In Defense of the Gap Year

“What’s it like, not having homework?”
“So, what do you do every day?”
“Oh, are you still here?”
“I didn’t know you were writing a book! I thought you were sort of waiting around for college. You are still going to college, aren’t you?”

I have been asked endless variants of these questions, and I’m only halfway through my gap year. I know that they weren’t asked with any hostility, animosity, or judgement, but the tone and amount of the questions does weigh on me.

I did not choose to take a gap year so I could leech off of my parents for another year. A gap year was not a simpler, less scary option, in fact it provides an openness of schedule and opportunity that seemed daunting. I chose a path that is slightly off the generally chosen one, and here are my reasons for doing so:

1. Bible school. I have been struggling with my faith in an all-powerful, all-loving, and wholly invisible God in the past few years. In reading through my Bible, I developed many massive questions that couldn’t be overlooked, questions about God’s character and the way he wanted his people to live and how to grow in relationship with him. During my time at Tauernhof, I lived in a diverse community of people who were all invested in exploring more about God every day of those months. The speakers, who each dove into a given topic for a full week, were engaging and drew me deeper into understanding an incomprehensible God.

2. Finishing my book. Six years ago, in the back of a boring school ceremony of some kind, I had an idea. I pulled out my little red notebook and scribbled down the beginnings of a story of creatures whose souls were stars and the prophetic girl thrust in their midst. The story has been on the back burner for all those years, but I have now straightened out both plot and characters and am 34,000 words into the complete, from-the-ground-up rewrite of the first draft. It can be difficult to focus on it every day, but the joy of seeing my story unfold and watching the word count tick up is immensely rewarding.

3. Serving. A friend of mine is an absolutely fantastic woman. She is a bulldozer and a firestorm, and she has started an organization (called the Bright Women’s Association of Today, contact me for info on giving) to help single mothers in the hell and prejudice and abuse that they often experience here. I am currently working with my dad to write and produce a video project telling the story of one of those women.

4.  Continuing Arabic. I have studied the Tunisian dialect of Arabic for almost six years, and switched to Modern Standard Arabic for my senior year. After six months in America and Austria, I returned to realize how much I now genuinely enjoy speaking, reading, and writing this language. The first weeks of the new year were mostly filled with an Arabic intensive of three hours a day, and I have continued with one hour a day since then.

5. Volunteering. I am thrilled to help Gateways2Life for three months starting March 15th on the island of Lesvos in Greece. This is a huge and daunting opportunity, for though I have lived overseas before and I do speak Arabic (but not Greek), I will be staying for three months in my own tiny flat, buying and cooking my own food, and spending short but intense days helping at a community center for refugees before traveling back completely on my own.

Yes, moving away from my parents to an entirely separate continent was terrifying for me last year. I ended up doing so anyway. I have scaled Alps (once when I was miserably sick because I’m stubborn), traveled cross-continentally alone, tackled the large-scale project of a full-length novel with dedication, wrestled with and grown in my faith, and ultimately grown my identity outside of both family and school.

Without this year, I would have missed all those opportunities to grow myself and help others. I would have gone straight into college because that was what was expected of me, not knowing how to connect or who I was or what I wanted to be. This year has not, of yet, magically answered all my questions, but it has taught me that every human being has their own questions and if we never moved forward through our uncertainty, we would never grow.

It saddens me that so many people dismiss a gap year offhand, without seeing the potential for growth and service. It is becoming more and more acceptable to take a gap year, and that is the way it should be. Sometimes students who have spent the last twelve years of their lives in the school system need a bit of a break to sort out their priorities and who they are outside of artificially imposed deadlines, so I would urge any graduate to at least consider the opportunity before moving on as though it doesn’t exist.

All I know is that this year has changed me, and I wouldn’t have it differently.