2025 Year in Review

This year has been…quite something, for the world as a whole, and of course for me as one person in it. I’m not going to dwell on the stuff in the world everyone knows about, I have nothing to add there that hasn’t been said many times over. But 2025 brought quite a few big personal changes, most of them not easy for various reasons.

The most significant change was having to move my mom into long-term care after her stroke in late 2024, and having to sell her house. Nobody can adequately describe watching a loved one decline in this way, and I don’t think there is any way to truly be ready. It’s brutal. Knowing you can’t do anything about it, especially when you’ve already been a caregiver for a long time, is really, really tough. That said, she’s in a good spot, getting good care from people who are truly wonderful. I can’t say enough good things about them. The process to get there is far too hard, but we got there and for that I am grateful.

Not coincidentally, about 2 months before her stroke, I had started up on Zoloft hoping it would help curb anxiety as the situation before that was already unbearable. I know that it made the goings-on in 2025 much more bearable, and I’m grateful for it. Not sure where I’d be without it.

I’ve also learned, the hard way, that vast swaths of the Internet are just not for me. It’s taken me a long time to realize that but realize it I have, and I’ve already started making some changes over the last month in how I am approaching things. I’ll likely write more on that later.

The other big change was a very nice promotion at work, the first I’ve ever had. I am grateful to work with a great team of people for a company that does actually seem to care about their employees and what they think. I work from home and don’t have a commute. I work for a place that is family-first which, needless to say, has been extremely helpful over the last several years in the situation with my mom. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I have no intent on leaving. Yes, there are things I’d love to be different. Yes, some things could be better. That is the case for any company though, so my plan is to stay put.

Where does that leave us? A lot of shit in 2025, but some highlights as well. But the old maxim “this too shall pass” has never been truer than of this year. Goodbye 2025. If anything, I’m grateful, and grateful that you’re on the way out.