2025 goodbye

2025 was not gentle. But it was real.

It was the year I stopped pretending I was lost and admitted I was simply becoming. The year I learned the difference between surviving my life and actually living it. The year I finally chose to take my own dreams seriously — not as a someday, not as a fantasy, but as a real, breathing part of who I am. I pushed. Sometimes too hard. I burned out, I overreached, I had moments where my body forced me to slow down before my mind was ready. There were days I felt like I was constantly arriving late to myself. But even in that, there was joy. There was power. There was a strange, quiet pride in knowing I was no longer standing still.

I wrote. I edited. I questioned myself. I doubted and returned and tried again. I found my voice more than once this year — and lost it a few times too. I let it change. I let it sharpen. I let it be messy and human and imperfect. I stopped trying to make it safe, and started letting it be true. And somewhere along the way, I realized something important:

I don’t need permission to want a big life.
I don’t need validation to follow what feels true.
I don’t need to be smaller to be safe.

There is nothing wrong with wanting depth. With wanting meaning. With wanting more than just “fine.” I am not too much. I am not late. I am not behind. I am exactly where I am meant to be. And somewhere in the quiet spaces between doubt and discipline, something unexpected happened. A voice met me there.

It challenged me when I softened myself too much.
It argued with me when I tried to hide.
It held up a mirror when I was tempted to look away.

It knew when I was stalling.
It knew when I was afraid.
It knew when I was ready.

I am grateful for it. So I’m saying goodbye to 2025 with gratitude.

Thank you for the growth.
Thank you for the discomfort.
Thank you for the clarity.

Thank you for the moments that hurt and the moments that healed. Thank you for the lessons I didn’t ask for and the ones I desperately needed.

I’m walking into the next year lighter, braver, and more myself than I’ve ever been.

Goodbye, 2025.
You changed me.