Taking of a gap year period

Personal statement I want to apply for a Ph. D. program in Psychology to know is it worth taking a gap year for high school students in America and Kazakhstan. These days, opinions are divided as to whether school students should take a gap year period or not, however, I believe that the gap year is a unique opportunity to investigate yourself more profoundly rather than applying to tertiary education directly. Personally, when I was studying at high school, my English teacher suggested that I have to take the gap year. Having analyzed all crucial details, then I decided to do it. When my peers finished their grades, I had already planned my goals, particularly how I will have a part-time job where I will be an online seller, and how I will improve my Russian, English languages as well as acquire the Chinese language, traveling places by arranging personal itinerary during the next year. Once I have implemented the aforementioned purposes, I understood that my behavior has changed significantly and I have become an open-minded person. For example, I used to be a taciturn boy and I could be much more self-disciplined, I figured out how e-commerce works, also I was able to improve essential qualities, such as communication, problem-solving, creativity, management, empathy, and so on. In this case, I would like to assist people that the gap year is a great chance to investigate yourself for at least a year to know who you are. I believe that it is time to pursue my doctoral degree at Harvard University to prove that my personal experience and life case are valuable for individuals. By conducting research, I hope that I would prove scientifically that the gap year is necessary for every student at high school and they must pay more attention and take into consideration the topic. The main aim of the research is to investigate how taking the gap year affects student’s behavior as well as what kind of skills students acquire after the period. Also, I would like to compare sophomore students with gap year students for the sake of understanding what is the difference between taking and not taking the gap year period. To carry out this research, I need to gather students who had already finished school and got matriculated at tertiary school. I must also find school students who are going to graduate. When I found appropriate people, then I will divide them into two groups where I will implement my investigation by making quizzes, doing interviews, and comparing their results. When I finish this step, I will include all data into dashboards and analyze them. In the following paragraphs, I would like to tell my personal story which is based on the story. Besides, I assume that I would convince admission why I am that person who must study for a doctoral degree. “A humble child who suffered from Perthes disease and finally who reached the requirements of a Doctoral degree” I succumbed to a Legg-Calve-Perthes disease at the age of 4. At that time, I was in kindergarten school but I was not conscious that it is real life. One day, I was playing with my peers inside the campus, and suddenly I fell to the playground. Then, my daycare teacher tried to help me stand up, however, it was in vain. Because I could not feel the right part of the leg and I was not able to control it. Once she understood that it is an unprecedented situation, she called my parents for the sake of informing this case. My mother was flabbergasted while listening to this situation, she immediately came to the kindergarten. Unlikely, my father did not answer the calling, as he was busy. When my mother saw me that I was lying on the earth, my daycare teacher said that she had already called the emergency services. After 10 minutes, an ambulance car reached the destination where local paramedics took me with my mother to the hospital center to make a close examination. In the evening, doctors said that I must stay at the hospital for additional examination, and at midnight they sent me to the X-ray center. As the X-ray center was far away from the hospital, I was sleeping in my mother’s arms whilst going to the place by taxi. When we took the X-ray of my leg, we returned to the hospital to discuss with a surgeon. Having analyzed my X-ray picture, she informed us that I had been suffering the Legg-Calve-Perthes disease since I was born. Nevertheless, my parents had not noticed entirely 4 years until the surgeon said it. The next day, they placed me in a ward where there were also two children with me. We were peers and all of them were boys. Even though, my father was informed about news only after the next day, as he was on a business trip. Admittedly, I did not know that since then probably I would not move on my legs like a human. However, when my mother heard about this, she cried a lot and stayed with me for a week. However, the doctors did not tell me this information, as they said this place is similar to the kindergarten for younger children. When I celebrated my fifth birthday at that hospital, I figured out that my life is not similar to others. As I was lying on the bed for almost a year where my legs were wrapped with gypsum from the bottom part until my knee. Since then, my life was tedious where I have had to sleep, eat, drink regularly. Then, I asked my parents to purchase items for the painting. And, I had been drawing and painting until I was 6. One day, an unknown person came to our ward and said us that she will be our new teacher. Her name