You made it! After over a decade of education, complete with countless mathematical calculations and English essays, you are ready to graduate from high school. You are in an eventful phase of life, overflowing with hopes and dreams. During the excitement of receiving your diploma and throwing a graduation party, you come face to face with the reality that your current decisions set the foundation for the rest of your life.

As I anticipated my graduation in the spring of 2015, the typical questions concerning colleges and careers flooded my mind. In order to give more time to exploring my interests and considering college, I decided I would take what most people call a gap year. Although I knew that God was in control, doubts clutched at my heart. Is my life right now really nothing but a gap? What about college? What am I supposed to do with my life? Ultimately, these inquiries confronted my identity: who I was and who I wanted to become.

Despite these questions, I was excited to see how God would use the coming year. Yet even before my gap year had begun, my life changed forever. In April 2015, my grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The excitement I had felt transformed into grief and uncertainty as I faced losing a lifelong mentor and best friend. Our family made the 5-hour drive to see him as often as we could, yet I felt a pressing desire to be constantly by his side during those last days. Before he passed away in July, I spent two weeks with him and my grandma, striving to help them in any way I could. Although that was one of the hardest things I have ever done, I wouldn’t trade those two weeks for the world. During those weeks, I had many good conversations with my grandpa, read Scripture to him, and saw what it means to follow Christ to the end.

What God impressed upon my heart during those weeks with my grandpa and over the course of the gap year is that both my identity and purpose are secure in Christ, no matter what phase of life I am in. When I have asked, Who am I?, He has shown me that my value is found, not in a job title or college major, but in belonging to Christ and in serving Him with my life. When I repeatedly question, What am I doing here?, He calls me to live for His glory, not in just one area or field of work, but wherever He calls me to be right now—even in the hurt, even in the gap.

As I reflect on God’s faithfulness, I now understand that He used the gap year to give me that time with my grandpa and enable me to grow in many ways. There is no such thing as a gap in God’s plan. I can say with my whole heart that I no longer believe in a gap year. Instead, this has been one of the most foundational years of my life, a season used by God to remind me of my true identity.

As you look to the future and ponder life after graduation, know that even in times of waiting or uncertainty, your life is more than just a gap. God’s plans for you are good and will continue to unfold as you embark on this journey (Jer. 29:11). The questions about who you are and what you are doing may still echo. But whatever college, ministry, or career God calls you to—even if He calls you to a gap year—remember that you belong to Christ and you are here to live for His glory. This is who you are. This is your mission. Let the future begin!

Taylor Dymond | Eastvale (Beaver Falls, Pa.) RPC