My 2025 Annual Review

Dec 31

One more year has passed and we’re now at the quarter-life stage. Turning 25 this year followed similar feelings to last year when I started feeling a disconnect from my age. The realization that many places no longer consider me a “young adult” was… saddening? Just weird in a way. I kind of get why seniors say they still feel 25 at heart even though they’re 60+. Birthdays don’t feel quite as exciting anymore, although I don’t want to be dreading getting older because it’s inevitable. I hope as the years pass I will find a way to come to terms with growing older because I’m already at a two-year lag.

This year had many challenges, but it was one of the most beautiful years of my life. So much change! Good change, bad change, and change to learn from. As with every year, the questions I’ll be going through in this review are:

Like last year, the questions I’ll be answering in this review are:

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn this year?

And of course, the photo highlight reel.

1. What went well this year?

Marriage! Nate and I got married this year!!! Experiencing the gift of marriage has been such a wonderful blessing this year. The timeline alone is crazy- Nate fully surprised me with a proposal in January, and we spent countless hours almost every day planning our wedding in August. We’ve gotten to navigate moving in to a new place together, merging our routines, and bringing joy into our relationship through dates, games, and conversations.

Friendships. I made a lot of new, close friends this year and got to share some wonderful moments with them! A highlight that comes to mind is the joint Bach Party Nate & I had before our wedding. I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time and it’s been such a blessing to have crossed paths with such amazing people this year. I socialized a bit more out of my comfort zone this year, too.

YouTube & Patreon. VEDIJ (Video Every Day in January) kicked off the year, and it was quite a challenge- especially not knowing that Nate & I were going to be engaged this month. Hours and hours went into making piano/drum/ukulele covers, talking videos, and even super time-intensive videos like my MixxedFit one where I set up interviews with 5 different instructors and edited all the footage together to make a cohesive MixxedFit mini documentary. I also stayed relatively consistent with MIDI tutorials on Patreon, and even crafted a few tutorial packs that are available on my website. Also, my YouTube channel finally got monetized again! This was a huge goal I’ve been trying to hit for a couple years now.

Career & Education. I began the first week of 2025 enrolling in CPCU 500 and aiming to finish 4 courses by the end of this year- and that was accomplished! I knocked out CPCU 500, 555, 556, and Ethics 311 this year. Hours went into studying and preparing for these exams and it’s helped me tremendously in my insurance industry knowledge. I’ve also felt more well-versed in my day-to-day work conversations now that I’ve deepened my understanding of these topics. Also, I mentored in this year’s intern program again which was a fantastic experience! I also made a transition to a new team in Q4 where I’m now in charge of 3 new states after being on the same team for the last 3 years. Again, this was out of my comfort zone, but felt like the right change to make at this point in my career, and I felt so supported by my peers in this transition as well.

Childlike Whimsy. I actually thought that getting the Christmas magic back was impossible once you grew older. I lost hope over the last 5 years or so. Turns out, the formula is much simpler than I thought- it’s just acting on it that takes the most effort. The more time your brain spends thinking about something, the more it affects how you feel. Key word- “time”. In prior holiday seasons I made sure to think about Christmas at least once a day, except despite my consistency these were just passing thoughts that immediately turned into rushing into the next busy thing I was working on. This year, Nate & I spent multiple hours and were pretty consistent every day in December to do something Christmas themed on a daily basis- whether it’s reflecting on Christ’s birth and watching The Bible Project videos, decorating the tree with family, playing Club Penguin or Miniclip Holiday computer games, baking sugary desserts, wrapping gifts, seeing The Nutcracker Ballet, or listening to Christmas music. In doing this, Christmas didn’t feel rushed. It was very intentional once it came around and it felt like we truly appreciated every moment of it. Rushing stifles heartfelt appreciation.

Music Production. Through MONTHS of working on our 2-hour-long dance floor set for our wedding, making the “Ultimate Breach Remix” on YouTube from Twenty One Pilots’s latest album, and finally releasing “Electric Beans” on Spotify, I picked up a few things on music production that I wasn’t familiar with before. Tape delay deserves an honorary mention. Thanks, Nate!

Pop Culture / Celebrities. Nate and I finished watching the Marvel Infinity Saga this year, and I’m so glad he introduced me to it. I can’t imagine what watching Avengers: Endgame was like in theaters, but it must have been a beautiful experience. I’m so glad I finally understand the Marvel universe now! On the celebrity side, we got to meet my favorite actor, Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker!!!) at Phoenix Fan Fusion. ON TOP OF THAT, we ran into Hayden AGAIN at Disneyland a couple months later, and got to briefly say hi. He was so kind! It was such a surreal experience. My sister and I also saw The Jacksons perform and do a meet & greet with Marlon & Jackie Jackson after the show.

2. What didn’t go so well this year?

Physical Fitness. Unfortunately, with some large changes at my usual gym, MixxedFit was no longer part of my daily routine going into Q2 of this year. I stopped dancing each week and hardly lifted anymore. While I did run much more this year than I have in the last few, I lost a lot of muscle and got out of shape. Getting back on track here is one of my top priorities going into 2026.

Spending Habits. I’ve grown too trigger happy with the Doordash order button. I know more self control in this area would result in a much more stable and fruitful financial picture. Late night food cravings are just so tough to beat…

Screen Time. I’ve swung back and forth on this, but generally, I’ve spend way too much time doomscrolling on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube shorts/reels. I did take a few weeks off social media in October which I felt huge benefits from, so going into next year, I’m excited to continue finding ways to live more in the real world instead of being online.

French. No comment- see prior years.

Social Confidence. Not too bad… but a net negative. The last couple years have unfortunately been rough in the sense of becoming overly self aware and consequentially self conscious during presentations, speaking in groups, etc. I did learn a lot of great tips this year and this would be one of the best and most impactful changes I could make in my life.

3. What did I learn this year?

Skipping out on something with the idea that you’ll just enjoy it next time is a bad idea. I used to do this A LOT. In my mind, everything seemed permanent, so there was no fear of missing a dance class or going to a food place because I told myself I would just enjoy the next one. Turns out, all things do in fact come to an end, the human mind just can’t grasp that idea and adequately weight it. I probably would have never learned this lesson without experiencing it firsthand though, because it’s the pain that came from continuously doing this that prevents me from doing it now. My favorite dance classes at my gym eventually came to an end, people move away, food places close down… there won’t always be a next time.

Be the person that makes things happen. I loved playing Ultimate Frisbee when I was younger, and I was so sad that opportunities never really came by anymore to play with others. Then all of a sudden, a friend reached out saying she got a large group together to play Ultimate Frisbee, and I had so much fun! It just takes one person to reach out to a group and make fun things happen. If you want things to happen, sometimes you need to be the person to make them happen!

Assume good intent. Most people have good intentions anyway. Assuming good intent softens hard conversations.

Rushing stifles appreciation. As I mentioned earlier, taking each day in December to celebrate parts of Christmas and carving out time for things to slowly appreciate them brings that feeling of gratitude and appreciation. It’s what makes childhood so magical- you’re just present. I learned about the Default Mode Network this year (it’s the part of your brain that processes information through reflection, using imagination, etc.) and the DMN really benefits from stillness and boredom, which consequentially improves memory, and then makes life just feel more real rather than it all just “passing by”. Turns out, the fix to slowing down life is to just slow down! (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer is a great book on this.)