2025 in a Nutshell: Living Freely, Loving Fully, Leaving Men Behind

Trying to sum up 2025 into a single blog post is no easy feat.

This year was hard, to say the least.

I’ve lacked stability, I’ve loved, I’ve lost some of my biggest supporters, and I have discovered new parts of myself (good and bad). Through it all, I hustled so that I could live a life that feels right.

In the last 12 months I visited Costa Rica (twice) and fell in love with the country. I drove across Canada and moved back to British Columbia. And lastly, I flew across the world to New Zealand (where I am based currently).

But for me this year hasn’t been about the places I’ve gone to. It’s been about the lessons I’ve learned and the people I’ve met along the way.

Discovering New Ways of Living

This year, I met so many people living far outside the “norm.”

I met twenty-year-olds who chose not to go to university and instead booked one-way tickets on working holiday visas, trusting life to teach them what classrooms couldn’t. I met thirty-year-olds who dove headfirst into school and only now feel like they’re finally living out their young adulthood. I met forty-year-olds who travelled along difficult paths, waking up one day questioning everything, and using that as fuel to start choosing joy, freedom, and adventure for themselves.

I met child-free fifty-year-olds traveling solo with nothing but curiosity and a loose plan. I met sixty-year-olds exploring the world with their spouses and teenage kids in tow, rewriting what family life can look like.

Every person I crossed paths with chipped away at the idea that there’s a single timeline we’re supposed to follow.

What became clear is that joy, freedom and adventure look different for everyone.

Now, I realize that everything we’ve been taught has been taught by other adults that didn’t know why they were doing anything. Our parents did what they were told, their parents did what they were told. And nobody really stopped and asked “why?”

And that, more than anything, is what I’ll carry with me into 2026.

Making Lasting Friendships Across the Globe

Have you ever seen someone on a sidewalk and thought, I’d love to say hello, yet you let them walk right by?

How many times in your life have you passed someone that could have been a friend, a lesson, or a soulmate.

How many versions of our lives never happened because we let fear speak louder than curiosity?

This year while traveling I leaned into the impulse to reach out, to speak first. And in doing that, I have met people that instantly felt like home. Some became friends, some teachers, all wonderful chapters that I will hold close to me always.

Opening My Heart and Soul

If you asked my family, they might tell you I’m not exactly known for my soft spot for men. Over the years I’ve learned to anticipate the worst, something I’ve long wished I could unlearn.

This year, I met someone who quietly started to shift that perspective.

In his presence, I felt something unfamiliar: Safety. Kindness without conditions. Respect without expectation.

I no doubt still have a lot of work to do when it comes to learning how to open my heart. But through knowing him, I found a part of myself that was taken from me long ago. A softer part. A more hopeful one. One that remembered what it feels like to be safe in someone else’s hands.

This year will always carry his name.

Finding Peace

I’ve held a lot of internal anger most of my life. Not intentionally, but as a familiar companion. I can have big feelings, quick reactions and calmness has never been easy for me to find.

This year I started becoming more aware of how exhausting that cycle was.

So, I made an intentional effort to stay grounded, practice yoga, spend time in nature, and share every ounce of love I have within myself. Because I have so much to give.

A Year of Finding, Losing, and Beginning Again

In 2025 I have discovered new paths, found and lost connections and built routines based on prioritizing peace. It was confusing and clarifying all at once.

I realized that the only checklist that matters is your bucket list, the timelines are subjective, and the only clock that stops is when you do.

So going into 2026 I say start over as many times as you want until you discover a life you don’t need to escape from. Say hello to the stranger. Love as hard as you can, even if it isn’t forever.

This one life is all you’ve got.