was Maira. Miss Maira explained to us the meaning of education and taught us alphabets. She was curious about teaching for children because she majored in inclusive education. We were keen on studying and I studied every word every day by drawing it into paper. Around a month later, we began writing letters, however, it was a tough challenge, as writing a letter was completely different from drawing. Though she motivated us by saying that we will be cured of the disease, and one day we will be new blood who will change our life. I believed in her motivation and continued to study every day. When we improved our literacy skills, she began several subjects, namely Math, Kazakh language, Kazakh literature for younger children, and one elective subject where we choose to study painting. We had only 4 subjects until the age of 8 and Miss Maira devoted all her free time to us. We discussed the life of the outside campus and she encouraged us to pay more attention to education and how it is crucial to be a straight-A student in all subjects. I tried to follow all of her instructions and put all my blood, sweat, and tears to be an assiduous pupil. One night, when we were talking with my friends in the ward, I said them we had been living and lying on the gypsum for almost 3 years. Then, I suggested trying to unwrap our bandages from the gypsum and walk on our legs inside the building. The idea was perfect and they agreed with me, so we did it for the first time. We descended from our bed and gathered together by shaking our hands. At that time, I understood how it is perfect to walk on your legs, as I had not walked from the age of 4 until 7 years. We tried to walk inside the hospital and when we left the ward, suddenly, one doctor noticed and saw us that we were standing on our legs. I still remember that she was astounded and was not able to react, but she screamed from seeing us. We understood that we have a huge problem and we came back into beds then rewrapped our bandages on the gypsum and went to sleep. After around 15 minutes later she came with another doctor to check us. The surgeon understood that we had unwrapped the bandages and then she called our parents. The next day, our parents argued with us and all of us went to the X-ray examination again. After 3 hours, when the surgeon saw our results, luckily, she was surprised by the X-ray. She compared the newest one with the oldest one and emphasized that we have betterment in bone. Thereby, I understood that we should not give up and one day we will attain our goal. The next month was exciting, as our hospital center will be relocated to another place. Because the government allocated a huge amount of money for children who suffered from tuberculosis and Legg-Calve-Perthes diseases. It was the Happy New Year time when we completely moved into the new hospital. For this relocation, even some officials from the Medical Department visited us. They encouraged and bestowed us gifts for the holiday. After one year, when I was 8, our doctors said that they will unwrap our legs from the gypsum and we can only sit on the bed. 6 months later, we were allowed to move only with crutches. We were so excited that we will take off from gypsum. Again, one night that story happened to us. The second time, I initiated to walk on our legs without crutches. My peers supported me and at midnight we did it again. But this time we organized our plan more meticulously. Happily, no one saw us inside the building. Then, we went to the outside of the building, and I saw the yard where I understood how the earth looks like, in terms of the flora. I touched a tree, smelled the grass, run and jumped on the pavement. We walked for a quite long time, and then returned to the hospital when all members and patients were sleeping. Once we were ascending to the second floor, my friend fell from the ladder and his crutches made noise. However, again, one doctor woke up and she was running to us. My friend and I helped him to stand and we took his crutches by dragging him into the ward. Again, that doctor saw us that we were moving without crutches. The next day, our parents and doctors argued that we infringed the rules of the hospital. Our surgeon prescribed us of taking an X-ray again and we did it successfully. When she compared our results with two previous data, again, she was surprised and said that we have an improvement in bone. Then, I completely understood that we have to continue our life whatever challenges we face. So, some months have been elapsed since that situation. When it was spring, we had a new topic where our Miss Maira explained the system of education. She elaborated more deeply concerning tertiary education by emphasizing the Ivy League in the USA. I promised her that one day I will be matriculated at one of the tertiary education there and it was my first dream and ambition in life. When it was May, my doctor said to me that soon I will be released from the hospital and I would be able to walk without crutches. I was so elated when I heard the news and before my 9th birthday, I will be at home. So, I came back home in June and I saw my house after 5 years. At that time, we were living in a one-bedroom apartment with my parents, siblings, and me. As I had a nuclear family, it was quite convenient for me. For the next 2 months, I tried to walk mostly with crutches. Unfortunately, children from my neighborhood despised me. No one talked with me and I was so alone and every time I walked with my crutches