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The following post was written by Global Gap Year Fellow, Amelia Laursen.

November 11, 2022

Isabela, Puerto Rico

When I was preparing to move to Isabela (a small surf town on the north shore of Puerto Rico), I facetimed my mentor, McCarty, hoping for some validation and advice on this huge decision. McCarty is a fellow gapper who also lived and worked at Horses of Hope, my new home and a small therapeutic riding center and horse rescue nonprofit.

I asked her what memory, above all, was her very favorite from living in Puerto Rico. A trip to a waterfall with new friends! A hike to the top of the world in the El Yunque Rainforest! An all-nighter spent bar hopping through Mayaguez! A boat trip to Desecheo! All these or some variation of them is what I expected, or hoped, I would hear. My brain was bursting with narratives that I was […]

The following post was written by Global Gap Year Fellow, Isaac Holmes.

The sun breaks over the ocean at seven o’clock now. It trails gently into the sky, settling into the distant mountains before dinner. The waves are constantly battling the rocky coast. Some days, the ocean throws itself against the roughly hewn granite, soaring up in a fury and falling as gentle mist. Fog rolls off the sea, blanketing the landscape, receding as the sun warms the earth and breaks through the spruce trees. There is less light each day in this rugged and alluring land; the brighter seasons have gone but will come again. The sun makes it not-so-high in the sky, and the quiet comes more quickly with every moon. It is rough and gentle; rugged and fragile; light and dark; sunup and sundown. It is a constant cycling of things in intrinsic dance.

I play only a […]

The following blog post was written by Bridge Year Fellow, Sophie DuBois.

This blog post is a response to every “how’s work?” I’ve left unanswered in the past month.

Spoiler: I really like it.

It’s crazy how we are so used to feeling busy that any moment of un-busyness sits like an unmarked wet-spot on the floor waiting to slip us into reflection. The particular puddle of un-busyness that soaked me this time was a quietly teary-eyed moment at my work, 826 Valencia, on Friday afternoon.

My day is spent writing, recording, and editing podcasts with children, not often older than 13. Sometimes I get to play a pirate. No, really. There’s no crappy caveat. It actually is just that sweet. And what’s sweeter is that this isn’t accidental. It is the purposeful practice of the ethic of love that 826 cultivates.
826 publishes student work often and well, but not because making more […]

The following was written by Global Gap Year Fellow, Adamaris Delgado.

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After applying to college it never crossed my mind that I would be taking a gap year. The only timeline I believed that I had was graduating high school and then starting college the following year. A gap year the stigma that it’s unconventional to take one and that once you’re on it you won’t go back to school.

My only concern was whether or not I was making the right decision for me and let me tell you, so far it’s been amazing. How many people can say that they had the opportunity to take a year off from school to reset their mind and travel the world? Not many, but I have the honor of being a gap year student. I began my gap year experience on August 22nd in Keaau, Hawaii. I was WWOOFING for a farm in Hawaiian Paradise Park for a month. During my […]