Prioritizing Radical Rest: An SLP's Journey of Rejuvenation and Reflection

Grab a cup, or two, of one of your favorite drinks because this is a long one. 

I have not taken one gap year, but two gap years in my SLP career, without even realizing it. Let me explain.

The first gap year I took, or what I like to call it, my “student gap year”, was right after I completed my undergraduate degree, in 2011. I did the MOST in undergrad, meaning, I was working, had a full class schedule, was involved in lots of extracurricular activities, barely slept, and by the end of my four years, I knew I needed a break. A long break. This was my student burn-out experience. I didn’t know how to balance everything all the while incorporating self-care practices, which was definitely a foreign concept for me back then. 

I also took time off because I wanted to solidify my plan in pursuing graduate school. I wanted to ensure that I really wanted to go back to school because I realized it was a very expensive decision. While everyone in my class was applying for graduate school and asking me what schools I was going to apply to, I responded with “I am taking a year off and not applying to grad school.” which they replied back with a *shock emoji face*.

So I did just that. I took a year off where I moved back home, worked with adults with disabilities, and volunteered abroad. I ended up finding a special education school in Guatemala and it just so happened that a SLP from Tennessee was going around the same time I wanted to go. 

The Director of the school put me into contact with the SLP from Tennessee and we decided we were going to purchase flight tickets for the same day and meet at the airport, as we were flying from different places. I remember printing out her facebook picture (LOL!) and studying it as I was de-boarding the plane. We eventually found each other in the airport (an international cell phone plan was not in my budget at that time) and we spent the next month together. I was shadowing, observing, and assisting her while she was working at the school. 

After that experience, I knew I wanted to apply for graduate school the following year. So that’s what I did that fall. 

My “student gap year” allowed me to rest, recenter, rejuvenate, and get excited about the field I knew I loved.

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Fast forward to 8 years later, it’s 2019. I completed grad school, got married, and at that point, worked in a variety of settings as a SLP. I spoke to my husband about starting to plan our “professional gap year” (taking time off from your professional job) and thought about traveling around the world for a year. 

This time it was a bit different. I actually loved my school SLP job, didn’t want to leave it, and we both now had school loan debt, a car to pay off, and a much higher rent to pay. Luckily, my husband was all for it, but he had one condition: we had to pay off our debt before we left. I was game. I also knew deep down it was time for me to leave my school and that it was time to pursue some of my other adventurous passions.  

So we did what any person would do, we decided to sell everything we owned, not renew our apartment lease, buy a campervan, and live in it. LOL

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In 2.5 years we paid off our school loans, paid off the campervan (& the build!) and our car, and now instead of paying everything off aggressively, we started to save aggressively.

Then, I realized that this wasn’t my first time taking time off from my SLP career. It, for some reason, finally dawned on me that this was something I already did, almost 12 years before. I am not sure how I did not connect the two together sooner! Let’s just blame the pandemic.

However, what I did know during both times was that I KNEW it was time for a change, it was time for me to pause, and it was time to reflect in order to get rejuvenated about my career AGAIN.

Now fast forward a bit more, it’s 2023. We are on our “professional gap year” traveling in our campervan around the States and traveling around the world. Was it easy to get here? Nope, Nope, Nope! Was it worth it? Yes, Yes, Yes! I also know and realize that I was and am in a place of privilege to make those decisions and beyond grateful I was able to have my “student gap year” and my current “professional gap year”.

What are some of the lessons I have been learning from this time off? I will share that as I wrap my time off next year, but until then, I am prioritizing radical rest in my own way. 

I am not sharing my story because we ALL need to take a year off and throw up the peace sign (although I highly recommend it if you can do it!), but I am sharing this because we need to start normalizing rest in any capacity and form. Whether you are a SLP, SLPA, SLP2B, how can you incorporate radical rest in your career, whether that is in a “small” or “big” way

How do we incorporate radical rest in our daily and weekly life so we don’t burn-out like a flame during a storm? In what ways are you incorporating radical rest and self-care into your daily life?

If you got to the end of this novel, muchisimas gracias for reading!

P.S. I will be creating a post soon about the “smaller” ways I should have incorporated self-care during my graduate experience and how I incorporated it in my professional SLP daily life.