Gap Year

Gap Year: a period, typically an academic year, taken by a student as a break between school and university or college education. In February 2003 aged 19 I left Europe for the first time, and headed to Maine USA on my Gap Year to work in a youth camp with high school kids. For some reason the USA always held a strange fascination as a teenager: whether it was the movies I'd watch, the music I'd listen to, the politics and socioeconomic events that shaped global affairs, it was all a window into a lifestyle and culture that seemed to offer everything and was so difficult to ignore. Things were just bigger and better in America, and it was the only place I wanted to go. So I saved up some money and headed off. This is the first part of the story. It is all my own work, and was documented in my journal as the events occurred and written up afterwards. Whether it's the first few weeks of tedium and boredom in a camp where alcohol is a strict red line and I realise I'm a complete outsider, explaining to a parent why I wrote penis on their son's arm, destroying a condominium in a weekend away snowboarding, having a romantic liaison with a local female tearaway, bee-laying fat kids stoned at the rope course, hanging out with hippies, tearing through New York and Boston on an alcohol fueled spring break, trying to get high from nutmeg, or simply going mad when the kids in the cabin wouldn't shut up at night, everything is relayed in unflinching personal detail and is the truth as observed and experienced. Looking back I can say the whole thing was pretty messed up, but for better or worse it was an important time in my life and shaped who I am today. I was an immature and inexperienced young man trying to navigate the places, people and experiences being thrown at me by this new country, all the while battling introspection and a tendency to depression and anxiety that I didn't fully realise or understand. It's so long ago now that it feels like a dream, but reading through my journal and writing it all up has been an interesting and somewhat cathartic experience, like digging up old memories that were hidden and playing them back again, much to my often disbelief and incredulousness. I've never written a book before so can't say if it's any good or will change your life, and if its shit then I guess it's meant to be - its the diary of a 19 year old. I enjoyed writing it though, and hopefully if you're American (particularly from Maine ) it offers some strange third person insight into your country: the diversity of the people, the culture and way of life, the things which work and which don't, the good and the bad. Whoever you are though I hope you enjoy it and thanks for buying a copy, and look out for the second part which I'm currently working on.