A New Year Reflection: What This Year Gave Me, Took From Me & Taught Me
How in the ever loving FUUUUCK is it December 31, 2025??
I blinked.
I moved.
I sharted.
I moved again.
And then it was Christmas?? 🤨
I know I say every year that time is flying— but this one?
This was the year I kept saying, “How is it already (insert month here)?”
And then continued living as if my dreams were going to magically build themselves while I made coffee and hoped for the best.
Think again, bitch.
Let’s get one thing straight before I spiral unnecessarily.
I had WINS this year.
Mini wins.
Medium wins.
And then the kind of wins that knock the wind out of you and make you sit quietly for a second because… holy shit.
ENORMOUS WINS.
In love.
In family.
In wealth.
In health.
I am deeply, genuinely grateful for each of them.
But the one thing I want most of move forward—editing my manuscripts and landing an agent by the end of the year—didn’t happened the way I planned.
And not because I didn’t care.
Not because I quit.
But because the effort didn’t match the dream.
I looked.
I researched.
I even queried a few.
But if I’m being honest—and I am—my manuscripts sat quietly on the back burner while I poured myself into building this blog.
This outlet. This space where my voice could breathe.
And maybe that wasn’t failure.
Maybe that was rearranging priorities without realizing it yet.
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I am proud of what I’ve built.
I am proud of what I survived.
And I know—in my bones—that this is only the beginning.
My dreams are large.
Some people might even say unreasonable 😑
Others might think I dream too big for someone who admits she’s scared of almost everything.
Two things can be true at once:
My dreams are massive.
I am no longer the scared woman who avoids the unknown out of fear that her dreams might actually come true.
Because the wild part is—I am literally watching them unfold in real time.
Every Single Fucking Day.
And I am relishing in the emails I receive from brands telling me they love my website. Watching my content grow on social media, and are wanting to work with me and be a part of this incredible journey I am building.
Of course, the wins don’t show up alone.
They bring losses with them..
They bring the kind of hat sneaks up on you in the shower — the kind where you give yourself exactly ninety seconds to sob uncontrollably before pulling it together.
Right before shaving your nether regions.
Using your favorite citrusy body scrub.
Letting the water hit your shoulders.
And remembering who the fuck you are.
A lot happened this year.
So much, actually, that when I tried to recall it all from memory — it felt like a blur.
So I did what any emotionally self-aware woman with unresolved nostalgia does.
I opened my camera roll.
This was only mildly helpful because I am notoriously terrible at taking photos — but one promise I’m making to myself next year is to collect still memories.
I’ve been great at living in the moment.
But I love being able to look back — to relive moments that would’ve disappeared entirely if not for a single photograph.
(EG- Belly In Motion. IYKYK)
And once I started scrolling — really scrolling — something shifted.
I counted ten wins in the first five months of 2025 alone.
Ten.
Even with the loss of a second, very significant income during that same time frame, there was still so much beauty. So much proof that I was being held — even when things were shaky.
And that realization?
Quietly life-changing.
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If this year feels blurry to you too, you’re not broken.
You’re human.
So much happens quietly. So much gets survived without ceremony. And unless we pause long enough to write it down, it all starts to blur into “I don’t even know what happened, but I know I’m tired.”
That’s why I created a 10-page downloadable reflection journal — something you can sit with, write through, and return to as often as you need.
No pressure. No timelines. No “fix yourself” energy.
Just space.
Inside the PDF, we’ll walk through:
Gratitude without guilt
What this year actually gave you
What it took from you
What you survived without naming as survival
What you’re continuing forward — intentionally
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I don’t even know where to start,”
start here.
Start with one page.
Start with ten brutally honest sentences.
Start messy. Grab tissues and let it all out.
Start slow. But don’t be afraid to be raw.
👉 Download the free 21-page Hollow Quill Reflection Journal.
FREE!! Limited Time - 21 page Reflection Journal
Download Your Free Copy Today and Journal with Me This 2026 Year ✨
👉 Write with me. Reflect with me. Close this year consciously.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before the clock strikes midnight.
You just need to be willing to notice that even in a complicated year —
good things still found you.
And that matters more than we give it credit for.
Until next time…
