As foreshadowed in the last year’s annual review post, 2025 sucked because it felt like everything burned to the ground at the very beginning and never fully recovered. I wanted to reset my life after my chapter in NorCal came to an end, but I did not want everything to go up in smoke.
It all started so well. On January 3rd, I vacationed at a beach house with some of my best and oldest friends. As I sat drinking my morning tea after taking a cold plunge in the ocean, I never imagined that just 4 days later everything would be on fire—literally. On January 7th, the Eaton Fire destroyed many of the things I returned to SoCal to reincorporate into my life. Many of my childhood friends lost their family homes, the trails I loved burned, and a whole community became uprooted.
Yet, somehow good things still happened and my life haphazardly moved forward.
Roses
- One of my best friends celebrated their engagement with a lovely party and it opened the door to reconnecting with other old friends.
- I joined a writer’s group to reconnect with an old friend and wrote several short stories and haikus. I made several wonderful new friends here and this weekly workshop has been a bright spot in my year.
- I saw three wonderful outdoor Shakespeare plays (with people from the writer’s group).
- I organized three group campouts with amazing friends from the deserts to the mountains of California
- I crashed my cousin’s spring break trip to Sedona and discovered the magical town of Jerome.
- I went on an epic Southwest roadtrip with another friend and got to check off several new national parks from my bucket list: Zion, Bryce, Canyon Lands, and Arches!
- I made two trips to the grand canyon (and wrote a haiku about one trip!).
- Another dear friend got married to their long term partner in an enchanted redwood grove.
- I finally moved back into my own apartment after living with my parents again while transitioning from NorCal to SoCal.
- I consistently went to the rock gym this year, thanks to the support of a friend. This is a new routine for me and I’m proud to say that we kept it up the entire year. At the start, my hands bled and I struggled to do V0 routes. Now, I can consistently do V1’s, most V2’s and nailed my first V3.
Thorns
- The Eaton and Palisades fire left a singed undertone to my mood for the year. Though I personally did not lose any property, the scale of the destruction and impact on childhood friends was depressing.
- Working part time on a robotics project (with shaky funding) while trying to pursue side projects was very challenging.
- My startup side project really struggled this year and turned out to be a previous bud that has yet to bloom:
- Grants I applied to wound up being cancelled by the new presidential administration and I never received feedback to improve the ideas.
- We lost several pitch competitions and pivoted from raising funds to bootstrapping an MVP.
- The MVP took longer than expected and is still currently incomplete.
- Living at home again took a negative toll on my mental health and contributed to an overall sense of sluggishness for the year and felt like a backward slide of life progress.
- I hiked and biked significantly less this year and I can see the impact on my physical health.
Buds
- I look forward to getting better at bouldering and continuing to consistently go to the rock gym with my buddy. Our goal is to consistently climb V2/V3 bouldering routes in the gym and try one V4.
- I am extremely excited for a backpacking trip in Europe with my cousin. This will mean many training hikes and backpacks throughout the year.
- I will continue to pursue my side project startup for a little bit longer. I’ve taken it this far, I have to at least push a little bit further towards the MVP.
- I will build on the foundations I have to deepen connections with existing friends and explore new relationships while making sure to pause and look at the clouds.