Recently, I have found myself between incomes. I say “incomes” rather than “jobs”, because before I was but a graduate student, which isn’t really a job per se. But as it turns out, math (and its kissing cousin, computer science) is not as fulfilling as I had hoped…and so I find myself without a paycheck, for the time being.

Strangely enough, the lack of income is actually liberating, because now I can consider all the things I can do without ties to a job, or even the ability to acquire material possessions. A few days ago, I’d even considered scraping together my meager savings, buying a car, traveling across the United States, and writing about my adventures. The tale would be epic: life, I would ultimately emphasize, is more about the people we meet along the way, than anything else. After savoring this idea for a while, I realized that it had, in fact, already been done by Jack Kerouac, about five decades ago, give or take.

Surprising, isn’t it: my life is shackled not by earthly possessions like dollar bills, but by the boundaries of creativity itself.