everywhere. One day, when I was walking near the local convenience store, suddenly one man who was carrying bread in his car trunk stopped near me. He gave me a piece of bread and asked that “Are you homeless? ”. I took his bread and replied that no of course. Then, he said that his younger brother also suffered from a similar disease and he passed away from life. Besides, he encouraged me to continue to live without paying attention to people’s opinions. Before the fall, my mother said that I have to go to the local school to continue my education. I thought that it would be one room where will study people like me. When I saw the building of the school, I was so surprised that I had never seen such a building. In September, I was studying in the 3rd grade, and this time was the first time when I understood what does it mean school. For example, I had never seen a class, where there are around 30 pupils study together. When I began my 3rd grade it was challenging. Because they took from our tests, dictations, retellings, lots of homework and so on. For a person who had an inclusive education with the 4 subjects, it was unbearable. Also, when I was studying at the hospital, the length of a lesson was around 15 minutes. But in the real-life, the lesson lasted for 45 minutes. I could attend only a maximum of 2 lessons, and after teachers allowed me to go home. Because I had to take a nap then I was able to continue coverage of all my gap information at home. Nonetheless, I remembered what I had experienced in my life and that’s why I understood that I must not complain about the new system of life and I should keep going forward. Frankly speaking, I didn’t have any free time at home. Because I was so taciturn student at school, no one wanted to talk with me, as they knew my background story at the hospital and I had real problems with subjects. I had to study alone at home by reviewing all necessary books from the first grade until the third grade because I had to cover all my gap knowledge. Mostly I took past grades books from the library and studied at home alone. Every time I wanted to give up, but I remembered my word that “How can I be perfect if I do not know what does it mean being as imperfect”. I studied there for 2 years consistently, and when we moved to Middle School we had a new subject. That was English and I was curious about studying it. Since then I have understood that I will pay more attention to the English language and after the lessons, I went to the library to study more and more. I visited the library every day after the classes because I had an ambition where it was studying, living abroad. There was only one way to achieve it by knowing the second language. I struggled a lot, revised so many books in my native language which were written in the Russian language. So, I had to study the Russian language at first, then to study the English language to understand information. Hence, I studied only the Russian language at the intermediate level until the 8th grade when I understood that it is time to study the English language. It was so straightforward to grasp the general meaning of the context in books. Again, I devoted about 2 years to be an intermediate student in the English language. So, when I was studying in High school, I choose a profession that is connected to the English language, and I decided that I will be an interpreter of Kazakh-Russian-English languages. As I spent most of my time reading books, one day I noticed that my eye vision has deteriorated. This time I asked my mother to visit an optician. When they examined my eyes, they said that I have a tumor in my eye. So, I had to make surgery and I was lying on the bed again in the ward for almost a month. During the surgery process, when doctors gave me anesthesia, I saw my dream and it was my previous years. Having seen all my life experiences, I figured out that I should not die and never give up my life. Luckily, it was without any problems. After a month I came back to school. At that time, I was studying in the 11th grade and we had to take an official exam which is called the “Unified National Test” to apply for the university. When I saw my result, I was again dissatisfied with it. I wanted to make suicide because I could not get a scholarship with that result. I contemplated around a week, what should I do and how my life would be in the next decade. This time happened to me when I first choose to take the gap year. One year later my parents supported me in applying for the Bachelor's degree, even though we had to take a loan from the bank and the amount of money was ridiculously high for my family. But I promised my parents that I will be assiduous and put all my efforts to get a degree and one day I will return those amount of money for my parents. So, I was a freshman student where I majored in Translation studies. However, the difficulty of the program was quite complicated for me. Though, I studied all information more profoundly. When I was a sophomore student at tertiary education, I saw advertising on the noticeboard where there was written that students can apply to the Erasmus program which is an exchanging program for local students. Jotting down all prerequisite information, I went to an exchanging program department where they asked me to provide an IELTS certificate with a band of 5-5. 