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Stuff White People Like #120 Taking a Year Off When someone goes through a stressful experience they usually require some time off to clear their head, regain

by mhartl 14y ago

Stuff White People Like #120 Taking a Year Off When someone goes through a stressful experience they usually require some time off to clear their head, regain focus, and recover from the pain and suffering. Of course, in white culture these experiences are most often defined as finishing high school, making it through three years of college, or working for eleven months straight with only two weeks vacation and every statutory holiday (“they don’t count because I had to spend them with family.”) Though you might consider finishing school or having a good job to be “accomplishments” many white people view them as burdens. As such, they can only handle them for so long before they start talking about their need to “take a year off” to travel, volunteer, or work abroad. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/01/11/120-taking-a-year-off/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/01/11/120-taking-a-year...

salem 14y ago
It's not necessarily a year off, but a year outside of the direct path from secondary to tertiary study. For Australians, working while traveling for a year in Europe is quite normal.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  Over the course of my life I've met more Australians doing the "Travel the world for a year" thing than any other nationality. By far. From here it almost seems like a cultural institution, but of course I'm not meeting the people who don't do it.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Yes, middle class white people from affluent western societies like to do certain things that other people don't. Why is the internet behaving like this is some new fact we were not previously aware of?
- ashray 14y ago
  I think it has more to do with the fact that affluent people from other countries don't do the gap year thing and this is why it's seen as a 'white phenomenon'. I'm brown (from India) and have been traveling full time for the past 1 year with my girlfriend (who is white, from Portugal) and we've rarely met any non-white travelers even though there are plenty that can afford to. I think it's just cultural. White people have stronger wanderlust. (Back home everyone thinks I'm crazy :P)
scarmig 14y ago
Ah, yes. People raised in non-white cultures, after they end up in a place with relative status and luxury, never take a year off. After all, they're all diligent workers who have no need for such bourgeois goods as self discovery and me time.
- yen223 14y ago
  As a non-white person, this is unfortunately rather accurate.
  - runawaybottle 14y ago
    As a non-white person that grew up rather poor, and know a lot of other similar people, I don't find this accurate at all.
dandelany 14y ago
Unlike the rest of the Internet, where a joke suffices just fine, generally HN requires that you have a point. So - what is yours? Obviously a "gap year" is something that not everyone can afford to do. The same could be said of college. That fact alone doesn't speak to the merit of the idea.
- mhartl 14y ago
  I do have a point, but I think you'll be more inclined to consider it if you first make a guess yourself. So, what might my point be? Hint: Read some more of the entries at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-peo... and ask the question, "In what way might these posts be more than just jokes?"

by mhartl 14y ago

salem 14y ago

It's not necessarily a year off, but a year outside of the direct path from secondary to tertiary study. For Australians, working while traveling for a year in Europe is quite normal.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
Over the course of my life I've met more Australians doing the "Travel the world for a year" thing than any other nationality. By far. From here it almost seems like a cultural institution, but of course I'm not meeting the people who don't do it.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Yes, middle class white people from affluent western societies like to do certain things that other people don't. Why is the internet behaving like this is some new fact we were not previously aware of?

ashray 14y ago
I think it has more to do with the fact that affluent people from other countries don't do the gap year thing and this is why it's seen as a 'white phenomenon'. I'm brown (from India) and have been traveling full time for the past 1 year with my girlfriend (who is white, from Portugal) and we've rarely met any non-white travelers even though there are plenty that can afford to. I think it's just cultural. White people have stronger wanderlust. (Back home everyone thinks I'm crazy :P)

scarmig 14y ago

Ah, yes. People raised in non-white cultures, after they end up in a place with relative status and luxury, never take a year off. After all, they're all diligent workers who have no need for such bourgeois goods as self discovery and me time.

yen223 14y ago
As a non-white person, this is unfortunately rather accurate.
- runawaybottle 14y ago
  As a non-white person that grew up rather poor, and know a lot of other similar people, I don't find this accurate at all.

dandelany 14y ago

Unlike the rest of the Internet, where a joke suffices just fine, generally HN requires that you have a point. So - what is yours? Obviously a "gap year" is something that not everyone can afford to do. The same could be said of college. That fact alone doesn't speak to the merit of the idea.

mhartl 14y ago
I do have a point, but I think you'll be more inclined to consider it if you first make a guess yourself. So, what might my point be? Hint: Read some more of the entries at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-peo... and ask the question, "In what way might these posts be more than just jokes?"