Head First Eyes Open by Megan

Head First Eyes Open by Megan - August 2019 Scholarship Essay

525,600 minutes. That's how many minutes are in a year. The second I have graduated from high school, I have 525,600 minutes until the next summer break starts. A year is a long time, and if I were to take a gap year before freshman year of university, I would spend it doing the things that I never had time for in high school, and the things that I won't have time for once university starts.

Something that high school has taken away from me is a healthy sleep routine. I'd try to adopt that first, for the whole year, sleeping at least 8 hours a night. Between studying and having to wake up early for school, I feel that my health dropped in the sleep department, resulting in more exhaustion and stress every day. I think that it would be beneficial in at least trying to get my health back on track during the year that I have the time to sleep more.

I also never had time to get a job. During all four years of high school, I spent all of my time studying, volunteering, and participating in band events, all of which took up nearly every free day I had, leaving me with no consistent schedule open to work. Getting a job, whether at the local YMCA, or grocery store, would help me see what life will be like after I graduate, or during college, even as I know that I will have to work and get a job to support a lifestyle in which I have food on the table and a roof over my head. This year would be nice to give myself a shot at adulthood, to see if I would be able to survive and prepare myself for what comes next.

Relationships were also pushed aside during school. I never had time for dating while I was in high school, and decided that I would wait until after I graduated, however, I realize that once I begin university, I may have the same situation as high school. When I am older, I'd like to have a family, and I think it would be making the most of a gap year if I was able to cultivate a relationship with someone I like, and then see where it goes from there.

Traveling is something that my family has never been able to afford, and as a result, I have never been able to meet my mom's side of the family, who all reside in China. I would spend the last month of this 525,600 minutes in China, getting to know the rest of my family, learning about my culture and family history, and improving my Chinese. Once I go back to school, I am vastly aware that I will be overcome by student loans, making this trip a limited-time-only offer, and the gap year would let me do that.

By now, it would be June again, and the next summer break has begun. I'd then spend these three months just like any other summer, getting back into the habit of brushing up on school subjects and staying at home. Some may want to spend their gap year volunteering abroad or see the world, but I know that realistically, I can't afford any of that, and even a trip to China cut into my savings despite my new job. In addition, doing simple things that I enjoy such as focusing more on my music or writing would be the best way to spend my gap year. I never had time for them, as music or writing would be able to support my engineering career plan, however spending a gap year doing plain, mundane things would be adjusting my life in the direction I want it to go in.

Time would be best spent deciding what to do with my life. Getting a job, starting a relationship, finding time for hobbies, visiting family...these are things that I want to have in life. Things that I wouldn't be able to do if I were abroad for the whole year, doing things bigger than I am. It is a selfish decision, and I am aware of that fact, but the gap year is supposed to be my year. The year that I choose how my life is going to go. Going straight from high school to college is jumping in "head first eyes closed", unaware of what life will be like the second I get out is not how I want my life post-college to start. I want to be aware, and having a real-life is making the most of my gap year.