Looking back on the past two years my plans have changed countless times. Originally after graduation I had decided to apply for a school called Class Alfoat, an insanely cool program that caters to grade 12, gap year, and first year university students. Class Afloat accepts around 60 students to live on a tall ship for one or two semesters to gain experience sailing and travelling. The year starts in Amsterdam where you spend three days learning the inner workings of the tall ship, the basics of sailing and working within a team. After that, you spend the year sailing between ports and exploring cities down the west coast of Europe and Africa all the way over to Brazil and up to the Bahamas. The program is intense and busy all the time. I applied to this program in grade 11 and was accepted a few months later.
For the summer after grade 11 I worked at an outdoors store near Algonquin Park and lived in a little cabin off my grandparent’s property. It was the first summer with my license, and first time I was living “on my own”, basically the first time without my parents living close by or cooking me dinner. I spent the whole summer working full time, driving south to visit friends and making my own plans without having to check in with my parents or other adults. After that, my whole idea of a “gap year” changed. Through the Class Afloat program, you experience sailing and travel within a safe environment, but there was no freedom beyond the short periods of free time you got in each port. I wouldn’t have been able to choose what I did in different cities, I would have a curfew, and would have to report to my teachers or other crew on the ship.
I wanted to be able to choose my own destinations and move on my own timeline. That is when my friend and I started to plan our own gap year. Before Covid-19 sprouted up two years ago, we had always dreamed of going to the Greek islands, seeing Italy and Australia, basically following every high schooler’s travel dreams and backpacking any continent that isn’t North America. We made plans to travel together outside Canada as soon as we made enough money after graduation to do it.
And again, all of that changed. Earlier this year 2021, we realized that travelling outside of Canada was a) too expensive, and b) too unpredictable with the current state of the world. So , we decided to buy a van, convert it, and travel Canada and the States.
And – if you’ve caught on to the theme of this story – that again changed. My friend’s plans to do a gap year with me were riding on her university accepting her deferral. Unfortunately it was rejected due to the number of applicants and the competitiveness of the program. In some ways the change of plans brought up more exciting ideas, and in other ways it limited the options I had for the year.
Travelling alone as two 18 year old girls can be sketchy enough, but travelling alone as a young girl? That changes the whole game. When I am older I want to travel the US and do all the trips we had originally planned, but at this point in my life, I am not prepared enough or confident enough to be on my own in a country I am not familiar with.
After all the re-planning and contemplating my options, I decided that Canada was the best spot for me. I’ve been across Canada a few times; I have been from Vancouver to Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territories, and spent many school breaks in the Rockies. Canada is such a beautiful place and yet because I grew up here, I always thought travelling beyond it was more appealing. It has only been the past year that I have really started to realize how much this country can offer.
I have only worked full time the past two summers which I knew would not be enough to fund a whole year of travelling. I decided to start applying to ski resorts in Alberta and British Columbia for the winter season as part of my new plan. My brother and I were lucky enough to go on ski trips to Alberta with family friends and there I realized how much fun skiing could be, and especially how incredible it is in the mountains. Ontario does not measure up to the Rockies in any regards. I never really wanted to spend the whole winter in Canada, mostly because I wasn’t obsessed with the idea of sleeping in the Mom Van at -30 degree weather. But, as soon as I found that most ski resorts offer staff accommodation, my mind was made up.
I started applying to a few different resorts (most of which I had visited in the past) and waited until I got a response. Eventually I heard from a few resorts and met with the heads of each department until I decided on and accepted a lift operator job at a resort outside Banff for the coming winter. My name is on the list for staff housing and my fingers are crossed that I get it so that I don’t actually have to freeze my ass off in the Mom Van all winter.
I end my summer job in a few short days and I am aiming to leave Ontario at the end of September as long as I get everything sorted out at home and with the van. My parents’ plan is to head out West after me and along with my brother who is already out there, which means I have twice the work to do at home. Not only do I have to sort through the abundance of outdoor clothing I have, I have to become a minimalist in order to fit everything into the van, and pack all my things from my parents’ house. I never realized just how much crap you can fit into a tiny room until I started rooting through my closet. To my surprise, I have managed to cut down my books by half, as well as my clothes. The only things I cannot bring myself to get rid of are my hoodies. And you know what? I am perfectly okay with that. My hoodies can live in a box for a year if they have to, as long as I don’t have to decide between them.
My gap year has been in the works since I was in grade 10, and now that things are finally coming together, it feels a little surreal. It seems like yesterday when I watched my brother graduate and set out on his own gap year. My brother has been out of high school for two years now, living in British Columbia at university and has loved every minute of it. I have always known that my own graduation would sneak up on me. It’s been three months since high school ended and already my friends are starting up at their respective schools. Time can fly and I keep forgetting to remember that.
Some have commented that I am “following my brother” in my plan to move out West. In a way, yes I am. And in so many other ways, I am not. My brother and I hold so many common interests that it would be odd if we didn’t end up somewhere close by to one another. But the path I am taking to get there is wildly different than his simply because we are two different people. Soon my whole family will be scattered along the Rockies, but it is because the four of us all have some sort of dream we are living out independently of one another. I see no problem with that. And hey, if it means I can get a home cooked meal once in a while and Christmas with my family, that seems perfect to me.
To end off this long rambling story, I have added a few photos of me and the Mom Van. In my next post I am hoping to have a detailed overview of my design and building process, so stay tuned!
If anyone has suggestions for storage or ideas for a small kitchen layout in the tailgate, I’d love to hear them 🙂
Julianna Cook 