In this chapter of life, I am constantly asked about what plans I have for the future. My response often felt like I was just going through the typical motions explaining my college search process. While, amazingly, I love long study sessions and academic calendars, when asked these questions, I sensed a growing desire to do something different; to get out of my comfort zone.
The World Race first entered my vocabulary during my sophomore year of high school, but I quickly brushed it off as something I would never actually do. However, as my senior year approached I found this foreign concept of a gap year reentering my mind. I’ve always had a tendency to run toward things that scare me due to the fact that it usually leads to something great. So, when the idea of a gap year started to scare me a little, something switched in my mind that told me this would be a good thing. After many prayers, I filled out my application to the World Race, completed the interview, and got accepted all in the blink of an eye. That was it. That was the little nudge I needed, the little confirmation that this was the next step. I made a downpayment without a second thought. Sometimes God just cracks doors open and other times he bursts them open so that we cannot deny where we should go.
While the idea of a gap year still intimidates me, I feel this unexplainable sense of peace about it all. My hope is that this opportunity will allow the passion I have for loving and encouraging others to align with my enthusiasm for travel so that He might use me more than ever. In living out of a single backpack, participating in a community of Christ-followers, and daily learning to love people in different ways, I hope to become a mere undertone in the symphony of God’s purpose. Here am I. Send me, Lord.
