2025 year in review

I’ve never done one of these before, but I have some time on my hands during these final weeks of the year and want to take time to reflect a bit.

In short, I am very blessed. It was a fantastic year.

Personal

This year I traveled to upstate New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Chicago, Idaho, Mexico, Disney World Florida, and up and down California. My husband and I saw Bad Bunny perform in Mexico City. That was a highlight.

We kayaked with sea otters in Central California. One of our best friends got pregnant and is due next June. My dad had quadruple bypass surgery (and doing well). One of our best friends got married and had us oink for food. I started weekly Waffle Wednesdays with some close friends.

My husband and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary.

I got a new tattoo—my eighth one. I love it. Need more.

Here in Brooklyn, we hosted family and friends and made great memories. We attended the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We skated in Central Park. We welcomed new neighbors to the building. We ran into mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Halloween. I participated in the 47th annual Five Boro Bike Tour. Living in New York City is wonderful. Every season is special. Still can’t believe I live here.

I attended five Creative Mornings talks around the city. A highlight—Roxane Gay.

My son started pre-K, marched in the No Kings protest with his dads, played soccer, learned to swim, and began gymnastics class. He turns five in a couple weeks. He is the greatest joy of my life.

I cooked many family meals and got much better at baking pizza at home. We hosted our first-ever Thanksgiving. I ate a ton of greek yogurt. It was my 13th year being vegetarian.

I went to see three movies in theaters—Tron: Ares, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, and the documentary Changing Lanes. The best thing I watched this year was the Netflix miniseries Adolescence. I cried my eyes out.

I read nine books (a new personal best), mostly from our home book collection. A highlight was Michelle Obama’s Becoming—long overdue. I hope to read more in the new year (my husband got me a Kindle).

I only went to two concerts—Leon Bridges in Queens and the aforementioned Bad Bunny in Mexico City.

I saw two plays—COLOR THEORIES by Julio Torres and Prince Faggot by Jordan Tannahill. My family and I saw The Nutcracker together on Christmas Eve here in New York. It was magic.

I attended CrossFit classes on 189 of the 365 days (over 50% of the year). I did over 7,000 double-unders (jump rope), over 1,600 burpees, and over 1,400 pull-ups. I deadlifted over 160,000 pounds, bench pressed over 110,000 pounds, and cleaned over 70,000 pounds. This was one of my best years in fitness.

I moved from Spotify to TIDAL. With eight months of use, Spotify estimated my listening age at 82. 😂 I’ve been continuing to listen to jazz this year, makes sense. Lady Gaga’s sixth album Mayhem got a lot of play time.

I moved my personal notes and knowledge base to Obsidian—keeping memories, recipes, movies, journal entries, shopping lists, and more. So many lists and catalogs. It’s an never-ending project and labor of love.

Professional

My two direct reports crushed it this year. I’m relatively new to managing so this is a big deal. I’m proud of the culture we’ve created and love our team dynamic.

It was my fourth year working at this company. We designed and shipped some cool things. We shifted company strategy a couple times. People joined the team, people left the team. We had a company offsite in Chicago and co-worked in New York a few times. We moved to Linear. We migrated 100% of our front-end code to our new design system. I’m proud of the design work I did.

This year I rebuilt my website here on Blot after moving from Webflow. I spent a good month constantly working on it and very happy with how it turned out. I (re)started my blog and published 12 new entries, including several about AI. I enjoy writing and hope to write more next year. Finally, I collected assets from my current work and wrote three good case studies. They look good!

I attended Figma’s Config conference in San Francisco and Out in Tech’s Leadership Institute conference in Brooklyn. Spent time with new and old connections and colleagues and got inspired.

In the latter part of the year, I spent nearly three months interviewing for a new job. I applied to 10 companies and got two offers. I start a new job in January that I’m very excited for! I’m proud of my career, the relationships I’ve made, and the work I’ve done to get here. Job hunting is a rollercoaster, but I got great feedback on my interviews and the work I shared.

In summary

This was a year of expansion. Living in New York has enriched our life in so many ways. By staying put and truly investing in a place, we were reminded of what matters most to us. Not just where we live, but how we live.

Committing to this job means another year in New York as we consider what’s next. We miss California, but it isn’t going anywhere. 2026 will be a year of continued reflection on what we want our future to look like, enjoying the ride in the meantime.

I’m heading into the new year with less uncertainty and more confidence.

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