Hello All! My name is Dan Kimball, and I’m an intern at the Dynamy Internship Year Program. First, a bit about me and my internship: I’m 17, soon to be 18, I’m from West Point, New York, and I’m currently working as an intern for the Greater Worcester Land Trust here in Worcester. I’m an Eagle Scout and will soon be a Scouts BSA Merit Badge instructor for Woodworking, Woodcarving and Forestry Merit Badges, all of which has prepared me well for interning at the land trust. My day-to-day work experience is hard work, but it’s simple enough; the GWLT owns 82 different properties around the Worcester area, each ranging from 0.093 to 487 acres, and I am tasked with hiking through and inspecting/maintaining them. It is my job and great pleasure to spend each and every work day in the midst of forests and ponds, stone walls and creeks, and all the wonderful flora and fauna in between them. I believe wholeheartedly that I’ve hit the jackpot in regards to my internship experience so far, but it wasn’t too long ago that I didn’t feel so confident about the idea of taking a gap year.

When I was in high school, I was pretty heavily involved in the drama club, enough to develop a close bond with the theatre director with whom we regularly worked. One day, I was discussing plans for college with her and she mentioned that she had taken a gap year and couldn’t recommend it enough. Wheels started turning and I came to realize that there were a few potential advantages to taking a gap year: a.) I could close an age gap between me and my peers, as I was one of the youngest students in my school and would’ve graduated college having barely turned 21; b.) it would be a chance to hone some of the more eccentric hobbies and skills I had picked up, such as woodworking and set design for theatre; and c.) as I was planning on majoring at least partially in environmental science in college, I could apply for some grunt work in that career field and get some practical experience under my belt. 

Truthfully, there was also a component of it which allowed me to realize whether a career in environmental science, woodworking, theatre design, or what have you would actually be something I’d enjoy or not. Being a young-in still, I was somewhat uncertain of my future and whether I would choose the right path, and taking a gap year would be the educational equivalent of dipping a toe in the water to check the temperature as opposed to diving in altogether. Dynamy was recommended to me by my parents, who in turn had heard of it from some college classmates of theirs, and from there, it was off to the races for applications. Of special note: I made the choice to apply and accept admission to University of Colorado Boulder (Sko Buffs!) before coming to Dynamy, with the key difference being that I simply deferred my starting term to fall 2021. This way, I had an avenue by which to plan my future AND I’ve already got the next four years lined up anyway.

In any case, I think I’ve rattled on long enough about planning for the future and whatnot. I’ve got a long night’s sleep ahead of me, as I’m planning to tackle Asnebumskit Ridge in the morning, so I’ll sign off for now. Thanks very much for reading!