Initial Thoughts on a Year Off

I’m not sure exactly when the idea first occurred to me, but I do remember what went through my head when I first thought about taking a year off. The conversation with myself went something like this:

Wow. All the people at Olin are so amazing
Yeah, and there is so many opportunities
I know… unfortunately no one has any time because everyone is busy taking really hard classes. It is quite ironic that when I suddenly have so many things that I could do, I have less time than ever.
What do you think you could do if you actually had time to do stuff
Well the possibilities are endless. Well, I guess I could take a year off from classes, find other people to take time off as well, and work on some of these projects

So basically, the idea stemmed as a potential solution to one of the large, unsolved problems at Olin (and colleges everywhere): “So many opportunities, and so little time”

As the year continued, I kept thinking about it, realizing it would probably stay just an idea and that I would never act upon it. By this time, it was December and I had an idea of what I’d do during a “year off.” At that point I was heavily engulfed in a project with The Full Belly Project and loving every minute of it. I knew that I’d love to spend a year working on projects that would make a difference, but at the same time I knew that sounded too sketchy and too unplanned to be at all plausible for a full year.

Then something happened. I spent two weeks in Uganda, and fell in love with their values and sense of time. This trip caused me to start questioning a lot of what I was doing, and made me really consider what I wanted to do in life. At the same time, something else happened: I worked with several other students to start a non-profit design firm called IdeaTree Design. All of a sudden, I had motivation to take a year off and I had an organization to channel my projects through.

At that point, I started talking with other students about it. Chester liked the idea, and later convinced George to join in. Tim had been keen on the idea from the very start. Matt also had liked the idea from the start, but was unsure of exactly what to do. All of a sudden, we had a statistically significant number of students planning to take the year off.

Though my plans have changed significantly in the past 6 months, I still very much have the same ideals at heart.

Tune in later for more on what I want to accomplish and how we convinced Olin to let us take a year off.

A Year Off

On this blog, you’ll find a collection of posts from several students who have opted to take a year off from their classes at Olin College of Engineering. We’ll be using this blog to document our adventures and general happenings, as well as to reflect on the concept of “An Olin Year Off” Stay tuned for more!