An Ode to 2025 ep. 1

If you’ve never pivoted in your life, this may not make sense.

But if you have, you’ll feel this deeply.

2025 has been the toughest year of my life.

Not just professionally.

Not just financially.

But emotionally.

I’ve felt lost.

Let me explain.

For almost 10 years, I’ve created content about scholarships.

Built an audience around it.

Worked one-on-one with students.

It was just me.

And it worked.

In 2025, I decided to turn this into a startup.

And bring other people in.

That changed everything.

When it was just me, I could move fast.

Create freely.

Earn side income.

Once others joined, I had to stop operating like a solo creator.

I couldn’t keep doing “side hustle” work

while asking others to commit to a company.

So I stopped.

That decision cut off my income overnight.

And I was left trying to bootstrap a startup with no income.

Pivoting sounds exciting on paper.

In reality, it’s messy.

It’s awkward.

It’s lonely.

My audience knew me for scholarships.

Suddenly, I was posting other things;

Food.

Lifestyle.

Current events.

AI.

From the outside, it looked random.

Behind the scenes, it was survival.

My friend asked me the other day if I was creating celebrity content lol. I’m not.

When you pivot, engagement drops.

Hard.

Posts that once got hundreds of likes

now get one.

Sometimes zero.

That silence messes with you.

You question yourself.

Your identity.

Your direction.

And the hardest part?

You’re stuck in the middle.

Between an audience that knows the old you

and a future you’re still building.

That’s what 2025 has been for me.

A year of pivoting.

A year of discomfort.

A year of learning who I am without the old labels.

I don’t have a neat ending yet.

But I know this:

Pivoting is one of the hardest things a creator can do.

And also one of the bravest.

If you’re in a pivot too,

you’re not broken.

You’re just in transition.

Atleast that’s what I’m telling myself lol