What Your Gap Year Says About You

You actually took time off to give back to society, but how much credit can we really give you here? You're a private school tool, so it's time to stop being so sheltered and see more of the world! There are so many noble causes to volunteer for, like tutoring children in low income cities in America or working at a malaria clinic in Africa (where food is scarce and where people are thin, according to Ja'mie), but instead you went off to Thailand to help raise elephants, to teach yoga in Bali, or to work on a yacht as a member of the crew like what Marissa Cooper was supposed to do. (Sidenote: ironic that the one time Marissa was about to do something that wasn't self destructive, she fucking dies on her way to do it. Tragically poetic, right?) So random! Sure, cleaning up elephant poop and helping people align their chakras while exploring exotic countries is certainly edifying, but how humbling and enlightening can these experiences be when you're spending your nights getting drunk with your gap year buddies and hamming it up for the 'gram? Like, you know there are options where you can actually make a huge difference in society for causes more righteous and crucial, right? 

So yeah, you use volunteering as a very, very loose term here. So when you're regaling your stories to people back at home years later, they may be a little, "Oh, wait, that counts as volunteering?" And they will probably wonder how many tone deaf pics you took of yourself doing yoga poses against a backdrop with a sacred building even though it's inappropriate and inconsiderate considering how scantily clad you are dressed. While FaceTuning your pics to make yourself look even tanner and slimmer, maybe you should have edited out the starving children in the background whose only toys are dolls made of sticks and rocks, ya know, kids who could have actually used your help. And honestly, how many locals did you actually interact with, besides the bartenders or the vendors who sold you tapestries that you're totally going to hang in the common room once you get back to school? Not many? Thought so. But balumbo shamanaka, at least! 

[Photo via @jamie_privateschool]