September 15, 2026
By: Anna Hayes
By Anotidaishe Sitting at the boarding gate waiting for my flight, I was incredibly nervous. The travel itself didn't make me nervous. Going to a country where almost everyone spoke a language that I only knew the very basics of...
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September 10, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Daniel During my gap year, I spent a month in Suzhou, China, interning as an assistant at a technology startup. Raised by two engineers, I grew up without much exposure to business or entrepreneurship. However, this immersive experience completely...
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September 8, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Daniel During my gap year, I had the opportunity to visit my grandmother and celebrate her ninetieth birthday, an occasion I hadn’t been able to honor since COVID-19. I can still vividly recall her holding up flashcards, patiently teaching...
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September 4, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Daniel My grandmother turned ninety this year. Among my earliest memories is the image of her holding up flashcards, teaching me my first Mandarin characters on the balcony in suburban China. Back then, she often recounted how her own...
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August 28, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Yiwen Rescuing My Favorite Shirt In mid March, I was getting exhausted from hopping from hostel to hostel and anxious about the impending doom – the U.S. Tax Day and the deadline of my financial aid application. I decided...
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August 26, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Yiwen This is my seventh month of solo traveling and hopping from hostel to hostel. Since October, I’ve done nothing but moving and leaving. Trains have taken me through the Southern Chinese brown croplands, the snowy Swiss Alps, the...
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August 25, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Isaiah I’m Isaiah/Heesung, and I’m finally back home. I’ve just spent the last nine months in Seoul, South Korea, reconnecting with the motherland. But the transition back to the suburbs of LA hasn’t been easy, and I’m not talking...
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August 24, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Lauren When you're somewhere you've never been, you arrive without a reputation. Each new person you meet gets a blank slate that you get to fill with details of who you are. For the majority of my gap year,...
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August 21, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Lauren Since I started school, all I wanted to do was prove I was mature enough. I was freshly 17 when I officially started my gap year. Once again, too young. My gap year consultant helped me find a...
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August 20, 2026
By: Aliza Snow
By Lauren I knew I would have to say goodbye to countless people during my gap year. When I said goodbye to my family in September before leaving for three months, I didn’t cry. In December, when I said goodbye...
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