2025 has to be one of the most impactful years of my life by far. I can’t remember the last time that everything in my life has dramatically changed the way my very identity has this year.
I started 2025 with a declaration that I would take actionable steps toward complete independence. I swore to myself that I would push myself out of my comfort zone in ways that 2024 could have, and I did.
Taking a moment to list all the things I did this year that I had never done before would take too long, so I’ll summarize the most important ones. This year alone I wrote a couple of poetry collections, started and ended my first relationship, bought my car, worked two jobs while in school, started this blogging site, cosplayed as one of my own characters, and took my first flight. These were all things that I never did in 2024, nor did I have the drive and determination to complete them before.
Writing a poetry collection has been on my mind several times throughout the last couple of years. However, I never had the gusto to actually go through and write one. So, in April, I decided to write a set of poems themed after space titled Starbursts in the Abyss. It’s a short set of poems meant to explore the lifespan of the universe. As a space nerd, I was combining two of my favorite hobbies at a time when I was at my most ecstatic. I felt as though the mid-morning sun was shining upon me at all times. Yet, my anxiety kept telling me those times wouldn’t last. After all, they were influenced by the arrival of someone else, what would happen when they left?
So, fast forwarding to June, I get my second job. My mind is a wreck because I had experienced a breakup. It wasn’t anything serious in hindsight. Yet, it meant the world to me then, but I had a job and was home with my family, so everything was alright. I had some friends to hang with and spent a lot of that summer writing. Some of those pieces have been featured on this website! (Please don’t ask me to highlight all of them; I don’t remember when some of them were written!) My summer was rather uneventful aside from a few trips with friends until August. The most important thing from this summer was creating this website.
August. What a game-changing month you were. August was when I was preparing for my senior year of college. I was frenetic, both excitement and anxiety stirring in this beating heart of mine. Not even dread could drag me through the mud hard enough to stop my nervous excitement. So, when the time came to buy my first car, I found myself glowing with such radiance I could rival the sun’s brightness. I told everyone I could about my car! My summer job had quickly become a more permanent fixture in my life as I needed to pay for my car, so I found myself working two jobs during my fall semester.
Throughout my fall semester, I learned a lot about how much I can do. I learned that I could work almost full-time while attending college. Working that much wasn’t exactly the most fun or the most rejuvenating experience, but it was a learning experience that taught me a lot about creating a better work-life balance. It was a trial, but I surpassed it. I now have the ability and freedom to drive myself wherever I would like. It was a freedom well-earned from months of hard work and dedication. Except, this freedom comes with the responsibility of maintaining a job and earning money.
As Halloween approached this year, I decided to cosplay as one of the characters I had been writing for little over a year by now. Cosplaying as Sabrina from the Blood-Soaked Pier Collection this year was something I never really expected to do at the beginning of the year. It was incredibly exciting to embody somebody I knew on a deeper level as I had created her. The connection I felt between Sabrina and myself was immediate and shocking. I enjoyed trying to interpret how she would respond to things versus how I would and blending them together. I even did a lot of volunteering in my costume, so Sabrina wound up being quite the philanthropist! Going into the new year, I plan to wear more costumes and cosplaying more often!
My most recent addition to this list was going on a flight. It was quite the entertaining experience. From the experience, I can certainly say that I will definitely be flying again in the future. I went for a short flight, but just taking the first step towards exploring new areas outside of normal driving distance will help me prepare mentally for my trip to Japan in early January.
Additionally, my own identity has evolved in ways that most people probably wouldn’t understand. I’m more attuned to my internal world and my emotional center, helping us understand that sometimes our minds are wired a little differently than what our biology says.
Of course, if you’re reading this post, you already know about my blog site. It has been a wonderful journey writing and uploading so many of the stories I have written over my four years of college! As my final semester of my senior year comes closer and closer, I expect that my writing style will become more pronounced!
So, going forward, I think that our main goal for 2026 is to enjoy life. I’ll keep discovering more of who we are. If you’re along for the ride, let’s have some fun with the journey. After all, we only live once, right?
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