2025 was a strange one. It was great on a personal level. I accomplished a lot this year that I’m exceptionally proud of and happy about. But it all happened against the backdrop of a truly horrific political movement in the US.
It feels a bit strange to be celebrating personal wins while also watching in terror as my rights are being stripped away and my country is descending into fascism. Strange times indeed.
Some of my highlights from this year:
## I bought a house 🎉
I’ve been waffling for a few years about whether or not to stay in Portland. There’s a lot of things I absolutely love about this city, but as a remote worker with no family ties to the area I’ve given serious consideration to moving somewhere more affordable. I looked into other cities that meet my criteria: socially progressive, walkable, decent weather, access to the outdoors, and realized that they all required compromises I didn’t want to make. So in January I took the plunge a bought a house, committing to stay in Portland for at least the foreseeable future.
## I also bought a new car
6 weeks after making the biggest purchase of my life, I decided to go out an buy a new car. Maybe not the wisest financial move 🫠 but I’m enjoying the new wheels.
## I’ve been building up my professional skills
After dabbling in frontend development on and off for years, I feel like I’m actually making decent progress towards my goals this year.
I’ve finished up several courses on React, TypeScript, CSS, and Animations. I’m looking forward to continuing to dig in to CSS, Motion Design, Design Systems, and Accessibility in the new year.
I also redid my personal site and have been attempting to blog more consistently (that’s a work in progress). I started doing 100 days of code, mostly to keep myself accountable for posting something publicly as I work on this stuff.
I’m still working towards eventually moving into some sort of design engineering role. I’m not entirely sure what that will look like in a few years, given how fast things are moving with AI, but I’m hopeful that there will always be demand for people who are willing to work on the hard problems rather than off-loading their critical thinking to a plagiarizing predictive text machine.
I’m not looking to leave my current role anytime soon, so I’m just slowly and steadily adding tools to my tool belt as I go along. Hopefully by the time I’m actually interested in moving on the job market will have rebounded a bit.
## I finally got on ADHD meds
After raw dogging ADHD my whole life and getting 3 separate ADHD diagnoses I was finally able to get a prescription for Adderal. It’s made a huge impact for the better. I feel both more productive and less burnt out than ever before. It’s a huge part of the reason I feel like I’m actually making progress towards my goals for once. It also seems to be helping a lot with emotional regulation, and I just feel less angry in general, which has been quite refreshing.
## I took not one, but two amazing vacations
In July I spent a week road tripping around Iceland in a camper van. It was incredible. The scenery was out of this world, and I got to do some really great hiking.
In November I went to Japan, where I did a lot of the standard tourist stuff - visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt Fuji. The food was fantastic.
I haven’t planned any trips for 2026 yet, but I’m definitely hoping to do more traveling this year.
## I finished 126 books
Here are a few of my favorites that I read this year:
### Fiction:
Basically everything by James Islington. After reading The Will of the Many I immediately sought out everything else he’s written, which unfortunately isn’t very much. I loved the Licanius Trilogy, and I just finished The Strength of the Few and am looking forward to the next book.
I also really enjoyed Babel, and I’m looking forward to starting Katabasis sometime soon.
### Nonfiction:
Some of my favorite non-fiction reads this year were Enshittification, Careless People, Empire of AI, and This is for Everyone.
There’s a bit of a theme here - the current landscape in the tech industry is bleak, but there’s a sliver of hope for better days to come.
## I said goodbye to my sweet Serenity
I’ve had at least one cat ever since I moved out on my own. For about 9 years I had 3 of them. I lost 2 in 2023, and this year I said goodbye to the last one, Serenity. It feels strange not to have a cat in the house, but after a failed trial adoption this fall I realized that my pup, Rufus, is much happier as an only child, and I’m not really ready for another cat at this point.
So that pretty much wraps up 2025. For 2026 I’m largely looking to continue to progress on the things I’ve been working towards over the past few years. I have some health and fitness goals in mind, and I want to keep making progress towards the design engineer path, and continue my personal growth. I’m looking forward to seeing where this next year takes me, and I’m hoping that the world at large becomes a bit less hellish.