2025 Year in Review
2025 the year in review
It’s been a long time since I have posted anything. 2026 has just started and I thought it would be a good time to start my blog/journal anew. I give all credit for this inspiration to an amazing, beautiful, talented woman I met in 2025. Let’s call her Nat (she might kill me, but she will get the joke). We met in the most unlikely of places, but it doesn’t matter. She is smart, creative, and inspires me. We are kindred spirits. I plan to start with a cadence of one post per week, gradually increasing that as I get into a rhythm. My first post will be a summary of the year 2025…
Work/Professional
2025 was an extremely busy year. It was also quite productive. The year started out a bit rough, as I was being pulled in different directions by two very different teams. Thanks to my boss, the situation was resolved by March. The other rough spot was self-inflicted because our team could not seem to get out of our own way, and struggled to provide value for the first quarter. As Spring rolled around, we started to find our stride and things improved. Major projects with tight deadlines started to arrive during the Summer, and we were required to work smarter or risk becoming irrelevant.
The year also brought extreme changes in system architecture and how we do our jobs. We are now all-in on the Google Cloud platform and using AI to assist in most things we do.
Fun/Recreation
It was a very busy and exciting year for fun and recreation. My buddies and I started the year strong playing golf. We managed to get out and play at least twice every month. For the most part, I played pretty well this year. I even had my very first club fitting. That was a lot of fun, very interesting, and enlightening as to my golf swing. I was so pleased with the experience that I bought a new set of clubs.
In addition to golf, the 2025 was the year my daughter got married. The first half of the year was filled with planning, venue hunting, contracts, more preparations, and then the event itself. What a night it was! The venue was perfect, the food was phenomenal, and my son did an awesome job as DJ. We did the Father/Daughter dance to Halestorm’s Dear Daughter. A magical night…
Another highlight of 2025 was a trip to the mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. I have a cabin up in the mountains and two weeks after the wedding, I took a much needed retreat to enjoy the Autumn weather, colors and hiking. A week of sleeping in, no commitments, and just having fun was a perfect way to relax.
There were other events that I may add later, but for now, these are the things that helped make the year great.
Personal
On a personal level, let me summarize by saying 2025 was a very good year. There have been several years recently, where I would just say good riddance to the old year and welcome in the new year. I do not have this type of feeling for 2025. While I am happy to be moving into 2026, I have no regrets or negative feelings about 2025.
The year was a financial success for me, despite the cost of the wedding, and I even dabbled in the crypto market. I live a comfortable life, and I am happy with where I am at. I have no concerns for my financial stability whenever I decide to stop working.
I am in good health and I continue to enjoy researching whatever topics I find interesting and spending time with my hobbies. I did not do much photography this year, but I am setup to revive my efforts in 2026. I continue to advance my technical skills with computers and personal projects.
I am blessed with good friends and family that I see and spend time with on a regular basis. It feels good to have renewed relationships that were dormant before I moved back “home” 6 years ago.
Outlook for 2026
I rarely make anything remotely similar to a New Year’s Resolution. I really don’t believe in them because the world and life changes rapidly. While I believe in planning for the future, I also believe the future will work out the way it is supposed to, and I just have to be prepared and open to the changes. I do tend to make some type of informal list of things I would like to accomplish or work towards, but it is a living document as they say, and always subject to change.
At a high level, there are a few things I specifically want to focus on in 2026. Number one on my list is reviving my personal blog. As I said previously, Nat has been very inspiring, and has encouraged me to begin again. So, 2026 is the year that I revive my posts and set a schedule to post regularly. I plan to start with once a week and gradually increase from there. I would also like to revive my photography. This will be a bigger challenge since I no longer live within driving distance of the mountains, and unlimited waterfalls.
Learning is always a big part of my plans. I am really interested in continuing my journey with different programming languages. Tops on my list is the go language. I have several books and research material and plan to make full use of them in this new year.
Of course golf will continue to be a big part of my personal plans. It is so enjoyable and relaxing to play with my friends. While we strive to play well, we never care how good or bad the round ends up, because the important aspect is being outdoors and enjoying the company of great friends.
There will be some challenges on the work front. The biggest challenge will be the change in supervisors. I am moving under a person based out of India, which is a challenge in itself. The bigger challenge will be overcoming the fact that we do NOT like each other. I will do my best to not let this be an obstacle. I plan to continue learning more aspects of the business and building my skill set in new and exciting directions.
All in all, I am very positive about the outlook for 2026. There are plenty of cool things I intend to accomplish, and there are many highlights yet to come. I welcome 2026 with open arms and an open mind.