Taking Time off?

I don't know why, but suddenly I came to the realization that I do want to take some time off from Yale. I'm NOT going through some early-life crisis. I didn't go through anything traumatizing that made me want to leave Yale (or stay in Singapore for that matter). I guess what I really want is not exactly time off from Yale but more time to learn more about things I'm interested in, while still being able to take advantage of all the career development support that Yale has. This partially stems from how I developed my interest in energy policies and environmental issues at the beginning of this year. I haven't even begun to skim the surface of the complex issues embroiled in all of this climate change/renewable energy/sustainable practices debate. I want to spend a semester, or year studying or interning or even doing research on something relevant to my major. Even though I realize that it will still not be enough for me to fully understand anything substantial, I just want to be more knowledgeable and buy myself sometime before I have to make decisions about a career. I also realize that I could go to graduate school, but life of a graduate student doesn't seem too appealing right now. I think taking a year off is less of a commitment than graduate school, especially when I'm definitely not thinking about going into academia.

I have no idea what I would want to do but I want to explore my options. See what things I could get funded for and what opportunities are out there. I'll definitely be coming back in this fall, I have way too many obligations to flake out. But hopefully I can do this between junior and senior year. It will be quite sad to not graduate with all of my classmates, but I've heard that getting time off is actually well worth it.

Oh yeah, on a lighter note. This past Saturday we just came back from a dinner hosted at Lee Suet-Fern's house. SO COOL! She's the wife of the second son of Lee Kwan Yew (the former PM of Singapore)!!! It was such a beautiful house. Being in Singapore has been amazing. We've been able to have an audience with such high profile people that it seems slightly surreal. Their willingness to entertain us is so flattering, especially when their usual guests are definitely powerful people.
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