Gap Year in The Parks by Jennifer

Gap Year in The Parks by Jennifer - August 2019 Scholarship Essay

Deciding to take a gap year can be an inordinate opportunity for those who feel they want some separation between high school and college, they do not feel ready for college just quite yet, they want to save up money to avoid debt, and/or they want to have time to do something out of the box before settling down to study. Personally, I am not choosing to take a gap year because I want to keep myself in the rigor and groove of a school-based setting. Though, if I was to take a gap year, I would want to ensure I was making some sort of income to save up for the year ahead of me, but would also yearn to throw myself out of my comfort zone into something completely foreign to myself.
In doing some searching, I have concluded that if I was to take a gap year, I would love to work for a national park for a year. There are plenty of programs put on by the National Parks service for opportunities like this. I would pick to apply for a position at Denali National Park in Alaska. Alaska seems like such an obscure, foreign place when you live in the continential United States. I am from Wisconsin, and although it is a beautiful state, the scenery does not compare to the mountains. After traveling to Colorado this past summer, I fell in love with mountains and have made it my life goal to see as many mountains as I possibly can and live in a mountainous region someday. Denali National Park, at least seeing from the pictures I googled, has some of the most breathtaking, colossal, and majestic mountains in the world. Additionally, I believe living in Alaska for a year would be a severely interesting experience, considering the harshness of the weather and the fact that in the winter it is mostly complete blackout and the summers are light all day long. It would take a lot of adjusting to, but it is unlike anything I have ever underwent in my life and it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience I would remember forever.
Living in a small town my whole life without much variety in lifestyle is what would drive me to pursue an opportunity like this during my gap year. I have always had a strong passion for the natural environment, which is what I plan to study in college, and I believe spending an entire 365 days of my life in a National Park would give me a refresher on my passion, a newfound appreciation for the systems we have in place, and a stronger drive to protect the land. Additionally, by working in a National Park, I would meet a diverse group of people - individuals come from all over the world to marvel and/or work in these places of natural beauty. I believe meeting people who are vastly different from you is important if you want to have a greater understanding of the cultures around you. Adding on, meeting diverse individuals can expand your personal worldviews and make you think of things in ways you may have never previously.
In final, the most important thing that would come from this would be personal growth. I am typically a reserved person, so doing something like this would be very uncomfortable, especially considering I would not have anyone familiar to come along. I also have never been out of the continential United States, so traveling that far (and being that distant from home for an extended period of time) would be a personal challenge. I know it would be difficult, but I believe what I would gain from doing so would be far worth the struggle. Working at a National Park for a year would force me to grow up, gain confidence, and expand my knowledge of the world; all of these benefits would be advantageous for entering college the following year.