After 6+ years with a consistent salary and good healthcare, I’m taking the leap again. While I thoroughly enjoyed the stability and benefits of a full-time job—especially after burning out—the timing for a change has never felt more right and I’m just itching to get back out there. I can feel it in my bones and I’m ready. But when I say “taking the leap” or “getting back out there”, I mean it in a way that’s more like a return to independent life than a departure from job life. A return to my natural environment.

If I’m being honest, I’ve always felt like an imposter at a full-time job—a freelancer in full-timers’ clothing. Not needing to pay for healthcare, my laptop, or lunch was surreal at first, like I was getting away with something. Holidays counted as actual time off instead of regular workdays without distraction. Tax season was the push of a button compared to the soul-crushing marathon that I’d brace for each year. To a freelancer, full-time life felt like an all-inclusive resort.

Over the years, I definitely embraced this more stable way of life, but it never felt real to me. In the back of my mind, I knew I’d someday return to independent life. As much as I wanted to fully commit myself to a company—no matter how successful it might be—it would never come close to the excitement I have for my own ideas. This excitement is a palpable energy that’s impossible to hide. The thought that I could someday support myself by growing one of my own ideas into a sustainable career is a constant daydream that feels almost painfully attainable.

I’ve had this thought before, and I came up short, but this time feels different. I have additional decade of experience under my belt, an exponentially larger network than before, and a real hunger to jam with startups again. We also live in a time where being independent isn’t as isolating or limiting as it once was. And, most importantly, I have an idea that makes me feel like I’m going to burst out of my skin every time I think about it. Without a doubt in my mind, this is the time. This is my time. I’m so ready to run it back.