This image I found on FB basically sums it up. Because clearly WTAF!? was THAT?? And what do you mean today’s the last day of 2025?!
Granted, 2025 wasn’t a good year for me personally. I know, in the grand scheme of things I am privileged enough to have a roof over my head, food, water, electricity yadda yadda, but y’all … exhausted much? My mental health for the most part was all over the fucking place, and my physical health wasn’t exactly great as well. Aside from the POTS symptoms, sky-high anxiety, frustration about not having traveled (especially for my Birthday) and all, I added another ailment. This time, my right shoulder. Been in pain on and off since the end of August, and I’ve had more pain days than painfree ones since. *hrmph*
Things I had hoped for or been looking forward to didn’t happen, fell through, or ended in disappointment. And when I asked the Universe for a goddamn BREAK I did NOT mean my laptop …which obviously happened shortly before Christmas. For fuck’s sakes, really.
So yeah, I won’t be too overly sad when the clock strikes midnight and 2025 is in the books.
However, I have also decided to not go into 2026 with any big expectations, hopes, whatsoever. I don’t make any resolutions anymore, anyway, and after I had dared to dream and hope for a bit of a turnaround for 2025 (after 2024 being rather meh! as well), the joke’s once again on me. So I think I’m better off not expecting too much for 2026 because that way, I cannot be disappointed, come up empty-handed again. Even more so since the “highlights” of 2025 were rather …underwhelming. Or rather non-existant.
*sigh*
But still, as crappy as 2025 was, I am also a bit thankful here. Because I managed to not lose my shit entirely. Go me? Haha! I essentially turned to two main hobbies in order to keep me sane – reading and journaling / scrapbooking. Yes, I AM dealing with brain fog every now and then, which makes reading difficult, not gonna lie. But while I am not sure how many books and pages I read exactly (I am not tracking that), I did read four Tom Clancy tomes of at least 700 pages, and also tackled “Shōgun” (1,275 pages). I read up on various historical topics (from the Romanovs to espionage to Palestine) as well, and right now, I am again plowing through yet another history book, about my beloved Knights Templar. I’ve been fascinated with them and the myths surrounding the Templars for ages.
And if I didn’t have my nose in a book, or my ass wasn’t seated in the cinema (waaaaay too few movies watched, tbh), I stocked up on scrapbooking and other crafting supplies. I’ve kept handwritten diaries since I could hold a pen and write down thoughts, and I still find it absolutely therapeutic to this day. I am working on several journals these days, one of them being a Gratitude Journal in which I log small (or big) things every day that made me feel good, happy, or thankful. I did that some years ago already and found it extremely helpful to reflect, because it’s often the small(er) things that you come to appreciate. Being creative has always been my outlet. It doesn’t matter what it is exactly – writing, scrapbooking, you name it -, but it does help me to calm the storm in my head and shut off the outside world as well in the process.
So yeah, being creative and firing up my passion for reading (not just fiction) again definitely helped me pull through this crapfest of a year. And while I did say above that I won’t go into 2026 with any high hopes whatsoever, I do hope that it’ll be a bit gentler on me.
Anyway.
Happy New Year, dearest readers. I’ll catch y’all later.
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image: Brittany Frost Designs (on FB)
Ocean Soul 