Preparing for the World Race Gap Year is difficult, confusing and often lonely. When I was at home getting ready for the trip I was often frustrated with the lack of help from alumni so now I will take it as a personal responsibility to give you exactly what I needed before launch. So here are 3 things that I wish someone would have told me!
Before the Race: Get rid of the countdown app! I spent my last days of high school counting down the seconds until training camp and launch, and to be quite frank I wasted a good amount of time in class distracted from what was in front of me. Living from countdown to countdown is not living and being where your feet are, countdowns cause you to dream about being some where else and while that isn’t always a bad thing countdowns can become your biggest distraction from your last semester with your friends and family! Also, living from countdown to countdown is very easily something you will carry with you onto the race, waiting for the next debrief or the next country or holiday or even until an off day. It will hinder you from being present in your team, in ministry and in your relationship with God! So do it now delete the app.
For the Race: Packing is hard and often intimidating, pack clothes that you are comfortable in, things you would wear at home. Just know that you are going to countries that will have strict dreascodes and that girls will be asked to cover your whole shoulder and all your legs, and then be prepared to do that however it makes you the most comfortable. However, don’t forget about off days, debriefs, travel days and sleep wear! Bring things you like from home but nothing that you aren’t prepared to see ruined or lost. As far as shoes go, I’ve worn my Chacos everyday for the past six months, but if your going to Asia (and I know you are) I highly recommend a cheap pair of flip flops. I probably took my shoes on and off again 5-7 times a day and Chacos were not my best friend when it came to putting my shoes on quickly!
On the Race: Get ready to do some pretty gross stuff, I don’t want “world race reality” to come as a shock to you. You will more than likely take cold showers out of a bucket for a few months (or atleast for ten days at training camp). You will have to figure out how to use squatty potties on your own. With that, you also need to go ahead and prepare yourself for either getting lice or picking lice (or both) on this trip, and soon it will become a normal part of life (I checked my teammate for lice in a grocery store last week) On top of all of that, personal space is hard to come by (two girls on my team sleep in our kitchen) but it’s fun being so close to your best friends all the time and you laugh about the hardships everyday and the gross things and the hard things are a lot of what makes this trip so funny and growing and full of really weird stories. It’s good I promise.
