Best of what I read, watched and listed to + accomplishments and looking to the year ahead.
The days between Christmas and the first Monday after New Year’s always feel painfully liminal and barely real. It’s the strangest passage of time every single year, without fail, and I gave myself the bonus of being made to face my own thoughts and feelings head-on (thanks, Heated Rivalry; Shane got railed and so did I… right back on track to my healing journey).
My mental health has continually improved each subsequent year and I couldn’t be more grateful for that. I can’t say last year was easy or peaceful – I started out the beginning of the year at the emergency vet for Jinx, teetered on the edge of burnout and took a bad fall in September that gave me a concussion to then break my finger four days later.
Any way you look it, it’s a lot.
But I feel like I’m leaving 2025 so much more capable and grounded than the year before.
Accomplishments
- Found a better work/life balance while working my way out of survival mode.
- 2024 taught me that survival mode was, unfortunately, my default. I was living in a scarcity mindset and refusing to acknowledge my own capability, instead turning to “luck.” So in that year, I took on too many house-sitting gigs (and ones that were way too long), never said no to a custom commission, and I dissociated my way back to stability.But in 2025, I marked myself unavailable more often, sticking to mostly regular clients and even turning down a gig for Christmas, took breaks from my online work, and was mindful of my screen time as well as my personal care needs.
- Had my best income year on Rover yet while taking more time for myself and planning better.
- I have been watching pets on Rover for over two years now. My time has come with many lessons, such as what to charge, what’s doable as a house sit duration, and the kind of sits that will be the right fit for me. And it has been successful.
- I got my Associate’s degree.
- I had a rough time my first go in college at the age of 18, back in 2015, but I’ve been steadily working toward finishing since 2021 and I’m so proud of myself for never giving it up.
- I went back to writing.
- I did my first solo events.
- Went to the Michigan Renaissance Fair and Youmacon on my own and had a great time. Found the fox skull I was hoping for and filled in my poster wall.
- I took care of myself when needed and pushed when I could.
2025 Favorites
Books (37 read in total)
- Psalm for the Wild Built
- Remarkably Bright Creatures
- A Prayer for the Crown Shy
- Legends & Lattes
- The Life Impossible
- Devil’s Line (volume 1-9)
- Junji Ito’s Cat Diary
- This is How You Lose the Time War
- The Heiress
I read a total of 37 books this year, surpassing my goal of 24. My reading habits the past few years have changed a lot; I went from reading 193 books in 2020 to a sharp fall into a reading slump/weird life period in 2021, where I only read 22. I put a lot more time and mindful effort to read, plus I had a lot of dog walking for half the year and audiobooks came in clutch.
2025 was still a funny year – I finished nothing in January and then suddenly in May through August I suddenly upticked to 5-8 per month until I got a concussion in September. So then I finished 1 book in October and nothing in November/December (though I read Dungeon Crawler Carl throughout December).
Above, the left is genre and right is subgenre.
Regardless, this was a way better reading year than I had in 2024, especially rating-wise. I found new all-time favorites, and my average rating was 4.4, compared to 3.6 in 2024.
The biggest surprise to me was how much I loved Sci-fi this year. For the first time in my life, it was my second-most-read genre (unsurprisingly, horror was my top genre, and fantasy was my third). Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy awakened something in me that had felt dormant for months – a semblance of hope. I’ve always loved solarpunk but if felt like it was something I mostly saw on Tumblr and hadn’t seen it take off in traditional publishing (or maybe I was looking in the wrong places). With the push of AI this year, a solarpunk future with a hopeful message, following a traveling tea monk and a robot’s friendship, broke me and rebuilt me with a glimmer of hope I’m bringing into 2026.
Albums
- Balloonerism by Mac Miller
- Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii
- Even in Arcadia by Sleep Token
- Enemies by Magic City Hippies
- Jane Austen’s Piano by Janeba Kanneh-Mason
- Don’t Tap the Glass by Tyler, the Creator
- USB by Fred again..
- Episode i Vikens kapell by Teodor Wolgers
I knew Mac Miller’s posthumous album would good but I didn’t bargain for how much it would stick with me throughout the year. I’ve thought about it so many times, feeling the same pinching in my chest all over again. The line, “If I die young, promise to smile at my funeral” still hits me like a ton of bricks, when I just think about the album again.
