2026 - Year of the Fire Horse

It's the first day of the new year - 2026. I spent NYE at home alone on my couch with my dog, Archie. I've been feeling sick (shocker!) and Archie got his cyst removal surgery earlier that day. We are leaving that furuncle issue in 2025 baby! So I decided we could stay at home and rest and get better together. It rained all night and has rained all day so far today. 2025 was the year of the snake, the year of shedding. Maybe Arizona thought the rain would be it's way of shedding It's skin, too.

I'm sitting outside on my patio in my Christmas jammies, drinking hot tea and throwing the ball for Archie. So simple, yet It makes me so happy. In sixteen days I'll be thirty-one. Growing up, thirty sounded so old. I thought by now I would surely be married, have kids, feel more adult than I currently do. But just because It doesn't look the way I imagined it would, doesn't mean I'm not proud of the little life I have created. I have celebrated and grieved and laughed and cried and this last year was a year for me to shed, too.

2025 was maybe one of the loneliest years I've experienced. And I needed to experience it. Because when you're alone, you have time to think. Time to process. Time to feel. Time to figure out who you are and what you stand for and what you will and won 't tolerate. And during this time of being alone, you can create. Create a new life that you want. A new goal to achieve. You can give yourself purpose and permission if you don't let the feeling of being lonely consume you.

This past year was meant for me to grieve and feel and shed. This year is meant for me to be myself. To find ways to trust and let people in. To heal. And I believe the only way I can truly do that is to put myself first and out there. No more over thinking. No more being afraid of how people might perceive me. I want to just be me. Take it or leave it.

Goals for 2026:

• Read at least 10 books for the year

• Write monthly

• Walk 7,000 - 8,000 steps/day

• Create, create, create!!

• Set goals and follow through with them (something I'm notoriously bad at. I gotta commit!)

• Cook at home more and eat healthier

• Spend more time with loved ones and leave my god damn house more

• Be more present

• No more doomscrolling on my phone for hours on end

• A solo international trip

• Another trip with Archie somewhere

• Spend more time in nature

• Being firmer with my boundaries

• Get my pilates teaching certification

• Align my career goals with my personal goals

• Getting out of my head and feeling with my heart instead