Once again, I caught my sister gazing at flight tickets instead of medical school applications. This was her way of coping with the piling stress of taking a gap year as she neared the end of her college senior year.
“Why not face the unknown?” I asked, watching as she squeezed a final hoodie into the travel bag, struggling to close the zipper. “Not to be rude, but everyone’s already applying for med schools and you’re going on a getaway trip?”
Her brown eyes hesitated, looking carefully at the calendar hung up on her bedroom wall then straight at mine with thoughtful ease.
“Yeah. I don’t just want to travel for the sake of getting away, I’m ready to find out what the medical world holds for me. For my future.”
I glanced at the calendar. It was less than a month until school started again, and my sister was about to take a step that many people—our parents included—would consider unorthodox. A gap year? When I was younger, I’d never heard of anyone doing that. You either went to the next step of your education or went down a path of uncertainty. But now, as my role model prepared to head off to remote, faraway areas to support underserved communities, I wondered if the ‘norm’ changed.
“What if you fall behind?” I quietly voiced.
She laughed softly, shaking her head. “Fall behind from who? I’m not racing anyone.” I nodded silently, still slightly skeptical. “Different isn’t a bad thing,” she determined. I realized following a path commonly taken to get where I’m going isn’t the only option. “My path might take longer compared to others, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t accomplish the same as them. A gap year allows me to follow my aspirations on my own timeline.”
I smiled in agreement. Her genuine words resonated with me, even if I didn’t fully understand the concept of taking a different, longer path instead of the shortest one.
“Promise me that when it comes time, you’ll figure out your own path and make it yours.”
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