Taking time off provides perspective

Author: Corinne Beaugard and Kaylen Baker

We begin our lives of schooling between the ages of two and three on our first day of preschool. Sixteen years later, we go to college for four years, then possibly to graduate school. We spend the better part of our youth passing through the motions of structured education without the opportunity to direct our own paths. Of course there is summer, which has the potential to rejuvenate and restore, but many of us want to be productive year round, using summer to build resumes and work. Following this predestined course is the perfect fit for people who thrive in the structured and demanding environment of higher education, but some reject it and choose to explore the world and themselves without such constraints.

Luckily for those of us who want to leave for a semester or more, Middlebury makes it extremely easy to do so. Our Feb program is great because it allows students, both Febs and non-Febs, to take a semester off while still being part of a particular class.

There are a considerable number of students on campus who have taken time off, which is likely due to Middlebury's lenient policy. It is possible to defer for a semester up until the day before classes start.

Cassandra Moore, a first-semester sophomore, took last semester off as well. She had been deliberating for a while and finally decided it would be for the best.

"I moved from Durango, Colo., to Olympia, Wash., in late August and lived with two friends, Mesa and Automne, in the cutest little house. And that's what I did: I just lived there. I wanted to take time off school and didn't have a plan, really, of what to do - and I didn't want to plan anything."

She also had crappy jobs, one at a religious coffee shop and another cleaning at a scummy motel, yet she enjoyed her time. Time works in a very different way when you're not in school. The day is not organized into class periods, athletic practices, lectures, and screenings. It is a lot more flexible and the days become distinguishable for reasons aside from hours in the library and meals in the dining hall. Upon reflection, Cassie noted how valuable this was for her.

"It seems strange, but it was really nice to work jobs, for a little while, that I didn't care about. It was relieving. It wouldn't hold my attention for a very long time, but for a little while. It was nice to reserve my best energy for my life outside of work."

She stayed in Oregon for the rest of her time off, working, riding her bike, and enjoying the freedom of really living. Cassie considered returning to school, not entirely convinced it would be the best decision, but she did and is not disappointed. However, she believes she may take the following semester off and possibly more in the future.

Many people here are more concerned about their graduation date, but Cassie says she'd recommend taking time off to everyone, realizing how crucial it was for her personal growth and happiness.

"I think it is a bad decision, honestly, not to take time off. I think there is a reality beyond school's structure that so many people don't see for too long and I think that is sad. I think plowing through education like we do lends itself to the creation of a lifestyle that is equally fast-paced and just not humble."

Other students decide to take time off with the intent of participating in a social or political cause. Ben Wessel, currently a sophomore, plans to take next semester off to work for 1Sky, a climate advocacy group in Washington, D.C. He has worked for the organization before and felt it was so rewarding he wants to return. At 1Sky he will participate in U.S. and international policy analysis, working with existing policies, as well as proposals, that aim to influence Congress and organize the grassroots youth movement.

Ben said he decided to take time off not because he needs a break from this academic environment but because this environmental movement is so time sensitive. Waiting until graduation is not an option; too many critical decisions that will have already been made, decisions he hopes to influence. According to Wessel, taking next semester off is the best solution, for he does not want to continue investing himself half heartedly in school and this cause. By taking time off he can fully devote himself to achieving climate goals and then return to school, satisfied that he followed his calling to act.

His work with policy change will culminate with an international conference in Copenhagen, COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009. During this time, Ben will work with the group of young people at the conference to influence the policy makers.

"We will call attention to the failings of negotiations through creative actions," Wessel said, "with focus on the media. We offer a policy stance that will safeguard all countries."

Ben is excited to sit at the table with the policy makers and his fellow activists this coming December to push for his climate agenda, which he hopes will be enacted.

Xian Chiang-Warren '11 went straight to college after high school like most kids do in the United States, but soon changed track. "It just became apparent to me during my first year that I wasn't getting enough out of being here academically," she explained. "I was in classes I was interested in with amazing professors, but it wasn't clicking. The timing was off."

Instead of returning for sophomore year at Middlebury, she decided to take time off and travel around South America with some friends. Originally, she expected to end up working at an animal refuge in the Amazon Basin in Bolivia, but as she traveled along, her plans changed and she found herself forging a different and spontaneous trail.

Chiang-Warren does not disapprove of formal education, but she staunchly believes that life must contain more than just theoretical classroom discussions and regurgitated principles. "There are other things that academia can't teach you, things that it alienates us from, which are equally important to our growth as human beings," she said. "What scared me was the idea of hitting age 21 or 22 and not being able to remember existing outside of these places."

When asked whether it was difficult to return to school life after her traveling, she admitted, "Yes and no. I was always going to come back - I understand that I should probably finish college, that it opens more doors than it closes, and also there's just a lot of information out there that I want to learn. Most importantly I've found amazing friends here, without a doubt the most interesting and talented groups of people that I've ever seen in one place. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to spend three more years with them. With all that said, it was still really hard to get on the plane back home."

"Make sure you are doing something adventurous and different than you have done before," advised Nate Blumenshine '10.5 on taking time off. Instead of continuing his sophomore year, he harvested corn on a Kansas farm to learn more about the U.S. food system and lived at a Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Two years later, he left school again to learn Arabic in religiously enticing Bethlehem Palestine. "I felt the power of the divine when I saw the spot where Jesus was born and heard the call to prayer and church bells ringing in unison," he remembered.

This past fall, he worked on the Obama campaign in Reading, Pa. - this inspiration drew largely from the broadened international perspective he has gained. "[Obama's] role in improving U.S. relations with the rest of the world just by being elected is better than another candidate could have done with four years devoted towards doing the same thing," he said.

Each valuable experience taught him something - one day, while crossing the border to Jerusalem, he went through the checkpoint behind a smiling Palestinian man and his Frisbee got stuck in the x-ray machine. With instructions from the Israeli guard, he recalled, "I walked back to the other side of the machine and kind of crawled up on the conveyor belt so that I could reach into the X-ray and grab my Frisbee. Triumphantly, I freed my Frisbee from its dark radioactive fate and received smiles of congratulations from both the Palestinian man and the Israeli soldier."

However, Blumenshine accepted this cordiality fully aware that his American identity was responsible. "Something was wrong here