2025: A Year of Gratitude Not Reinvention

In January of 2025 my goal for the new year was to practice gratitude in all aspects of my life. In any circumstance, I would be grateful not for what I could have, but what I did. I would say 2025 was one of the most meaningful years of my life. I entered adulthood and closed the door to my adolescence. I cherished friendships, broke bad habits, and began kindling my interests. I also began focusing on all the things that were going right. I suppose the biggest achievement was graduating high school and holding on to the memories but leaving the school behind. The period after high school and before college is a time of self improvement and readjustment. I heard rhetoric suggesting how one can have a “glow up” for college or new ways to improve their style. But for me, I was not worried about reinventing myself but more so losing the person I built myself up to be. I feared that I may get caught up with becoming the best version of myself before college, that I would not cherish the aspects of myself that needed no adjustment at all. In retrospect, that is the advice I will give my baby cousin before she enters college. That is, who you are & where you are is enough and in no need of change. There comes my second pillar of 2025. Change. The thing about change is it is either a leap or just a single step.  You may arrive at a new destination without realizing you walked the wrong way. For me, it was both. I went to college and moved across the country. But at the same time, subconscious changes were underway. I began developing new habits which then transformed my daily routine. But I want to emphasize one thing. That growth often occurs from the inside out. Authenticity and your truest version of yourself can’t be chased, it is something you grow into. 

With the rise in consumerist trends in contemporary media, it is so easy to become saturated in rhetoric that preaches how you can become the best version of yourself by buying this top, doing this workout, or cutting these types of people off. When in reality, it is all about taking time and appreciating your current self because it has carried you to where you are now. Gratitude, as I mentioned, is the most valuable gift that I have practiced this year. One of the things I told myself was never let your gratitude go unsaid. In other words, tell the people you love that you love them, tell a teacher that you were changed by their words, tell your friends that they hold value to you. These gestures may seem trivial to some but truly it is the greatest most affirming way of holding gratitude. Another thing I valued this year was understanding that nothing is an insignificant feat if you were changed or learned something new about yourself in the process. Time spent trying something new is never time wasted. I have come to grapple with the realization that learning what you don’t like is just as valuable as learning what you do. Adolescence is a period of becoming. It fluctuates but ultimately is given life through one’s discovery of themselves. 

Change is scary, but so is staying the same. So lean in. Embrace what is uncomfortable, embrace those you love, and embrace yourself. One thing that holds meaning in my life is not letting days, interactions, and time in itself, run past me. I have watched memories fall through my hands in grains of sand before I can fully appreciate them. So now I take in every feeling, experience, as an emblem of my humanity. Even in times of grief, distainment, or anxiety these feelings serve as a reminder that you are living life as it should be lived. It is in our nature, to feel sorrow or defeat but also to feel warmth and love. The pendulum swings both ways. 2025 was a year in which I realized life was coming towards me, not at me. In one of my favorite songs, “Management” by Clairo, she sings “I am doing it for my future self, the one who needs more attention” and my 2026 is simply that. I want my actions to benefit my future self, even if those actions are more challenging at the moment. A lot of my growing up has consisted of holding on. I have held on to friendships, memories, and items that represent familiarity and chapters of my life. People that have hurt me, memories that haunt me, and items that collect dust. I hold on because I am afraid of letting go. But you can’t hold on to something that isn’t holding on to you. So let go.