I started writing this blog text a while ago but didn't get it quite ready until now. I'm currently sitting at Helsinki airport waiting for our first flight to take off. We are both so excited! Here are some of my thoughts about this whole gap year thing. J

To me this gap year is about doing something I have never done before. It is in a way about being free to do pretty much what I and we want to. I have always been happy with my life and with the way I have expected it to go: school, high school, university, graduation, career, buying a house, having kids, working, growing old, etc. Well now that sounds kind of boring when I put it that way. I never really thought it would be boring at all. It is just how things are supposed to go, I guess. Then again, why couldn't I do something a little out of the ordinary, even for just a short period of time? Round the world trip should at least be something a little different, I figure!

At this point I'm really happy about our decision. It is not like I would have been too tired to finish my studies without taking a break, I'm sure I could have easily done that too. But as we came up with the idea of doing this round the world trip I thought: Yeah, why not?! Of course we should finish our studies quickly and be decent citizens and start earning money etc. But surely something really good comes out of this gap year too. The easiest way to finance this was to start working as soon as we ended school in May, and keep on working until the end of the year. We both got a lot of work experience which means we might be more ready to work as doctors when we are finished with our studies. Also, both this work experience and this year of doing something totally different will give us a lot of motivation to do the rest of the studying.

It was really great to work as doctors already at this point of our studies. Surely it enabled us to make our dream trip come true, and it also was a very good opportunity to learn so much. This summer and autumn have been so interesting and educating. The hospital we worked in had a very nice atmosphere, and everyone was so welcoming and supporting. I feel like this is what I really want to do, also when I grow up. J

Now our work is done, and very soon our first plane will take off. I'm sure this will be the trip of a lifetime!