Lesson From the Swedes

Last week, I had 8 Swedes staying at my house. They were on a road trip across the country and needed a place to stay, so my mom opened our home to them on their way through. One of them was on the BMHS hockey team with me in 10th grade, and we stayed in contact over the past few years; he let me know when they were coming through Vail. It was so much fun! Definitely one of the highlights of my summer. We did a lot of fun things in 3 days, like rafting, hiking, camping, and barbequeing. But that's not really the reason I'm writing this blog post. All 8 of them were on gap years, where they work and travel around the world all year. And at least half of them were going to take a second gap year next year. They said that it is overwhelmingly common for kids in Europe. After they graduate from high school, they go see the world, mature a little more before university, and they figure out what they really want to study once they go to university. It's a different culture over there. Here kids graduate from high school and go straight to college, even if they don't know exactly what they want to study. At least to me, it seems like it's sort of taboo to take a year or two off from school before college in the US, even though it's necessary for me to play juniors to accomplish my goal of being an impact player at the college level, even though I am completely driven to still go to college after this next year of juniors, and even though I really don't know exactly what I want to study when I get to college yet.

Recently, in TIME magazine, I read a statistic that says 85% of college graduates live with their parents after they graduate. I don't know how skewed that data is by how many are just living with their parents temporarily while they look for jobs, but that is still a lot of kids living at home after college. I don't want to be on the bad side of that statistic, and I don't think my parents want that either. That's why I need to start researching majors and possible careers now, before I get to college, so I will study something I want to study. I think a lot of kids in the US are rushed to grow up; they go to school, not knowing exactly what they want to study, and then before they know it, they've graduated with a degree in something they don't want to do for the rest of their life. Maybe I'm biased because I'm trying to justify my decision to take 2 years off before college, but I don't think it hurts to take time to really figure out what you're interested in before college, especially in this economy when jobs are so hard to come by for young college graduates. Some 19 year olds probably know exactly what they want to do with their life--and it's probably good for them to go straight to school--but I think the vast majority of 19 year olds are like me, and don't know what they want to do with their life; my dad just turned 50 (old!) and he says he still doesn't know what he wants to do with the rest of his life. But I do know this process is helping me grow up in a different way than college would've.

Albert Einstein said when someone asked him why he didn't remember his own phone number, "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?" He never memorized anything he could look up in less than 2 minutes. I know school teaches you how to think bigger, how to think about the big picture. But I also think school, generally, teaches you some things that are unnecessary to learn and memorize, like specific dates of treaties or conferences. It's good to know approximate dates, but I think it's unnecessary to put effort into remembering the exact date of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. I was talking to my mom the other day, telling her how much I think I've learned and matured in just the past year. I've learned how to handle failure, how to keep working hard when things aren't going my way, and I've learned how to talk to people. I couldn't talk to coaches before this year; I always waited for them to call me, and even then I always got nervous. A few weeks ago, I proactively called the head coach at Princeton, just to ask him for advice and talk to him about some decisions I have to make this summer. I don't think a lot of kids could do that. And I know I couldn't do that just a year ago. I haven't learned about Greek Moral Philosophy yet, but this year I did learn how to talk to people and be around people in a competitive environment, which, personally, I think is much more valuable than memorizing the fundamental theorem of calculus. I've learned that it's important to put yourself out there and not be afraid to talk to people because, believe it or not, like me, they are just people also.

Anyway, I expanded on a little lesson I learned from the Swedes, but the bottom line is that I'm happy I'm going through with this process and following my dream because it's helping me mature in other aspects of my life that I needed to mature in, and these are lessons that will only help me when I'm in school, and when I'm looking for a job after school.