It's January, so I know you're being inundated with "New Year, New Me" posts all over social media.

Surprisingly, I'm thankful for this time of year.

It’s a fresh start that forces you to reflect on the good, the bad, and consider what you can improve in your life.

Typically, I'm the one rolling my eyes at these posts because I often felt regretful for not making a dent in my own goals.

Fortunately, I have a new perspective after achieving my big, scary goal for 2024.

In late December 2023, during a therapy session, I mentioned that I was thinking about going back to school. This wasn’t news to my therapist, but this time she encouraged me to go into details.

Even though I had only been seeing her for a couple of months (sometimes twice a week), it felt longer because she’s incredible. She asked how long it had been since I attended college and how much more time I needed to complete my associate’s degree.

In that moment, I realized a couple of things:

• I hadn’t been in school since 2010.

• Based on my mental math, I only needed about a year to complete my associate’s degree at the local community college.

I was embarrassed... how had I not finished yet?

My therapist helped me navigate my feelings, and we discussed steps to achieve this goal.

By the end of the session, I decided that my goal for 2024 was to complete my associate’s degree.

I was excited, nervous, and scared of failing.

I had all the feels, so we spent several sessions working through them (I know she was tired of me lol).

My motivation for 2024 was COMPLETION.

I desperately needed to prove to myself that I could actually achieve something I started.

And guess what? After three semesters of classes (including summer, chile) my associate’s degree in general studies happened!

So yeah, using January as a fresh start is a beautiful thing.

Here are a few of my goals for 2025:

• Money Moves: Pay off over $10k in debt (not including student loans from years ago). I will work on my relationship with money (it’s toxic) by reading books, writing, and increasing my income.

• Education: Complete eight classes (I go all year) toward my degree in English and begin weekly drills for the LSAT.

• Be Intentional: Read instead of scrolling — When TikTok was banned last night, I felt a sense of panic. I wasn’t sure what to do because I was so used to spending my weekend laughing, watching recipes I will never cook, and listening to think pieces on trending topics.

  This morning, without anything to scroll through, I read thirty pages of a book I’ve been wanting to start for weeks, finished this blog post, and wrote several pages in my journal.

  The best part? I have tonight and tomorrow (holiday) to clean, do a little decluttering, and reduce my homework procrastination. So yeah, we need to break up real bad. I’ve got shit to do.

• Health: Ditch the Alcohol — Typing this makes my nerves bad… but here it is: I have an unhealthy relationship with red wine. It beats me up daily, and it’s time to move on. The brain fog and laziness it causes are no longer worth the temporary escape I use it for.

  I know that addressing my addiction will change my life for the better. The journey won’t be simple (it has been my staple for years!), but I’m committed to finding clarity and reclaiming my life.

  Even though there were many lows (low low, chile) in 2024, I learned so much about myself, and I'm looking forward to an incredible 2025. It’s up, baby!

BTW, another goal I had for 2024 was to pay off my credit cards and personal loans.

Spoiler alert: I have MORE debt this year than last year. I'll share why that happened in a future post.
Let me know your goals for 2025 by clicking the little “talk bubble” below this post.

Thank you for being here. :-)