It’s been a tremendous year folks. I just spent some time reading back, sequentially, through all these blog posts, and I have to say I’m very happy I started this project. Blogging every couple of weeks has given me a really good window into my own life in a way that I’m not sure I would have been able to otherwise keep track of. The ability to see myself working in real time towards happiness, growth, and understanding, accelerated over the course of an entire year, is extremely satisfying.

There are certain things which have changed significantly over the last year. My partner and I started this year in conflict, and have worked through a fair amount of that such that now I am feeling in a much more positive place, relationship-wise. I’ve asked her a few different times how she’s been feeling, and for the most part it seems as though she’s been feeling better relationship-wise as well. It feels very good to be able to communicate more easily, and its also been enjoyable spending more quality time together and being more aware of her needs. The next year will bring new challenges as we look to the possibility of expanding our family, but I feel more confident about handling them after the experience of this year than I did at the start of 2025.

Activity levels have tripled, which is exciting on a level I’m not sure I can articulate. I don’t quite feel like a 3x better person, but recognizing I’m now in contact with 3x as much of life on a regular basis feels… different, in a major way. I feel more in touch with my life, and more confident about reaching out to grasp at distant challenges now that I’ve set up a good base for myself to work with. Taking care of household tasks like laundry, dishes, and cooking on a regular basis has greatly improved my quality of life. 2026 will be a year of expansion, both of ability and scope, and will set a tone, I think, for how we will be handling things in our 30’s.

Mood has also improved dramatically. There are still downturns, and spirals, and days spent feeling overwhelmed. But there is also so much more joy. I examine the mood chart for this year, with its hues of saffron and gold, and I feel enriched. The transition from mostly neutral in 2024 to mostly positive in 2025 was unexpected, but not unanticipated. These positive feelings have been waiting in the wings of my mind for so long, that it feels truly special to see them sweeping through the days, lighting entire weeks up with positivity and dopamine. Emotional processing has been a huge part of this, as I am able to recognize much more quickly what I’m feeling and what to do about it. No clue what 2026 will bring, but I’m always going to be grateful for this year.

Diet has changed fundamentally. In February I started my weight loss medication, and between then and August lost 60lbs. I cut fast food and most sugars entirely out of my diet, and started cooking my own meals regularly. I was able to start bringing lunches to work for the first time, and have begun taking meal prep more seriously. Then I stopped taking the medication in October, and have since regained 10lbs. The difficulty has been quite high since then, and I’ve noticed a lot of food noise and dietary trouble returning since stopping the medication. However, time will tell how my physical health will end up stabilizing towards, and I look forward to seeing how my weight and diet changes in 2026. The best possible option would be to lose another 10lbs and remain down at my goal weight. The worst possible option would be to regain all of it and drop back fully to old, unhealthy dietary habits, but should the worst occur then I’m confident that I will sort things out, similarly to how I sorted out having to set up a new diet after starting the medication, and am currently sorting out a new diet again after stopping it.

Work experience has changed as well. I started this year with no experience in tech, and am finishing it having found a great starter IT position at Signature Systems. Sage Electronics was also very valuable, even in its brevity, for potentially tipping the scale towards working here at PDQ. Not only is this a great place to learn more about tech support and build my resume, but its also an EXTREMELY relaxed work environment. I’ve read literally dozens of books here in my downtime between calls (stopped counting around the low 20s), and having the ability to reset and relax throughout the workday has done wonders for my ability to pace and maintain myself at work. I’ve developed time-conscious habits to get myself good sleep, which helps me to wake up on time, which helps me to get ready in time to leave the house on time to get to work on time. It feels good to be in a harmonious track with something that I was struggling so hard with for so long.

Social Anxiety in 2024 was immense, and in 2025 merely intense. It helps that I’ve been feeling so much better mental health-wise I’m sure, but also there’s been significant progress with my relationships with my parents and family as a whole. I think that having good news to share instead of shame at these events helps a whole lot, but either way I’m quite glad to feel less pressure socializing and spending time with family in the ways that feel pleasant to me. Friendships are evolving as well, I think that certain friends are growing closer, while others are on a distant track at the moment. I’m curious to see where things end up going in 2026.

I cannot adequately express just how proud I am of myself for all this. To take a lifestyle of depression, unhealthy binge-eating, and an inability to persist in a work environment, and turn that all around in the space of a single year is borderline breathtaking to experience. What a journey this has been. I am so, so very grateful, because I have been lucky enough, by whatever means and metrics, to have been able to accomplish this. What a joyful experience it is to come flying out of the pit of despair.

That said, we should also take the time to document certain things which have not changed significantly this year, to evaluate potential reasons or scope issues that can be potentially addressed in the year to come.

Exercise, Meditation, Coding, Home Maintenance, Yardwork, Cleaning, Finances, & Organization have all been substantial categories which have not yet been established into routine. In a more immediate sense, I’ve also gotten a CPAP machine recently, but have been struggling to wash it regularly.

I think that the most successful tasks have been accomplished through sequencing and systematizing them into understandable steps. A possible explanation for these tasks remaining unaddressed could be that they have not yet been broken down into steps small enough to sequence and systematize correctly.

Another possible explanation is that these tasks all require a level of focus that has, so far, been monopolized by other activities. I can certainly confirm that thinking about them feels daunting, in a way that say, dishes, used to feel.

A difference between exercising, or coding, vs doing the dishes is that dishes can get done in about 5 minutes, while the other stuff needs a much wider time commitment. Perhaps that’s a key factor in this. I’ve so far learned how to slot in small time commitments for things like laundry or dishes, and been able to do that multiple times a day, but have not yet learned how to focus for wider time commitments. That would be good to practice. Perhaps I’ll take a 3 hour period on Saturdays to sequentially work through longer form tasks, and use that space to explore time budgets on longer things. It would also be a good opportunity to practice To-Do listing.

Overall, its been a great year, and I’m feeling very optimistic for life in 2026. I think that even if we have catastrophic surprises, enough progress was made this year to adapt to whatever differences and new difficulties may come.

Happy new year everyone.