There is something sacred about the final days of a year—the quiet pause between who I have been and who I am becoming. As I reflect on 2025, I realize it was not a year of loud achievements or neatly packaged victories. It was a year of internal shift, personal reckoning, and courageous recalibration. A year where I stopped running from myself and started listening deeply.

This year, I learned that growth is rarely glamorous. It happens in the tender moments: in the pause before responding, in the decision to walk away from what drains me, in the soft openness required to let love in, and in the discipline needed to pursue a future that aligns with my purpose. I confronted parts of myself that I had avoided for a long time—old patterns, old fears, and old narratives that no longer fit the woman I am becoming.

It was a year of firsts in more ways than one. I visited Disneyland California for the very first time and let myself be fully, unapologetically childlike. The Christmas magic made everything sweeter—the lights, the music, the innocence of joy. It was a reminder that wonder is still accessible, no matter how grown we become.

I also revisited Lake Tahoe for a second time and stepped into the unfamiliar comfort of solo adventures. I kayaked peacefully across Lake Tahoe alone, cycled the Truckee River a few times, and even drove to Reno to see my first magic show. There was something deeply empowering about choosing myself, choosing adventure, choosing independence.

2025 challenged my resilience, invited me to expand my emotional capacity, and reminded me that vulnerability is not a weakness but a doorway. I found myself stretching into deeper self-awareness, stronger boundaries, and a more grounded sense of self-worth. I allowed myself to question what I thought I wanted, and I chose alignment over appearances, peace over pressure, and authenticity over expectation.

This year, I finally joined Equinox—something I had wanted for more than five years. I started playing tennis and joined Tipsē, a tennis social club that brought fresh energy, community, and new confidence into my life. I fell in love with Pilates to the point where I can officially call myself a Pilates Princess, and it feels like a title I earned with joy.

I got a new car after three years of not having one—another symbol of forward movement and regained freedom. I lost 20 pounds, reclaimed my health, and recommitted to becoming the version of myself I always envisioned.

I took myself on dates. I went to the Getty Museum alone and wandered in quiet appreciation. I rode a roller coaster alone and laughed the entire time. I made art. I had patisserie. I let myself savor beauty in the smallest, most intentional ways.

There were moments of joy, breakthrough, clarity, and connection. There were also moments of discomfort, uncertainty, heartbreak, and release. But every experience held a lesson that shaped me. Every challenge became an invitation to rise from a stronger foundation. And every win—big or small—became proof that I am capable of more than I ever imagined.

The most defining moment of my year happened in a burst of spontaneity: I accepted a last-minute trip to Paris—my first time ever leaving the country, despite years of opportunities I never took simply from fear. Something in me shifted the moment the plane lifted off. Maybe it was freedom. Maybe it was courage. Maybe it was finally trusting myself to go.

Paris changed me. I picked up the accent easily, like my tongue already knew its rhythms. I played piano at 3 a.m. in a Parisian home filled with guests and warmth, my fingers moving across the keys as if they’d been waiting for that exact piano, that exact night. I drank merrily, ate caviar, attended soirées, visited the glittering Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Flame of Liberty, and walked along the Seine as if I’d been there many lifetimes. I danced in clubs until dawn, made new friends, and felt a kind of joy that lives in the body. And in the middle of all of that—somewhere between the music, the monuments, and the midnight conversations—I found love. A version of love that felt like discovery, expansion, and alignment. I finally felt safe.

I’m ending this year with a quieter confidence, a deeper purpose, and the knowing that everything I experienced was preparation. I am walking into 2026 not as who I was, but as who I am ready to be.

But beneath all these beautiful vignettes, 2025 was also the year I met myself with deeper honesty. I confronted my attachment patterns, my fears, my emotional reflexes, and the tender places within me that still needed gentleness. I learned how to open my heart without abandoning myself. I learned how to set boundaries rooted in self-worth. I learned what it means to hold love with softness and clarity at the same time.

This year required courage—courage to choose myself, courage to leap, courage to leave, courage to feel, courage to begin again. And now, as I close 2025, I do so with immense gratitude. Gratitude for the adventures I said yes to. Gratitude for the woman I am evolving into. Gratitude for the clarity, the healing, the expansion, and the quiet confidence blooming in me.

I am ending this year reawakened—wiser, softer, more aligned, and more alive than I have felt in a long time.

2025 didn’t just happen to me. I stepped into it. I lived it. I grew through it.
And I am walking into 2026 with a heart wide open and a spirit ready for more.