This past Friday, after 3 year, 6 months, and 1 day (42 months + 1 day), I resigned from my job at GitLab.
And I have no idea what’s next.
I started my first computing job in June of 1992 – and after 31 years of doing this work – I’m taking a break.
I’m incredibly privileged and fortunate to be doing this. It’s been a long time coming, dating back to my time at UNC Chapel Hill, where I had the most amazing spreadsheet of each month I could leave North Carolina university/State employment - and how much money that could be at age 50, or age 53, or age 60 - and while that spreadsheet looks a whole lot leaner after leaving the university system to take a job at GitLab in 2020, we’ve been saving a lot for a while - and I figure maybe I have a year to take a sabbatical.
Or as I like to call it, a Recess
I can’t afford to retire yet, but it’s going to look something like that for a while.
I’m burned out - and I have been since 2014 for sure, I didn’t quite realize how bad it was until this year.
A huge portion of my identity - my work, which became my vocation, my hobby, and really my avocation over the last 31 years - all came crashing down in the last few.
I found myself, in a sense, starting over in a lot of ways. I needed that, but it took a huge emotional toll, so I have a lot of work to do, and I need to have a few conversations with all my past Jasons.
I hope and plan to write a bit more in the coming months - but for now, I am going to be out on the hiking trails, and taking a lot of naps, and harassing the cat.
As a Recess gift, I bought myself a pocket knife. I’ve never really needed a pocket knife, but somewhere along the way I couldn’t stop coming back to it, it’s a Wesn Henry, named after a Scandinavian Grandpa.
Maybe I’ll take up whittlin'