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In a few words ✍️
Hello and thank you for joining me for yet another annual review! ✨
It’s an exercise I’ve done for a couple of years now, and it’s always fun and interesting to go through this introspection time.
As usual, I like to read the previous year’s review. And it just reminded me how rough 2024 was. You can read about it here.
I feel like overall, 2025 was much more dull, plain but also more stable. I feel like I’ve been able to breathe and slow things down, to detach, to find peace. Finally!
However, stay tuned because I got some big news in September that have rocked my world a bit 😂 Life never stays dull for long!
Key moments 📌
- Talked to a journalist for an article about people going back to a regular job after working for themselves.
- Two more losses, unfortunately. One in January, another one in September.
- My best friend announcing her pregnancy ; and later on meeting her baby ❤️
- Started working for Catawiki (& I quit in November due to my health issues — keep reading)
- Saw a family friend that I had not seen in around 10 years and the night ended up being super random and crazy lol — never a dull moment with her.
- The annual Notion Portugal meetup was super fun, once again!
- Started training with a dog behaviorist and saw some positive change in my dog’s behavior.
What I loved about this year 🤩
- My best friend got pregnant and gave birth this year!! Getting to meet this little baby and seeing my best friend as a mom was definitely the highlight of my entire year. My heart is so full of love and hope for their future. At times it felt like my heart would burst from happiness ❤️
- My favorite artists released new albums, I’ve listened to a lot of music this year and felt so much joy thanks to them 🙌
- Met a lot of new people thanks to my job ; some proved to be a safe haven during tough times and I’m so much richer for having met them. ❤️
- Watched many more awesome shows, always a pleasure to dive into so many different worlds and perspectives. Helps me dream a bit. 💭
- Felt very in tune with my spirituality all year long. 🪶
- I experimented a lot with my hair and makeup, felt quite confident and happy to have reconnected with my femininity in this way. 💄
- I proved to myself that I was still flexible and capable of adapting to a new professional situation (got back to work full-time in a hybrid scenario between February and November). It was challenging, but in a good way. I’m glad I made the choice to stop freelancing temporarily and get back to a regular job. 💪
- FINALLY CLEARED ALL MY DEBTS!!!! So freaking happy and relieved about this. 🤑
- Spent a lot of time with my pets and my partner, as well as friends as well, not enough but better than nothing! 🫶
- Got to see my family and friends in October, a bit short but always nice to be together. 💗
- Met some really nice people through a LocLunch dinner, even though I was not actively working in localization at that time, it was a really fun experience. 🗣️
What was difficult this year 😥
- Losses again, but this time around grief seems to be slightly easier to deal with. Grief of the people lost in 2024 is slowly getting less intense, but always present. Like a permanent paper cut.
- Mid year, I started questioning my relationship and what I wanted in life. Things felt rocky for a while (despite the feeling being entirely internal, nothing actually happened) and thankfully the storm passed. We actually celebrated our 7 years together!
- No therapy this year, which is a shame since I could have benefited from it. But mental health was overall better / more stable this year. I felt less overwhelmed.
- I almost forgot but we went through a nation-wide electricity outage!! Technically, it even impacted several countries. It was scary to see just how dependent we are on electricity for everything. But also a fun experience, once the initial panic settled for a bit. Had not seen people truly that connected in a long time.
- And of course, keeping the most important for last: my health declined big time this year. At first I thought I was just tired from my new job. Then I thought I was pregnant for a couple of months, even though all tests came back negative. I almost convinced myself that I had a cryptic pregnancy. 😂 After months of new and recurring symptoms, and a lot of appointments and exams, I discovered mid-September that I have both a Chiari malformation (type 1) and syringomyelia. Essentially a brain malformation from birth and a chronic neurological condition. I talked about it a bit here, and will expand on this topic later on.
Lessons learned 💡
- Health is not guaranteed! It’s so much more fragile than what we think. And so crucial to every other aspect of our lives. Take care of it and trust your gut if something feels off!! Do not just accept whatever first explanation doctors might give you. You know yourself best!
- Adaptability is a skill that only grows if you regularly challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone. Don’t get too complacent! It’s fun to keep growing and evolving.
- It’s (almost) never too late to change what does not please you!
- True friends are a blessing. Invest in your friendships.
- Perspective is everything.
- You can achieve more than you think.
My hopes for 2026 🙏
I mostly hope that I will find a good team of doctors that will help me take care of my conditions, and overall for my health to get better. This is my main hope & goal for 2026.
There is a very real chance that I will need to undergo brain surgery, and while it’s terrifying, I know it might be my best shot at slowing down the progression of my conditions.
Technically, it will be my second skull surgery (it does not actually touch the brain itself). I previously had an upper jaw surgery as a teen, where they cut it up, moved it forward and screwed it in place with titanium plates and screws. 🦾 I’m a cyborg lol.
Which means… I’ve done it before, I can do it again! Ok sure it will be a different surgery yada yada, but the point still stands. 😌
Anyway, besides that, I hope to find a way to make money that is respectful of my energy. I want to do something fun again. I have something in mind, but I won’t say much yet! 😉
I also hope I get to spend more time with my family and friends. Never enough time spent with the ones we love.
I hope 2026 will be full of healing (on all aspects), having fun and being authentically ME! 💖
Vision board 🔮
What about your year? How did it go? What are you hoping for in 2026?
With love, always.
C.