Looking Back...Moving Forward

A brief look back at the year gone by, and a less brief look at my vision for the coming year.

2025

In short…really short, even though there were a few instances of joy and a few decent memorable moments, most of them centered around my daughter and I and sporting events. Those moments were:

• Watching her school play in the High School basketball championships

• Travelling to Indianapolis to see our favorite player Caitlin Clark play

• Going to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see a college hockey game of our favorite team

• Delivery driving with my daughter. We’ve had some interesting experiences

• Going to my first Pride festival in support of my trans-son and his then partner. I never imagined ever doing that in my life, but I proudly spent the whole day with them. I love my son, so, the choice to attend was easy.

One other positive thing that happened to me was finding Substack, and, as a result, you have got to read a whole lot of incredibly somber and real personal stories here on Substack. Thank you for obliging me. You mean more to me than you know.

2026…My Vision

Earlier today, I went on Canva, and created a Vision Board for the coming year. My primary focuses will be centered around learning, short but affordable weekend trips, fitness, taking care of my mental health, sleeping habits, and relationships.

Some of these visions I’ve already begun to take the preliminary steps needed to make them happen. The key to making them happen and becoming one hundred percent ingrained in my life is consistency. The first of these is my physical fitness journey.

I’ve already begun making them a habit. Working out three days a week, walking about a mile (to begin with) every day outside of the steps I take on a workday, and tracking my calories. Additionally, for energy, I’m starting to take count of my protein intake. I’m finding this challenging right now because there are so many protein heavy foods that I’m not a fan of. It’ll be challenging, but it’s worth it for me to make every effort to figure it out.

My goal is to get to 200 pounds, get toned and defined, and then maintain. On February 12th of this year, I was at 230 pounds. When I started back to work near the end of August, I was at 213. I’ve hovered around 215 ever since. However, I wasn’t doing anything to help myself improve, and thus, until I started hitting the gym at the beginning of this month. And then I come across a fitness coach here on Substack, Mackenzie Smith , and I’m more focused than ever to reach my goals and maintain healthy habits. Oh, and by the way, I even got a Fitness Journal on order to assist as well. I also mentioned improving my sleeping habits. That also is something that I’m working on now and will continue to do so in the days and months to come.

Mentally, I’m going to continue my ongoing counseling, write with more intentionality in my journal(s). One of those is for general thoughts, musings, and maybe even post drafts and the other is for bedtime. I’m also going to continue to utilize Substack, but I’m going to try not be so damn depressing in my posts all the time.

Which leads me to writing and reading, not previously mentioned. But, I believe doing these things is a tremendous help to me. I’ve already been focused on writing more since I began here in July, and that won’t stop. But reading…okay, well, listening to audiobooks is going to be more of a focus of mine in the coming year. My goal is to get through at least two books per month next year. I’ve already working on that habit already. I’ve gotten through two books this months, so there’s no doubt I can accomplish that vision (goal) in 2026. With any luck, and a whole lot of persistence, there may be opportunities for more per month, but, for me, one who has never been a huge book reader throughout my life, two is a fair goal to begin with. Side note, I just got through listening to the Fredrik Backman book, Anxious People. Side, side note, it’s obvious that I’ll continue reading a lot of your amazing writing here. It’s already become a habit.

Finally, working on my relationships across the board is going to be a priority in my life. These include cultivating friendships (including here), working on repairing familial relationships, so long as those with whom I’m focusing on make it a priority as well. However, I’m not going to try to over-people please (thanks Laura B Writing in the Shadows for the reminder that I need to work on this), and, I really want to focus on the community in which I live. It has given so much to me and my family in the time I’ve been here. It won’t hurt me to give back, but only WHEN it doesn’t take away from my other focuses. Still, community service has always been important to me, but the plan is to be very intentional in that area as well…not just say yes to everything all the time.

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To conclude, I do want to thank everyone here who has touched my life in some way. I love you all, and look forward to spending more time with you in the new year.

Have a safe and blessed New Year <3

Cheers to 2026