Our Gap Year (Explained)

I did it! I moved to Switzerland to join Cam who has been here since the beginning of August. This summer was a whirlwind of decision making, soul searching, and simply jumping on opportunities.

Throughout the last year, we knew Cam wanted to pursue professional hockey after finishing his eligibility at UNB. At the beginning, we weren't entirely sure what this was going to look like, but it would most likely involve doing long distance with me being in Fredericton teaching and Cam playing in a different city. 

Although we knew travelling to Europe was something we both wanted to do in the future, it wasn't until Cam got a call from a team in Switzerland that we even considered doing it so soon. When Cam told me he was throwing a wrench in the "hockey decision talk" I was not expecting it to be this, but it immediately excited me. Within less than a month from that first call, Cam was flying to Zürich. 

From the very beginning, we knew that if Cam was going to be this far away, I was going to be too. We knew that this was way too good of an opportunity for us both and we could not pass that up. Our family and friends were so excited for us, supported us through the whole process of preparing and never questioned our decision as they knew it was what was best for us. 

When it came to telling others, I always received mixed reactions. For the most part, people were excited and thought it was an amazing opportunity, while others questioned my decision. It became very common for the question of what I was going to do started coming up, or feeling judged for giving up a hard-to-get job offer I had in Fredericton. I felt really good about my decision and had no doubts, but still hated that I felt as if I had to justify my decision to come with Cam on this adventure, especially to those with opinions that didn't matter. 

Just recently I had brunch with a group of girls I met through the hockey team at UNB. We got onto the topic of judgements from others when they find out we are dating someone who plays hockey, or the facial expressions when they say "oh, so you're following him?". This would never happen if we were moving for any other job or career.

Cam and I do not see it this way at all. We see it as an amazing chance to get to see new places and gain new experiences together. Hockey can make things complicated and challenging, but this is one of the benefits that we wanted to fully take advantage of. I knew this, and felt good about it, but those looks of disapproval still got to me while preparing for this move. Something Cam said made me feel better about putting off my career for awhile. He told me that I had done everything I was supposed to do up until this point, and am going to work for many years to come, so why not look at this as a "late gap year".

Not that it needs to be justified or needs a title, but what a wonderful "gap year" it will be :)

+Kahli