Happy New Year! If your 2025 looked anything like mine, you may have realized that while it wasn’t the year you expected, it might have been the year you needed. Last year was NOT wrapped in shiny paper or tied neatly with a bow. It came in layers. Some jagged, some soft, ALL meaningful.
For me, 2025 was a year of TRANSFORMATION. The kind that reshapes you from the inside out. The deep, uncomfortable kind that forces growth – a season of shedding, rebuilding, and rediscovering. Staying grounded amidst uncertainty. It stretched me, challenged me, and ultimately strengthened me. It stripped away what no longer served me and revealed what truly matters. I grew more intentional and reconnected to a deeper sense of purpose than I’ve ever known before.
I can’t help but feel it was no coincidence that all of this unfolded during the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year – a year centered on renewal, mercy, and becoming ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ – the theme chosen for the Jubilee because hope does not disappoint. I didn’t plan my life around it, yet the timing felt divinely aligned. As the Church invited the world to release what was heavy and return to what is essential, I found myself doing the same. The Jubilee became the quiet backdrop to my own transformation exhibiting that grace arrives in seasons; that letting go is holy work; and that sometimes the timing of our becoming is not accidental, but gently, purposefully timed.
I found parts of myself last year that have been buried a long time – voices I had silenced, truths I had softened, boundaries I had never set. I found a voice I barely recognized at first, one that finally did not speak from comfort, but from courage. One that spoke up to heal versus continuously to please.
There were tears, so many tears, but they were tears of release and renewal. I was learning to feel again – to rise from the indifference I had wrapped myself in for so long. I began to return to the person I was before I softened my edges to be palatable – a person who felt deeply, hoped fully, and wasn’t shaped by expectation. And one who believed that being authentic was enough, and that tenderness was its own kind of strength.
Journeys and Milestones
This year took me to Sedona, Arizona, with my mom, where the red rocks and stillness reminded me that restoration doesn’t always happen in motion. Sometimes it’s in the pause, the quiet, and the willingness to listen.
It took me to Fort Dix, New Jersey, twice – four weeks in total – for military school and training where discipline, purpose, and perseverance once again grounded me in something greater than myself.
I’m now continuing Phase 2 of Intermediate Level Education (ILE) in SFB, Florida – one weekend a month December through May 2026 – still balancing, still learning, still growing. (October and November were cancelled due to the government shutdown.)
And after a decade of trying, I finally made it to Ireland! My Aunt and Uncle graciously met me there and together, we explored the country, shared moments with extended family, and soaked in the beauty of the Irish countryside where more sheep than I’ve ever seen in my life reside!
Work trips took me to Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, California, New Mexico, and Missouri while personal travels led me back to Virginia, Tennessee and Connecticut. It was a year that kept me moving forward, one trip at a time.
This year also brought one of my most meaningful milestones: I became a Certified Respite and Emergency Foster Care Parent. Opening my home to children, even temporarily, reinforces what really matters in life – presence, safety, and love. These experiences have been raw, humbling, and sacred. They have deepened my understanding that healing doesn’t require fixing – only steady presence and the willingness to help carry what their small shoulders were never meant to carry alone. Each child’s story is different, and they each deserve to be met with steadiness, dignity, and unwavering compassion.
Growth in Motion
I also returned to graduate school this year at the University of Oklahoma, restarting my Master’s degree and successfully completing my first four classes. If all goes as planned, I will graduate in Spring 2027. It has been demanding but deeply satisfying.
Most importantly, I found a home with St. John the Baptist Catholic Church – a community that embraces the imperfect and helps the broken become whole again. Grace overflows here; and they’ve demonstrated that healing begins long before forgiveness takes root. Even for those who can’t yet trust in themselves, in others, or in God, there is room at the table.
I came carrying doubts, wounds, and walls, and was met not with judgment, but with patience, love, and compassion deeper than any wrong or hurt I’ve known. For so long, I failed to differentiate God with the people who caused pain, but through this community, I’ve come to see that divine love is different: redemptive, restorative, and endlessly kind.
As Oscar Wilde wrote, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” Now, I carry that forward to meet others in their brokenness, and to remind them that grace doesn’t erase our stories; it redeems them.
Becoming and Believing
This year showed me that transformation does not always come through comfort but through bravery. I accepted challenges that once would have overwhelmed me. I chose the harder path when it finally led to freedom. I stopped running from the past and started building a future anchored in grace.
If you find yourself in a season of transition or growth, please know you are not behind; and you are not broken. You are becoming. Change rarely comes quickly or cleanly, but it does come. With each truth spoken, each boundary honored, and each prayer whispered, it arrives quietly, faithfully, and often when we least expect it.
As I step into 2026, I am celebrating progress. The therapy sessions, the prayers, the peace that followed the storms. I am grateful for a God who met me in the mess and never left. For the people who believed in me when I was learning to believe in myself and walk into the unknown. And for the courage to keep becoming the person I was always meant to be.
Looking ahead, I feel a deep sense of excitement. I’ll be studying abroad in Portugal as part of my graduate program – a chance to learn, reflect, and immerse myself in a place filled with history and beauty. There is even possibility of traveling to Hawaii with the Army, though the details are still unfolding.
Whatever comes, I’m stepping into the new year with hope and an open heart, trusting that the same grace that carried me through last year will continue to guide me forward. The Jubilee’s call to become a tangible sign of hope – especially for those facing hardship – has shaped the way I want to live this next chapter, to carry light for others even as I continue trusting to walk in my own.
Wishing you peace, grace, redemption, and presence in the year to come, even if the road ahead is winding.
With love and light,
