couldn\u2019t help but feel frustrated and lost that the pandemic had stolen a good chunk of my college experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_5228\"<\/p>\n

At first, I felt insecure and unsure about my decision to take a break from school. What if I end up falling behind my classmates? Am I just making a lazy excuse to take the easy way out? Would it really be worth it in the end? I pondered these questions for a long time, and it wasn\u2019t until two months into my gap semester that I finally began taking advantage of the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_4811\"<\/p>\n

During my gap, I was able to take a refresher and put things into perspective. First on my to-do list was to embark on an outdoor road trip (with very little cellphone signal) with my family halfway across the country. Yup, you heard me; I completely avoided my responsibilities for about two and a half weeks. But that was all it took for me to reset, recharge, and reevaluate my academic pursuits. Being away from the very things that I constantly stressed about, even for a little bit of time, allowed me to slow down and organize my thoughts. I engaged in meaningful coffee chats with friends, peers, and internship directors to figure out how I wanted to spend my last few semesters in college and discussed my post-graduation plans. I was able to discover new interests and hobbies with my spare time, and the time I spent listening to others even opened avenues for me to explore work opportunities I had never considered in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past two remote semesters, I felt as if I had been holding in my breath without realizing it. I was so focused on simply getting through each semester that I had lost track of my personal goals and interests. My gap semester was a breath of fresh air, a pause from the madness. It bought me some of the precious time I thought had been wasted, and I returned with a better idea of what I wanted to get out of my final semesters in college. It bought me time to postpone my study abroad plans for next spring, something I had looked forward to since I applied to BU. But, most importantly, it helped me realize that taking a break doesn\u2019t have to mean wasting time; sometimes, it\u2019s just as important as everything else we do.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a Break Doesn’t Mean Wasting Time. If someone told me two years ago that I would end up taking a gap semester during my college career, I would\u2019ve had my doubts. Then again, if someone had told me that a global pandemic would ensue, I would have laughed it off as a joke. But … Continue reading Jessica H: Lessons Learned from a Gap Semester<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44590],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5332,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326\/revisions\/5332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}