Colleges have J-Term, short for January term. It’s a shortened period between fall and spring semester where students have the opportunity to dedicate three or four weeks to one class. Often students are encouraged to travel abroad for the month or take a class tangential to their normal course of study.

It’s an opportunity to expand beyond the traditional classroom norm, to stretch the limits of the schedule to learn in a new place, in a new way.

I graduated from college a handful of years ago, but I just recently registered for my first J-Term. However, instead of a month on the calendar, my J stands for JOY.

Last Friday was my last day at my place of employment. And starting this week I am choosing joy.

To be fair, I also chose employment. I chose school and work to give me the education and experience I needed. I am extremely thankful for the things I’ve learned and the people I’ve met. But, there was still something more that seemed distantly, yet distinctly, possible.

There is something about working on someone else’s to-do list, on someone else’s schedule that stifles creativity, in my opinion. An employer makes you use PTO if you want to clear your head on a sunny Thursday afternoon bike ride. But no HR department, that I know of, gives extra credit for laying on your bed at 11:00PM when you conceive an idea to code a journal entry in a certain way to provide better job cost reporting.

There is definitely a time and a place to be an employee. I have no qualms about spending time as one. But luckily I can—for now, in this season—step outside of that paradigm and try something new to me.

Since college, I have been responsible and diligent in my spending and finances and that is allowing me this window of opportunity to be reckless with my time. To spend it chasing the ideas and dreams that have kept me awake on various nights over the years.

As I explained to some colleagues on my last day in the office, this next period of my life is not about money. It’s not about making the next logical step in my career or strategically enhancing my resume. It is not LinkedIn approved! The next chapter is about joy.

I am hammering away at ideas and to-do’s that I have long deferred. And I am seeking new projects that I can be passionate and joyful about, that I can unabashedly pour my whole heart into. And if throwing effort and sweat and experience and education at a series of projects yields a revenue stream, hallelujah!

Psalm 16