In 2025, I experimented with uncertainty. I traveled alone more than any other year. I tried new sports. I read new books. I made new friends. I learned new languages. I pushed myself to be comfortable with undefined paths and fluffy edges.
My 20s had been defined by immense change, trial and error, failure and resilience.
2023 a year of deep trauma, addiction, heartbreak, and a rock bottom which catapulted my life into a path I didn’t think was available to me.
2024 was figuring it out. Living outside my comfort zone. Everything was new. I felt like a child discovering who I was for the first time. With all my feelings, good and bad, in full force.
2025 was creating a world that made sense for me. The question was less who I was but why. Ensuring the work I was doing, friends in my circle, the way I spent my time aligned with who I wanted to be, and who I believe I am.
This meant opening myself up for extreme vulnerability. Doing things that others might not understand. Letting go of labels and traditions I’d become accustomed to or safe with. Allowing myself to be adaptable out of curiosity and growth, over reaction, gratification and protection.
In the past I’ve defined myself as spiritually agnostic, Buddhist inspired, bisexual, cosmopolitan, left-leaning, pragmatic, organised, internally emotional, outwardly enthusiastic, professional, weird…
Today, I take no labels. Not because I don’t identify with any of these characteristics, but because I realised this year, my own labels, my own boxes were stifling my ability to feel, explore and renew.
As an autistic, Type A individual (more labels), I’ve consistently been comfortable with labels and lists. Living in black and white. On or off. Plugged in or utterly disconnected. But I realised this year how limiting that has been. A necessary survival tactic in my 20s when workaholic, drug-fuelled chaos defined my everyday life, but no longer served me as my days became more stable, predictable and calm.
The first major shift for me was work. As a career coach I encourage people to be open to multiple pathways. To engage with intuition and embrace learnings from boredom and failure to stimulate their potential for creativity and innovation. As I’ve discussed here, I started the new year in a role that I believed would fill my cup. Until it didn’t.
I was successful on paper, but I wasn’t happy.
I had to interrogate why. Really understand myself to make the next step. To ensure I wouldn’t move to another role or company that would leave me feeling the same in another six months.
This brought me to challenge my personal philosophies. My compass. An avid reader of politics and philosophy from an early age, I’ve flirted with different ideals. I worked in politics at the start of my career, volunteered for political parties and interest groups since my teens, and took courses on ancient philosophies from Greece to the Far East. I’ve absorbed the words, but I hadn’t truly questioned where I stood amongst these words in a long time.
This year, I stripped it all back. I let go of who I thought I should be and allowed myself to explore what felt right. Which principles governing humanity made sense to me. Reflecting on the last decade of my life; what worked out and what didn’t, which guiding principles helped me and which hindered me and those around me.
Unexpectedly, Faith entered.
Everyday since I got sober I’ve prayed. Not always knowing “how”, who to, or why. But on the advice of others, I’ve got onto my knees, sat in my meditation spot, or took myself to a quiet corner to connect with a higher power everyday for the last two and a half years.
Buddhist teachings have been supremely helpful to allow me to connect to the present. Allowing me to check in with myself and understand how I’m truly feeling. Get comfortable with silence. My own space. Meditation has become central to my morning and evening routines. But, over the last few months, I felt a gap. My spiritual cup was lacking, and I couldn’t figure out why.
Similar to the shedding I’d done this year to realign my career to my internal values. I let go of Buddhist labels. I felt raw. Like I was rejecting a dear friend who’d stood by my side in tough moments. But a shedding that felt equally liberating and honest.
I gravitated towards teachings from my youth. I picked up books by C S Lewis again. Listened to the theologians I studied in university and reconnected with their words in a way I didn’t expect. On my travels I felt pulled towards churches, iconography, and people of Christian faith. It felt right, whilst extremely vulnerable and confusing.
How could a way of life I’d rejected a decade ago suddenly make sense?
Today, I’d say I’m still exploring. But I have Faith for the first time in my life. Real Faith with a capital F. And I’m content living without answers. A journey will continue throughout the rest of my life. I’ll continue reading. Asking questions. Taking inspiration from others and exploring what being a good person, living a God-centred life, and loving others means to me. But for the first time in my life, I feel truly aligned.
Shedding layers of self-judgement, labelling and trauma has allowed me to live each day open to a new perspective, whether that’s in my work, relationships or personal life.
The friends I have today are my chosen family. I spent free time this year traveling to visit my best friends who mostly live far away from me. Investing hours in FaceTimes, voice notes and extended message exchanges I never made time for in the past or didn’t see as important. My romantic relationship has grown deeper, stronger and more loving than I thought ever possible. And my family bond is something I cherish, despite its peculiarities and differences to others.
This year has allowed me to find alignment. A word so distant in my vocabulary prior, I never used it. Not even in a boardroom. A path forward. Compromise. Preferred outcome. Never alignment.
Today, I feel aligned with who I am: that is a woman exploring what life means to her. Without boundaries or boxes. Open to what 2026 has to say.
Happy New Year. My 2026 bring you what you’re looking for.
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