Saving January

January was always a bad month for me. The Christmas tree would sit in the corner of our living room, a shriveled corpse and most likely a fire hazard, as my mother refused to let the spirit of the season die, even as the tree did. The toys were all unwrapped, no longer new, and perhaps no longer even interesting. Santa had come and gone, and all that remained was a long stretch of school-filled days before summer vacation. In high school, January meant that my car would be sheeted with impossible frost each morning; my stomach just a little thicker from too many cookies; my brain buzzing from semester exams in the middle of the month and the state debate tournament at the beginning. January meant that I stressed out about finding a date for the TWIRP dance in February, and, as I spent hours at school bustling from one activity to the next, January also meant that I rarely saw daylight. January was always the doldrum time between the holiday season and the more exciting Valentine’s Day. The month of January was just plain dull.

Like most incoming first-year students, I had heard about “J-term” before coming to Luther College, but wasn’t quite sure what to expect. In fact, more than feeling anticipation for the exciting month ahead of me, I was annoyed about cutting Christmas break short. I said goodbye to my friends that attended state schools and headed back to Luther a week earlier than the rest of my high school gang. What I didn’t know (and how could I?) was that Luther College has a unique way to save the dull month of January. And during January at Luther, the rules of life change a bit.

Luther tour guides will tell you that the college runs on a 4:1:4 system, which means that students take four classes each during the fall and spring semesters and only one, month-long, intensive class in between the two semesters. J-term gives students a chance to focus on one topic of study. Classes tend to be centered around topics of particular interest to professors. During J-term, Luther offers courses like “Multiple Hamlets,” “Women and the Workplace,” and “Book-making.” It is also a fabulous opportunity to take one of the many courses that Luther professors offer abroad.

Of course, I had heard all this before, but J-term is a thing that demands to be experienced. For example, my first J-term, among other things, I studied the violent nature of humanity in an anthropology course entitled “Cross-Cultural Perspectives on War,” taught my roommate from New Mexico how to ice skate, attempted cross-country skiing, then attempted downhill skiing on the small slope outside our dorm with my cross-country skis (not recommended), discovered on-line karaoke and perfected Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” hosted a Star Wars marathon in our room, participated in midnight snow football rivalries, finished last place in the intramural “black light” volleyball tournament, and dyed my naturally dark hair a hideous shade of light blonde.

By J-term of my sophomore year, my friends and I, who now resided together in a cluster at the top of Dieseth, had J-term life perfected. While my roommate Marnie journeyed to Ireland and England for a J-term political science course, the five of us "borrowed" trays from the cafeteria and took advantage of the fresh powder by sledding down Luther’s largest hill. I took a creative writing class and spent the month making metaphors and perfecting the way to describe the view from my dorm room window. I also taught everyone how to crochet and our cozy winter evenings (when not doing homework, because yes, there is some of that over J-term) consisted of watching trashy reality television shows in a flurry of yarn and needles.

I spent J-term of my junior year in England (which is another article altogether), while my friends traveled to study literature in South Africa and biology in the Bahamas. We missed the snowy quiet of J-term at Luther, but we were busy scuba-diving, exploring the Tower of London, and traversing wild game parks. For our senior year, we all agreed that we had to be back on campus together. So, for J-term 2004, I was so excited that I came back to campus a day early, making sure to bring all of the January essentials—ice skates, mittens, a football, The Da Vinci Code , yarn, season five of Sex and the City , and food coloring (for experimental "painting" of our snow creations). If future (post-collegiate) Januarys are to be as they were before I came to Luther, I know that at least this year the month will be far from boring.

Jennifer Tomscha is a former @luther contributor and recent Luther grad, now attending Yale Divinity School.