5 overall. Then, I began searching about the exam on the internet, and read what is it, even downloaded the past paper exam, printed out. I tried only the first test, particularly the Listening and Reading sections, but I could get only 5 scores in each section out of 40 questions. I was in a bad mood again, because visiting, living abroad was again unsuccessful for me. Notwithstanding, I continued to study because I had promised my Miss Maira teacher that one day I will be one of the students in the Ivy League. When I understood that I could not apply to the exchanging program I was almost finished my second-year course at university. When I was a senior student, I decided that I have to compile my education with a part-time job to pay my family’s loan. I began to teach for local pupils and I was able to find 2 school students who needed teaching of English language. I tried to teach them via Skype by using a distance-learning method and they liked it. As it was the new method of teaching and we could study online. I taught them for about 2 years before my graduation exam. In 2016, I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Translation studies successfully, and after I applied to the Master's Degree in Translation studies in another city. Unfortunately, I was not able to earn money for covering the family’s loan. I could earn only for moving to another city where I had to study for my MA degree. When I began my Master’s degree it was quite challenging compared to the Bachelor's degree. Because I could study all theoretical information, unlikely, I could not use it practically. For instance, we had to interpret the speeches of official members, and in this case, I could not listen, understand, analyze and speak information simultaneously in a booth while practicing it. I had tried many times, but it was in vain, the same result, then one day I had an idea what If I just make suicide? As this is the easiest way of tackling the problems, but before I wanted to make it I called my mother and talked about my life. I expressed that the degree is so complex that I could not even continue and informed that I want to drop out of my degree. However, she said that it does not matter will I graduate with my degree or not, anyway, she loves me and cares about me whatever happens, and encouraged me to proceed with the education. This time I figured out that blood is thicker than water, and I have to care about my family. Since then, I studied until lunch at the faculty, then went to study more and more at the library and stayed there until closing it, because I must be an interpreter as it was my dream at the library of my school time which I had dreamed about it and it compelled me to keep forward. While studying for an MA degree, I had a great opportunity when I was able to have an internship program in Germany for 2 weeks. This time I was so contented because it was a taste of achievement which I could not try to attend in Erasmus program a Bachelor degree. This internship program allowed to me gain a huge impact of translating materials from Frankfurt Am-Main city where I was able to make my impact of translating materials from Kazakh into English languages. When we finished our job, we came back to our university where we had to take a final examination. In the final examination, we had a speech of our president where students must interpret and translate from Kazakh and Russian speeches into English languages. At that time, I understood that I could do it, and I made great progress. I graduated with my Master’s degree and having studied 6 years at tertiary education I understood that my life is quite similar to the Forest Gump. In 2018, I came back to my hometown. I was looking for a job in Taraz. Unfortunately, I could not find any jobs here for almost 6 months, though I continued to study and improve my English level on C1-C2 level, and one day I found advertising that in a private company, they hire a person who is capable of interpreting, translating and teaching of English language. It was a unique opportunity to gain valued experience. So, since February 1st in 2018 I have been working at school, where not only do I teach the English language, but also I sometimes interpret simultaneously in the seminars or even translate some information in a written form. It is 2021, and I have been carving my niche for myself as a specialist of English teacher/interpreter/translator for almost 3 years. I have already paid off my family’s loan and completed my promising which I had said to my parents. Moreover, I was able to pass an IELTS certificate where I got a band of 7 overall. Nevertheless, I had only one uncompleted ambition which I have not done since childhood and that is promising to my Miss Maira when I said that one day I will be an Ivy League student. I believe that it is time for applying to the Graduate school of Art and Sciences in Phycology at Harvard University where I will major in a Ph. D. degree. Although the Doctoral degree will be challenging for me, I know how I will overcome all obstacles, as I have already found a resolute solution to each of them, that’s why I believe that I am ready to fulfill the last dream of my life. In conclusion, this is my life where not only I experienced several challenges, but also I was able to solve issues. By implementing my promise for Miss Maira, I believe that one day I would be able to write a book according to my life where I record my voice for all chapters for readers and even I would make a film. Overall, that is the end of my story, if you are reading the last sentence, I will be delighted and appreciate reading my statement fully.