I’m writing this very appropriately on January 1st, 2025 (a little while ago I also published by annual “Best Books to Read” post that you can check out here). When I think about this last year, the main thing that stands out to me is my growth in confidence. This applies to all areas of my life, from work, to mothering, to my sense of self. I’m turning 30 at the end of this month, so I suppose it makes sense that the lessons and experiences of my twenties have grown my confidence for my thirties!
You can check out my past annual reviews here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014
Life Events
There were so many life events this year! The biggest one for me was our baby turning one – the saying that the days are long and the years are short could not feel more true. We celebrated engagements and weddings and graduations and birthdays and baby showers and our baby’s baptism (for a guide on how to host a baptism, check out this post).
Returning to Work
I started ramping back to work in May and it has gone even better than I expected! My team and leaders were exceptionally supportive and I feel very lucky to work at Google for the team I am on. I felt understood and challenged at all of the right times and am looking forward to even more growth next year. I got to speak on a few panels (both at work and at my alma mater), was profiled for my work in AI, and traveled to California, Texas, and Massachusetts for work. I’m proud of how I’ve been integrating my work and life skills (read a post about that here).
Simplifying My Time
In my annual life lessons post that I publish every year around my birthday at the end of January, I focused on my changing relationship with time. I’ve always been conscious of keeping things simple (fun fact: the original name of this blog was Keep It Simple), but this year I’ve taken it to a whole new level. I left Instagram (read about the why behind that here) because it was too much of a distraction. I integrated the practice of asking myself “is this necessary” for pretty much everything I feel like I have to do (read about how you can do this too here). And I’m strategic with how I am spending each hour of the day (read about the book that changed my perspective here).
This has allowed me to dedicate time to things that make me so happy, like spending time with Joe, playing tennis, reading, and being with my baby!
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