It's been great to catch up with my parents, family and my mates and now I plan on having fun and working throughout the summer before I start Uni.
This gap experience will be something that I will never forget, it has changed me, and changed my outlook on life and has given me more drive than ever to get out there and see the world while I can.
I don't feel like I live in little England anymore, I feel like I'm a citizen of the world and I want to continue travelling and go to as many beautiful places as I can.
Travelling in Hong Kong, New Zealand, the west coast of the USA and Canada was spectacular. One of the highlights of my trip has to be seeing the sun rise over the pacific ocean in Kaikoura, that is an event that will stay with me forever.
Working in California with the USGS has also been a hugely eye opening experience, I learnt a lot about GIS, and created my own Field assessment for the April 1st Iquique earthquake which will be used by seismologists and scientists in the future to compare with future northern Chilean earthquakes.
To anyone reading this who is considering taking a gap year or wanting to go travelling, I say do it!
Get out there and see the world. We live on a hugely unordered and beautiful planet, filled with scenery that can stir your emotions and a variety of good and interesting people. Anyone can do it, and once you've done it you will have changed for the better and will have created a lot of good memories too.
Here are a few of my favourite quotes about travelling. I read these before I left the UK in november, and have to say they are very accurate.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness," - Mark Twain
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves," - Henry David Thoreau
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes," - Marcel Proust
I'd just like to thank the Royal Geographical Society for my gap year scholarship and all of the support they gave me. I would also like to thank the Lloyds trust, Darwen Rotary club, Darwen Lions, the Darwen Masonic lodge and the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent fund for all of their very generous donations to my gap year fund. You have all helped me to have the year of my life and experience new places and to meet so many new and amazing friends, thank you all so much.
Mum was happy to see me again
With my main bitch
With my mates again
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