Dear 2025 Self
What staying taught me about becoming.
Dear 2025 self,
A year with you again. A year where you got to know yourself beautifully. There were revelations, a lot of reckoning — but most of all, you stayed deeply in touch with yourself.
You put yourself out there and conquered things you already knew you could do — you just needed the experience. You recognized your potential while also accepting your lacking.
You once thought you were supposed to be living in a different timeline. That idea feels absurd now, because you realized you were exactly where you needed to be. There was no pivotal moment to reason it out. You simply understood that there is purpose in everything. You wouldn’t have survived the 1920s anyway with that mind of yours. Haha. It’s probably a luxury to have what you can do right now back then but it doesn’t mean you are exempt from suffering.
Sufferings wouldn’t dare to exist before but you learned how to carry gently, so gently that people wouldn’t even have a clue because you still showed up.
For them. For yourself.
You let things be. You allowed yourself to be hurt immensely. To be deeply disappointed. To be confused like a child. To be lost — again. As the season changed, so did the people around you, but you stayed still. Unsure when to move or where to begin. You let everything unfold in front of you, not always knowing how to react or express what you felt in the moment. There must be an explanation for that feeling — being completely present, yet existing somewhere else at the same time.
You hit nearly rock bottom in the middle of the year. You were tired. So tired you questioned how long it would take just to live another day only to repeat it again. And so, in the last four months of the year, you put things into perspective — like you always do. But this time, you realized how game-changing, how plot-twisting, a single decision you can make.
You abruptly changed your habits, routine and even how you see yourself. You learned a lot about conserving. About spending your energy, sharpening your focus, knowing how much time you truly have, and understanding what really matters in the life you want to lead. You took charge of what you could control — and you got better at it.
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While you were consistently knowing yourself better, you were also consistent with fitness. From the start, you had the right intention: to stick to a plan built for longevity. After a stint in the gym, you made space for yoga in the morning, Pilates at home, long walks, and healthier mornings. These small changes added up to what you are becoming. Now, you have a sacred morning routine you could follow like your life depends on it.
You did great with small changes. You kept what mattered, adjusted your habits, and slowly made your days better. You found purpose in little ways rather than only in big ones. Don’t get me wrong — you had your share of big moments too.
You solo-traveled and skydived, bitch! — a lifelong bucket-list item. You made it through all of it, feeling more alive than ever.
If there’s something I love about what you did, it was how you filled the void you have for a long time by treating each experience with the same feeling. You feel enormous joy in small acts just as much as in big ones. You took no life for granted. You grounded yourself whenever you felt yourself floating too far which was a lot times.
I know you love to yearn. There were days you wanted to do nothing but yearn — but you always came back to perspective. You reminded yourself that you still can do something with what you have, and make it all count.
I’ll keep doing the things we’ve learned — except for the part where you built expectations for certain people. It was another year of telling yourself you were fine, when deep down you couldn’t help but expect others to feel the way you do. You are human. You long to be loved by someone. It just hits differently now than it did in past years.
Maybe this is a test for 2026. You don’t want to think about it too much — you’d rather do the work to attract it. And when the stars align and the universe is kind, our eyes will meet our souls, and in that quiet magic we’ll know that all the longing, yearning, the romcom movies, love songs, and even the brightest smile we gave to the wrong ones made sense all along. Because we believe we are the love we give.
We’ll work on it. We want it to be intentional. We want it to be something worth having. As we always say, “Kung loloobin ng Maykapal.”
I thank you for being imperfectly you. You know how content you can be with the bare minimum, how deeply self-aware — sometimes painfully so — and still, you leave blank pages for possibility and growth. You realized the power you have to create your own opportunities, and that these choices will shape our future.
So cheers for making it through the year! You didn’t get sick enough to count on one hand. You came back to reading and writing. You showed up where you were needed most. There were a lot of voids and boxes you filled. And most of all, you were present all year.
This is your 2026 self, starting with another blank page to fill.
To making it all count and to another meaningful year.
With gratitude for who you were and trust in what’s unfolding, I begin again,
2026 self
