2025 Reflections
This Friday, Danny and I will head to Elizabethton, TN, to stay in a lakeside cabin over the weekend with my family. We all decided, in lieu of Christmas presents this year, to rent a cabin and share an experience. At this point in our lives, gift-giving kind of just feels like money exchanging hands, and the magic of finding presents under the tree as a kid is sadly gone. And do we really need more material things anyway? In this economy?
I still bought a gift for my 8-year-old niece, of course. She wanted Sanrio stationery, which reminds me of visiting the Sanrio store in a now-defunct local mall when I was a kid. My favorite things to get were little notebooks and pens, especially if they had Keroppi on them. Her favorite is Kuromi, and I had a lot of fun picking out stationery for her on the Sanrio website, although I desperately miss the experience of going to a physical Sanrio store.
The plan of not buying gifts is also a blessing for us because we're struggling a bit financially at the moment. It's been a hell of a year, and the cap on it was breaking my wrist back in September. I did a number on it, fracturing it clear across the radius and displacing the ulna (I also learned a lot about arm and hand anatomy in the process). I now have a fancy new titanium plate with screws in there, holding everything together.
I have nothing but good things to say about the medical professionals who worked on my wrist, and it went as smoothly as it possibly could considering the extent of the injury. But living in the US means I'm left with a bunch of medical bills from everyone who laid eyes on me during the whole shebang. I also had to be out of work longer than I expected, which means I missed a couple of paychecks.
I've considered doing a GoFundMe, and I believe wholeheartedly in mutual aid, but my pride refuses to let me ask people for money, especially because I know everyone is struggling right now to an extent. We're doing okay. We'll pull through.
I'm not going to go into detail about everything that's been happening politically in the US because, well, it's all over the place. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know what's going on here and how sinister it all is. Just like everyone else with a conscience who lives here, it weighs on me and is always in the back of my mind.
I'm doing everything I can to counteract it. I voted in my local elections, I'll sure as hell be voting in the midterms, and I'm making monthly donations to Hellbender Harm Reduction and Mountain Access Brigade (I chose those two specifically because they address huge areas of need in my state). I'm participating in the BDS movement as much as I feasibly can. I've stopped using Amazon and Spotify. I'm shopping secondhand. I'm trying to deprogram myself from a lot of things capitalism has embedded in me over my life. It's a difficult process, and I'm far from perfect, but I hope I can maybe inspire others to make the effort too.
I lost my aunt this year as well, which I've written about before.
All of this is to say that it's been one of the most challenging years of my life. Possibly the most challenging. But despite it all, I have my little family, Danny and Ranni. And I have my extended family and friends. Community truly is the best form of comfort and stability in these times.
Some good things happened this year too! Since this is getting long, I'll cover them in quick bullet points, but just know that these things had as much impact on me as the bad stuff and I'm super grateful for them:
I streamed on Twitch for a while. Although it was challenging in its own way and I've decided not to stick with it for the time being, I did have a lot of fun with it. It helped me establish some new friendships, and I had great conversations while playing great games.
I got back into reading in a big way and discovered some new favorite authors. I plan on doing a 2025 reading recap after the new year.
I dug deeper into Retro Achievements and mastered some of my favorite games, including Parasite Eve and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, gaining new appreciation for their mechanics along the way.
I participated in Blaugust for the first time, which was overwhelming but fun. I met some cool new people thanks to it!
I saw some of my favorite bands in concert, including Epica, which was a huge bucket list item crossed off.
I started writing for Adventure Game Hotspot. Unfortunately, I had to take a break right after my first article went live because of the wrist situation, but I'm back and will have some new content there soon!
I went to Universal Studios with family, the first time I'd been there since I was a kid. My wrist was broken and it was pre-surgery, so I wore a brace and skipped the more intense rides, like the Velociraptor coaster. Super Nintendo World and Dark Universe were everything, though, and I really enjoyed the Fallout-themed Halloween section.
It has been...a year! How was your 2025? Do you have any accomplishments you're proud of? Any hurdles you hope to overcome in 2026?
Next year, my biggest goals are to continue divesting from harmful companies, to find meaningful volunteer work, to write more, to move my body more, to play more indie games, and to read at least 36 books.
Thank you very much if you've read this far! This might be my last post of the year, so I hope you have a lovely holiday if you celebrate and a wonderful new year!