June 6, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Fiorella Arriving in a foreign city with no bags is never ideal. Arriving in a foreign city with no bags, no Spanish and apparently no awareness that Central America could get cold: well, that’s another beast entirely. After an...
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May 23, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Addi It’s 11:00 PM on a frigid January night. The rugged wilderness of Wyoming expands around us in every direction, miles separating us from the nearest hospital. Our patient, found lying face down with an open head wound, has...
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May 19, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Ben February 2026 Midway through January, I started rehearsing for The Merry Widow with Philadelphia Ballet, a glamorous ballet set in early 20th century Paris. It was originally set as an operetta, but was then adapted to a ballet in the 1970s. While I...
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May 17, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Lukas The main fall leg of my gap year started in Shanghai, China, where I spent over a month living with a Chinese family in the form of an exchange. They would provide food and housing, and I would...
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May 9, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Addi In preparation for the Africa backpacking portion of my gap year, I was sucked into the rabbit hole of incessant blog reading and movie watching about how the backpacker lifestyle leaves one completely changed (“more mature!”, “more capable!”,...
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May 8, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Ella Sonder: the realization that every random passerby is living a life as full and complex as your own. Sometimes, sitting on the subway, I look around and think about that. As I stress over my own to-do list,...
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April 30, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Jake One of the most rewarding parts of my gap year has been volunteering at an elementary school for students with learning disabilities. At first I viewed this as merely an opportunity to give back - but it transformed...
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By: Camey VanSant
By Jose “Portuguese is just Spanish on steroids,” I told myself. Oh how quickly I was humbled as soon as I stepped foot in Caxias Do Sol. I told my host family that I wanted to practice Portuguese and they...
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March 25, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Ella Dancing in the pouring rain with people I'd met a week ago. Rolling in the dirt to classical music at 9am. Watching shooting stars from a wooden bridge in sleeping bags. Having a spontaneous snowball fight. Swimming in...
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March 23, 2026
By: Camey VanSant
By Isaiah “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations I’m Isaiah/Heesung, and the first third of my 9–month trip to Seoul, South Korea was vibrant and full of...
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