A warm embrace to 2026 and Good Byes to Sad 2025

My Shoutout: Welcoming 2026

If you are reading this, then I believe you survived, too. The Year That Felt Like Ten. Well Congratulations. Who knows, maybe you deserve a medal, a nap, and maybe a tax refund for the stress that 2025 walked you through. 

I don't know about you, but 2025 felt like someone kept hitting the “plot twist” button in my life. Every month came with a new challenge: work curveballs, social burnout, and that one week, my coffee machine decided to unionize against me.

But as I sat today on my couch sipping my tea, I realized this first week in November has been foggy. A lot of things have happened to us this year. From the sleepless nights and wakes to study for exams, the return from lecture halls to hostels without food in our fridge, and from the hurdles of having to walk miles to get food to eat, it has been a hard, difficult year. 

Real things happened to us. Painful ones, hilarious ones, profoundly human things. So before we sprint into 2026, wearing our new happiness like new shoes, let's pause. Let's unpack what just happened and maybe laugh about it a little. 

2025 Was a Year That Demanded a Refill

I don't know how you experienced it at your end. We live in a parallel world, both you and I, so I can tell how 2025 went for you. But for me, 2025 was not gentle with me. It was the overly honest friend who tells you your haircut is bad but also gives you a ride to therapy. 

For some of us, it tested our patience, even our Wi-Fi, and our will to be ourselves. Plans fell apart, and we had to cancel trips. Projects were postponed because money wasn't there, and even some relationships, we had to let go because they were leading us right into trouble. I asked 2025 for a gift, and it gave me one in November, just a few months before 2026. Who does that?

2025 was the only year when I scrolled through my Facebook account just looking for someone I could make a friend with, but any name I searched returned more headlines than hugs. Soon, festive December will be here. Horns and knockouts there, trumpets will find a lip on theirs, the Xylophones will tune in some countries, but in my country, I am sure it is still going to be all nights and the one-hour dance race in churches when it is an hour to 2026.

What Felt Like An Achievement Throughout The Year 2025

From the small corners of my hostel room to that favorite chair I loved to sit on during lectures, the only noisy moments in 2025 that felt like an achievement were my first time ever having dinner. It was the only night in 2025 that felt like the shortest. There were moments when I was still happy. After all, joy wouldn't ask me permission before popping up where I least expected it.

In school, even when life looked like a badly edited drama, tiny moments still snuck in. They were the moments I found light in the cracks. A random text from a friend you thought forgot you. The unaware inbox money alerts from Daddy and Him, and the birthday gifts that felt like they would never come, but finally dropped in. Today, I just feel like leaving my memory in here, a memory that can make someone feel better. 

Thought I found the relief, but it Was Another Moment of Dear Stress. Give Me Some Break.

When the time came finally for vacations, I thought I'd get home soon and have a year's sleep at least. But the vacation felt like, Hello, no idle hands allowed in my territory. Already, my ride took long enough than a day, and the dusty roads home made me sick. I paid a visit to the doctor twice, was on medications for a week, and finally, when I felt it was time to have some relief, came the call for internships.

Hello there, your internship starts on Monday. Crying, I felt like, but the oceans of my tears had even dried up. There was no resting but just stress upon unwelcome stress. But I have survived it. Come now, 2026.

Goodbye 2025.

2025, you have been my longest, hardest years, but for all the lessons you taught me, it is worth it, my pain. You were exhausting, but you taught me that I always have to press on harder and harder.

🕊️ 2026: Come Gently, We're Fragile.

I don't want fireworks this New Year. No "New Year, New Me" nonsense. I just want a quiet year with peace, a cozy blanket, and maybe some carbs.

When midnight comes, the last hours, I will probably be sitting on my couch, whispering a small prayer. Because dear GOD knows what is on my heart and mind already. 

“Dear 2026, please bring fewer plot twists and more naps.”    

Because here is the truth, I don't know who wants a fresh start, but me, I am not interested. I just want to continue from where I stopped. I just want to continue the little step from where I stopped in 2025. 

🌻 A Toast to What Is Next (And to Us, The Survivors) 

So here is to you, 2025.

You were my stressful friend, no doubt. If I were to meet you again in the future, I would have kept a drink for us. But since you want to leave me behind for your younger siblings, I am glad to usher you to this drink

And here is to you, 2026

We have yet to meet. But be gentle and kind because we're fragile and feeble that much. Come softly, bring snacks, and let's try this whole "hope" thing again. 

And to us who survived

Cheers to the greatness that awaits us. Because no matter how tired we are, we're still here: Waiting for school to resume and the waiting beyond, still laughing at memes, still trying to grow, and still finding light in the weird corners of the internet.

Be my welcome guest. This was to welcome you to 2026. Happy New Year, my dearest gentle reader.

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