NOTES FROM 2025

this year i turned 23 and did the classic character development move: packed my life and moved to a new city :). new place, new people, zero idea what i was doing. everyone around me looked busy and important, but i think there’s a good chance most of them are just really good at opening notion in public.

being in a new city made me curious about everything. people. conversations. lifestyles. why some people talk like linkedin posts in real life. i spent a lot of time watching, learning, trying things, and slowly realizing that nobody actually knows what they’re doing. some people are just louder about it.

this year was mostly me doing things. like a lot of things. i started building my own stuff. somewhere along the way i learned a simple rule: volume negates luck. i actually got that from some guy on tiktok :). but he’s probably right. when you try enough times, put in enough work, and actually believe in what you’re doing, success starts feeling less blurry. i’m not there yet, but we’ll see.

the first few months felt slow and uncertain. i was honestly kind of lost. then i remembered steve jobs told me some years ago(on youtube). that i should just follow my curiosity and intuition. i think i finally got what he meant. hopefully i can connect my “dots” soon :).

i started trying to fully commit to whatever I was doing. there are too many interesting skills, ideas, and paths, and i have exactly one brain. i tried doing everything at once. it didn’t work. going one by one feels slower, but at least something actually sticks.

i crashed a few times this year. instead of pretending i was fine, i started journaling. turns out journaling is just writing your thoughts down so they stop attacking you at 2 a.m. i’ve read a lot online and offline since high school, but i never thought i could write like that myself. clarity doesn’t randomly appear for me. i have to argue my way into it.

the biggest lesson this year was simple: you don’t think your way out of depression. you do your way out. sitting still made it worse. action made it lighter. executing ideas. testing strategies. moving before feeling ready. doing didn’t fix everything, but it gave me momentum. and momentum gave me air.

also, discipline is basically saying no to current me so future me doesn’t hate him.

looking back, 2025 didn’t give me insane wins or viral moments. what it gave me was direction, control, and slightly fewer bad decisions than last year, which is progress.

And honestly, thanks to anyone who made it this far and read this :). you’re soooooo tuff <3.