My Adventure: by Megan Simonson
The worst day of sailing I’ve ever had occurred within a week of boarding Helios – the sailboat I would be living on for the next year. It was my very first night watch (2am) and I was cold, nauseous, and disoriented. The Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Coast of France is known for its rough seas, and that night was no different. After planning my gap year trip for over a year, this moment was the first time I thought, Oh Megan, what did you sign yourself up for?
It turns out that my gap year aboard Helios was the best year of my life. Yes, the first few weeks were tough due to my limited sailing experience, but soon a lot of that stress dissipated as I grew confident in my abilities. Despite that first night of sailing in the Bay of Biscay, I remember so many more good days than bad.
I remember sitting on the bow of Helios with Mom as we watched dolphins play between the hulls. I remember climbing Mt. Teide with Dad and seeing the galaxy speckled with dozens of shooting stars. I remember the intense feeling of accomplishment when we docked in Grenada after a month of sailing across the Atlantic. The list could go on. I knew going into this trip that the highs would be extremely high, and the lows would be extremely low. That’s what I loved the most about my experience.
Never did I imagine the accomplishments I would achieve during my year away from school. Over the course of my gap year, my family and I sailed over 13,000 nautical miles and completed around 80 overnight passages, and I now have 2 Atlantic crossings under my belt. It seems unreal that a year before that, I didn’t know a jib sheet from a halyard.
The decision for me to take a gap year before college was an easy one, but I know it may not be for a lot of people. A big factor that led to my eagerness included knowing that a year off from school would actually motivate me to go back – not the other way around. I also love a change in environment, and I figured that adjusting to life at sea wouldn’t be so bad. Lastly, I have found that I am a very positive futuristic thinker. I never get caught up on worries about what could happen, and instead daydream about all of the cool things I might be able to do! These factors helped me make the decision to take a gap year, and I am thankful everyday for taking that leap.
Advice to Others:
If you’re someone who is feeling too complacent in life, my advice is to immerse yourself in a completely different lifestyle. It doesn’t have to be sailing – it could be backpacking, doing a community service project, training for a big race, etc…Sometimes it takes a complete change of lifestyle to put your own life in perspective. Despite having some miserable and scary days at sea, this experience changed my whole outlook on school and on life in general.
Everything that I had taken for granted before became a novelty. For the first month after my gap year, I kept turning off the shower between rinses out of habit to save on water. The 3 hour classes I took everyday didn’t feel long, since I was used to sitting on long night watches with only a Spotify playlist to entertain me. Tests no longer filled me with anxiety either – I had survived Atlantic storms, hadn’t I? Even sleeping in my hot, stuffy (non-air conditioned) dorm didn’t bother me, as I was so used to those conditions already.
My last piece of advice is this: if you commit to something, do not back out. People tend to overthink their decisions and worry about things that may or may not happen. There is no productivity in that. The mindset that kept me determined to take a gap year was acknowledging that every memorable experience comes with bad and good. My swim coach always told me that the first step towards success is believing wholeheartedly that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. The same advice is applicable to any goal you want to achieve. Believe you can!
