Thank You 2025. Welcome 2026!

New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. A full page of memories behind me, an empty page of possibilities ahead.

They say 2025 marks the end of a nine-year karmic cycle. If that's true, mine began with a bachelor auction that launched me into years of adventuring across the world.

Each day since has brought situations to explore, lessons to learn, patterns to recognize, and habits to refine. I'm deeply proud of my decisions now, and the strength to no longer back down from the life I've built—my nontraditional, black-swan, gold-star life.

People, places, things, ideas, habits—everything is different than nine years ago. Thanks to passport stamps, lessons disguised as humans, one hard reboot, and countless adventures, I feel refreshed. Calmer. More mature. Refined style like Julia Roberts in the red dress at the opera.

The Camino taught me that by aligning with less, you attain more. Fewer is better. Less is stronger.

Now that we only get 5 hashtags for Instagram, I am thinking fewer, clearer, stronger:

#HeyYouKeepUp - Wait for what's worth the time

#AdventureOn - Embrace impermanence

#OneHourBefore - Notice who we meet in daily routines

#PintsAndFries - Perfect Dinner choice

#PackedAndGone - Working my way around the world

#LattesAndLibrettos - Late rehearsal caffeine

I'm holding my cup with both hands to catch what comes next—professionally, socially, personally. Passport stamps or people passing through like seeds in the wind.

What a series of years, flights  and friends rooted in growing together. No longer lost but secure in my nontraditional life, once riddled with questions, is now full of the understandings that it was always mine.

This era was worth it. I have earned 2026. She's mine. I am excited to see what she brings.

I won't tell you I don't still get really scared about the day. I won't tell you I don't still get sad about things. But these 9 years are over. New Year's Eve is upon us. Strength is constant and showing up for yourself with grace - that's what I think is the spirit of New Years Eve.

And your 2026 is yours. Keep doing the work. The pattern-breaking, the uncomfortable moments. The quiet moments when no one's watching. 

That's the foundation for everything ahead.

I wish you the courage to claim your year with both hands.

Happy New Year, I will be thinking of you as the ball drops from Times Square and Ryan Seacrest is doing his thing.

Sláinte