When I think about the year I’ve had, I can’t say with immediate certainty whether it was good or bad. If I had some major life-altering event, I’d say it was good. If I had some prolonged period of turbulence, I’d say it was bad.

Since I experienced neither extreme, I’m left with some internal turbulence. I’ve always liked to sort things in life into binary classifications even though almost nothing ever truly fits. Not being able to clearly label my year as good or bad forces me to accept something in between.

This discomfort is compounded by the way I crave and glamorize wild and drastic change and shiny transformation. Since little of what I did this year can be described in that way, I can barely remember what I even spent the year doing. If I don’t truly focus and dig out the details, it’s as if I suffered amnesia.

I need structure to succeed, and sometimes, simply to move forward, so I’ll start by recapping my year in the following categories: travel, work, hobbies, and relationships.

Like most years, January, February, and March were full of skiing. Sam and I celebrated our anniversary by visiting Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho which we concluded to be underrated and spectacular. In February, I celebrated Graysie’s birthday by spending a cozy weekend in Manzanita, Oregon. In March, I visited low-traffic parts of California (Visalia, Bakersfield, Santa Clarita) with my family, ultimately settling in Palm Springs for Indian Wells over the weekend. We had a delightful family vacation full of pickleball, tennis, biking, and chaotic planning and execution. In April, I visited Phebe in SF and experienced true spring skiing in Tahoe as I sported my sweater, no gloves and sweat drenched snowpants around the mountain.

Then, the big one. I visited China for two weeks bringing Sam and reuniting with all my extended family. This was a really special trip for the both of us, and we’ll remember our time spent in Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhangjiajie, and Shanghai forever. In June, I went back to SF for a work trip where I spontaneously spoke on stage for ~3 minutes. In the summer, as a birthday gift for Sam, we went back to Estacada, Oregon where we spent our first weekend vacation together three years ago. We made a delectable dinner over the firepit and enjoyed the sunset, and Sam tricked me into an incredibly demanding bike ride around Mt.Hood.

Through summer, my biggest priority is staying in Seattle. Sam and I had many outdoors adventures including camping at Hidden Lake for my birthday and spending Labor Day weekend at the ineffable Jade Lake. At the tail end of summer, I paid a visit to Virginia and Massachusetts and had two meaningful weeks visiting family. While there, I visited Ilana in Virginia Beach and met her boyfriend and cats. I also visited Michelle in Charlottesville where I was very impressed with her new grad school life and fell in love with Dr. Merlin. In DC, I made a lovely pitstop to see Jayla and also got to meet her boyfriend. In October, I grew restless and went on a trip with Ilana to Greece where we island hopped to Naxos and Paros. Finally in December, I stopped by NorCal to stay at my friend’s house before heading home for the year.

Regarding my job, I worked really hard this year. I hit tight deadlines and worked under lots of pressure, internal and external. It honestly wasn’t smooth, and I cried many times and had numerous existential crises. I thought deeply about my future and made multiple career action plans with no follow through. I tried to switch teams and failed and now my future at work is unclear. I feel as if I am at a turning point and soon, I will need to make some important decisions.

As for my personal interests and pursuits, I finally set up my blog this year! I procrastinated it heavily, so I’m proud of myself for finally creating it. I also continued to play pickleball but shifted my interest to tennis. I joined a tennis league, won my first match and also lost two. Earlier in the year, I accomplished one of my new years resolutions by running the Cherry Blossom half at 8:23 min/mile. I started crocheting again, making two pairs of shorts amongst other items. In late August, I discovered my love for triathlon races after completing my first sprint triathlon and open water swimming for the first time. This is in huge part thanks to Sam for encouraging me to buy a bike which allowed me to unleash my enthusiasm for biking. I also discovered some other unknown interests like VR and seafood boils. Both of which I have frequently many times in the latter half of the year. Additionally, I played in a kickball league and finally understood how baseball works making Mariner games drastically more interesting.

Finally, to recap my relationships, I’ll start with my most important one: shoutout Sam! Sam always makes my life better and this year was no exception. He continued to support me through my highs and lows and remains my most trusted ally. He will always be my tier one confidante, collaborator, thought partner, adventure pal, and partner. Now touching on friendships, I saw and connected with almost all of my old pals from childhood, high school and college this year. I also continued to build on my friendships in Seattle and even made a few new friends. I spent a lot of quality time with my immediate family and even my extended family in China. All in all, I had a fulfilling year of enjoying and strengthening my different relationships.

Outside of these categories, other updates I have are that Anna visited Seattle twice this summer, and we hiked Crystal Lakes with Mars, swam at Magnuson, and biked around Bainbridge. My sister also visited Seattle which I most greatly enjoyed. She was quite jet lagged, so it was less activity packed but we attended a grill in Sam’s backyard. In the middle of the year, I made an expensive trip to Urgent care for an ovarian cyst. Since this allowed me to meet my deductible, I figured I might as well finally visit the psychiatrist where I was diagnosed with ADHD. Unrelated, while I was snorkeling in Greece, I saw a common octopus underwater.

While the Urgent care visit was fruitful in the sense that it indirectly led to my ADHD diagnosis, it was not pleasant, and I’d like to leave this sort of experience in the past. Also, I like to leave conflicts in the past. Since I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, hopefully I’m also leaving anxiety in the past. Along with that, I’d like to say goodbye to existential crises and excess stress related to work and my future.

My year wasn’t full of mystery and shock, and it wasn’t life changing in the ways I love. However, it was consistent and built on my previous successes and interests. I experienced a lot of happiness nonetheless and am continuing to work towards my goals and spend time doing the things I love. This is the bulk of what life is and what positive change looks like, so I need to learn to appreciate the slow progress and small wins. In this next year, I must admit I do crave change and life changing events. Whether or not that happens, I look forward to a good year.

Ranking the Books I Read:

  1. Boys in the boat
  2. Either/Or
  3. Down the drain
  4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  5. Eleanor Oliphant
  6. The midnight feast
  7. Red rising
  8. Fight club
  9. The good life

Ranking Movies I Saw:

  1. Sinners
  2. Bugonia
  3. Chainsaw Man
  4. One Battle After Another
  5. Weapons
  6. F1
<
Previous Post
WINTER BUCKET LIST 2025
>
Next Post
2026 New Years Resolutions!