It was a decent year for music, though I often stayed in my usual lanes or opted for other media when driving. I also ventured into classical and more instrumental and found some beautiful pieces this year.
My music discovery can be followed on Musicboard or AOTY.
Movies
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
- Uptown Girls (2003)
- Mickey 17 (2025)
- Next to Normal (2025)
- Suspiria (2018)
- The Wild Robot (2024)
- K-pop Demon Hunters (2025)
- Heretic (2024)
- How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days (2003)
- The Hunger (1983)
- Tank Girl (1995)
- Superman (2025)
- The Cat Returns (2002)
- Companion (2025)
- Flow (2024)
Taking shorter house sits this year meant I had less time to watch shows on those days (I don’t like leaving shows started but unfinished on client’s streaming services) so a lot of my time and focus went into movies. I watched a total of 175 movies, 92 being new to me and 83 being rewatches.
Even with a few duds, I had such an amazing viewing year, including finding a new all time favorite (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, you have my heart). Though I balanced out this beautiful experience by watching Cinderella (2021) with Camila Cabello the very next day.
Some would call that masochistic but I call it ✨balance✨.
My Letterboxd.
TV Shows
- Heated Rivalry
- Fleabag
- Overcompensating
- Long Story Short
- Fresh Meat
The moment they put out Heated Rivalry I was completely sunk. An mlm sports romance, featuring hockey, which I finally got into following last summer (following Montreal was just a happy coincidence), featuring an attractive cast and pairing very steamy scenes with one of the most satisfying HEAs I’ve seen in a long time… And then the genius of Jacob Tierney paired with two amazing unknown actors (Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, 10s across the board).
I have a few pieces to write inspired by all the epiphanies this show put me through, as well as Fleabag, so I’m white-knuckling the chair trying not to gush and rave about this show for the hundredth time.
Goals for 2026
- Submit my writing to a publication.
- I don’t have a big quota here. But I want to get into the practice of submitting, so my goal is to find (at least) one publication to send a piece to be read.
- Find an activity/workshop/event to go to every other month.
- I would love to aim for monthly, but my month-to-month schedule can change a lot, and I will take on last-minute requests for my regular clients. So every other month or 6 events this year is the base plan.
- Sidebar goal: plan for an event and stick to going. Stop changing plans in order to accommodate more housesits OR find a way to do more for yourself at the same time.
- I would love to aim for monthly, but my month-to-month schedule can change a lot, and I will take on last-minute requests for my regular clients. So every other month or 6 events this year is the base plan.
- Read 36 books
- Start a stretching/workout routine.
- With my energy levels the past few years, I’ve been dragging my feet on this for a long time. Or, more so, dealing with fluctuating mood and non-conducive energy to working out, I back-burnered it until I was ready.But this year is the year I take action. I’d like to start lifting, as it was one of my long term goals.
- My 500 greatest album consolidated list project
- I have taken all four lists from 2003, 2012, 2020, and 2023 into one consolidated list of 767 albums. This challenge requires me to listen to 15 albums a week but I drive so much that it’s not too hard to do so. I know I could just choose one but every time I thought about it, I got FOMO so I gave up.
- Daily poem writing
- Take more photos. And print them out for my journal.
- Cook/Meal prep (at least) once a month so I have more food on standby.
- While I don’t eat out very often, part because I started to stocking better and part because it’s easier with my food sensitivities/allergies, I still don’t make a whole lot of time for cooking during the week (or I start thinking about food once I’m already starving). I’d like to finally meal prep more and then play food jenga with what I’ve frozen/what sounds good.
- Love more – lead with it.
- It feels so corny to say and part of me wants to reject it which solidifies even more that I need to say it. I want to love more, talk to more people, have more fun, and experience more.
I feel so good about this year. It’s not my usual MO to put a lot of stock into a calendar year and the change it will bring, minus it being good for tracking. I don’t believe I’m a different person from last year and that suddenly I can make all of these changes. But I have laid so much groundwork these past few years that I feel making some grand statement about 2026 “being my year” wouldn’t be futile.
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