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| Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Statue, Dana Point, CA |
The gap year has overtones of adventure today. A time for young adults to see some of the world, to get in touch with their goals for the future, before continuing their studies.
In the mid 1800s, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. took a gap year of sorts from his studies at Harvard. He signed on as a deck hand for the trading ship Pilgrim, setting off for parts unknown. Finally arriving at California's west coast, after a long journey from Boston, he experienced plenty of adventurous times. And he thought deeply about them, writing his epic Two Years Before the Mast in the process.
Did this adventure shape his future life, his goals, his subsequent attitudes? It would seem so, as he returned to his studies at Harvard, completed his degree in law, then applied his learning to advance the rights of the working man throughout his career as a lawyer and politician.
A bit of hands-on experience worked its magic, yet again. It set the direction for his life. And produced a book that endures because he wrote what he knew.
And doesn't that always ring true ...
