Geoffrey Yang - WritingAdventure

6 months ago, I stepped away from convention to take a learning gap year.

It’s been one of the most confusing yet fascinating periods of time in my life.

Jumping away from the structure in the system and getting thrown in the deep end was often unnerving.

But I did have one north star to help guide me:

Adventure.

In modern society, adventure is stereotypically associated with a brash, thrill seeking, risk taking young person. Someone who chases sensation for the sake of it and is reckless yet brave.

But adventure is far from action.

Adventure is subtle.

The thrills came from the 4:30 wakeups for runs on the Sydney Harbour, the random people I met at festivals like Sunrise exploring startups, VC and tech, or taking Everlab meetings on a laptop on a packed train (and the out-of-sync happy birthdays).

It’s about not giving a crap about external thoughts, getting interesting things done, and sticking to principles (link in comments).

Adventure is unparalleled freedom.

But was it worth it?

For learning? Absolutely. Working the equivalent of a FT workload (at 1 point 6 roles in tandem) while balancing reading, fitness and a bit of travel was a great way to dip my foot into responsibility and learn to go wide.

For clarity? Not so much. I used to think clarity precedes action, but now realise action also precedes clarity. Often, huge learning intakes also hinder clarity, but more on that later.

I'm switching things up again, cutting the gap year short (into a gap semester) and heading to uni… because I think that’s what would bring me the most adventure.