Farewell, 2025!

If you told me this time last year I’d be where I am today I probably wouldn’t believe you. And I’d wager the same for you. That’s the joy in having 365 chances to grow inch by inch - because before you realize it you’re 6 feet taller in how you think and steadier in who you are.

2025 taught me a lot of lessons. Some tactical, some profound, some painful and some joyful.

I wish I could compile a list of all of our life lessons from 2025 to keep close.

But for now, here’s what I’m taking away.

1. Never lose the ability to do it yourself.

   🤝 I’m seeing more Gen-Z step into leadership than ever before. That’s exciting. It’s also the moment where people quietly decide whether they’re going to repeat the same patterns they complained about or actually change them. What are things we saw leadership before us do that we loved? What did we hate? How are we holding ourselves accountable to change? The principle I keep coming back to is simple and non-negotiable: I never want to ask my team to do something I’m not willing to do or learn myself.

   Filming when it matters, editing when speed is essential, and being on the ground when the internet shifts overnight. It also means reading more than feels reasonable, taking classes when I could delegate the thinking and protecting real 1:1 time instead of hiding behind process.

   I’ve been at the Pittsburgh Airport during the TikTok ban while Duolingo users flooded Red Note to create content.

   

   

   I’ve written and rehearsed every keynote line myself. I’ve built strategic frameworks by distilling convoluted and instinctual social content into something usable. Some of my favorite lines “Your comment section is your social brief.” “You don’t know where the line is unless you cross it.” “We capitalized on the social insight: language learning is hard so we make it fun”

   

   In my new role, I’ve furiously made Hasbulla Rizzler fan edits and community managed content.

   It’s not about control, it’s about credibility in a severely misunderstood (and easy to take advantage of) field. Maintaining that edge will always keep you in your game.

2. I learned more about myself, the people around me, and our industry in my exit from Duolingo than in all the years I stayed.

   Some of life’s lessons are better taught through experience. There’s no way to get over it than to go through it. Leaving a high profile a job gave me more anxiety than I ever anticipated. Everyone had an opinion to share that usually found itself in large exclamations such as: “This is the worst decision you could make.” to “You’re going to drop the stock!” to “How could you turn your back on the place that built you?” For one, nothing is ever dramatic as LinkedIn makes it. And while yes, some analysts reached out and made me hold my breath, I finally am taking the time to process the “holy, shit.” moment that was my time at Duolingo. And constantly repeating to myself: leaving a job is normal.

   

   

   There’s profound impact in finding your people. People who I never thought were allies have quickly become my closest friends and advocates. Those who I trusted with every detail were suddenly silent. Which probably means it was of utmost importance to quickly learn people’s motives - explicit and implicit. Navigating life knowing what people want out of you will make your own expectations much more manageable 2025 was the year this clicked for me and I could only discover it through walking away.

3. What a joy it is to be healthy.

   If you know me beyond my work in social, you know my family is the axis everything rotates around. Especially my parents. That’s the real reason I’m leaving Pittsburgh and moving to Portland in 2026.

   My mom had me at 40. do the math and you land on the quiet truth. I was the family accident. While most people grow up with the assumption that their parents are just a phone call away or could proportionally match, mine have always felt like they were slipping through my fingers. Every year carried more urgency than comfort with a ticking time bomb. However, despite knowing all of this, you’re never ready for the call.

   This year we got the news that my Dad essentially lost the eyesight in one eye.

   The cruel part about losing vision, especially in only one eye, is that it’s invisible to everyone else. People ask how bad it really is because they don’t see the loss of depth perception. Or the inability to drive. Or the constant calculation required just to move through space. But losing your eyesight is losing your independence. slowly, quietly, and in ways no one claps for. It’s the fear that one misstep, one fall, one dark room can cause heavy ramifications.

   I’ve always understood the numbers. The timelines. The reality on paper. But, no amount of math prepares you for the moment when it finally clicks that your parents aren’t invincible. And once that illusion breaks, you don’t get to unknow it.

   I don’t have a cure or words that solve the problems that face me, but alhamdulilah. What a joy is it to have the health we do have.