2025 Year in Review & 2026 Plans

31 December 2025

Hey Everybody,

A year ago today I bought the domain and hosting for this blog.

My first real post included a list of all the things I was going to do in 2025.

Because of this, I thought it would be worth sitting down and going over what I did and didn’t accomplish over the last year as a good way to head into the new one.

I will be doing this with far too many archery gifs.

So, without further ado…

Here’s that long list of what I wanted to do in 2025:

Looking back on this, it was a list of great ideals.

But it was way too many things to aim for at once.

Some of the goals weren’t defined as well as they needed to be for me to actually make progress, which is something I’ll be adjusting for next year.

Some items could not be finished, such as the Peterson Academy ones, due to various circumstances.

A few I consciously decided to mark off the list in order to focus on other things.

This included my language-learning endeavors, since I currently don’t have as much reason to learn a foreign language and I wasn’t putting in the time to really make progress. I figured this was one to put down and pick up again with more intention in the future if the need arises.

Stuff I Did Accomplish

So, what all on the list did I actually do?

About 4 of these things.

Namely:

• Get blog formatted & post 12 times this year
• Read 10 books
• [Financial goal, redacted in the photo above]
• Learn how to sleep well again

I’m counting all the pages on the blog as posts, since that was all new this year.

Going forward, only actual posts will count for that sort of thing.

By my count, I read 12 books, at least 4 of which were graphic novels. I sampled a lot of others, ‘though, and enjoyed the stuff I did read (even if it wasn’t nearly as sophisticated as I’d originally intended).

Here’s a page I made about the books I’ve read, in case anyone’s interested in those:

Book List

I have gotten better at sleeping, so I’m counting that. Should have defined it better, but after a few years of sleeping pretty poorly I have been able to see some good improvement overall.

Exercise helps. Living near water seems to help, too. My friend Molly says that living next to the water is good for sleep, and I think she’s onto something with that theory.

I did made partial progress in a lot of the items I’d listed:

• Found a workout routine (just recently began implementing)
• Have identified some ways not to be completely derailed from goals in social settings; still requires tweaking/experimentation, but getting there
• [Got close to another redacted financial goal – within about 80% of the original goal, so I’m pretty happy with that]
• Have printed out and organized guitar music, and been practicing regularly
  (No uke, left it in North Carolina and still haven’t gotten back to pick it up–thank you for holding onto it for so long, Ruth!)
• Began writing some comedy material to try out at some point

It’s not as much as I wanted to do, but it’s still movement in a forward direction.

Stuff I Didn’t Accomplish

There were some other things I failed to complete entirely this year.

I definitely did not lose weight.

Started off pretty strong in this area, but I found it difficult to keep up good nutrition and exercise habits while on the road.

I have some downtime this winter without all the travel, so I am putting into practice some better habits and will be figuring out how to keep them when I have to be more social and/or mobile later in the new year.

I can see where I need to tweak some things to have a better chance at completing them this time around, and other things that I probably won’t prioritize because now isn’t the right time.

Stuff I Learned

Despite not marking a lot off my list, this year was huge for me when it came to learning lessons.

Here are some of the main things I figured out (or at least began figuring out a little more clearly) while out on my 2025 adventures:

• A large part of overcoming being stuck in a rut is narrowing down options to avoid analysis paralysis.
• Having a local community is very helpful for narrowing down options.

• When I would pray for wisdom, what I was actually wanting was a quick, definitive answer to whatever problem was before me. But, wisdom is something that takes time and experience in order to obtain and isn’t the same as an answer.
• I don’t have to keep in touch with everybody I used to know. And I can pick who my friends are. (This might sound basic and kind of silly for me to be figuring out now. There are reasons for this, and I’ll likely write about those more and link to the posts here when they’re done.)
• I don’t like Texas. (Although I like most of the people I saw there quite a lot.)

2025 Blog Posts

Here’s a list of the posts I published in 2025:

• January:
  • Unexpected Endings
• February:
  • I’d Just as Soon Kiss a Wookiee & Other Noodle Tales
• March:
  • Pancakes in Paradise
  • Nashville Cats & Otter Adventures
• April:
  • There and Back and There and Back and There Again
  • On Being Expelled from Peterson Academy – Part 1
• May:
  • Wandering in Watterson Territory
• June:
  • On Being Expelled from Peterson Academy – Part 2
  • On Being Expelled from Peterson Academy – Bonus Features
    

And here’s a list of ones I should have finished this year…

…that I’ll link to when they’re written:

• June: A Handful of Canadas
• July: The Beginning of a Three Hour Month Tour
• August: Tourons & Troglobites
• September: Strawberry Ducks & The Weirdest Concert
• October: Vampires & Venomous Snakes
• November: Welcome to Paradise
• December: Only the Beginning of the Adventure

I have been challenged to write a blog post every other week until I catch up, and I think it would be good to accept this challenge.

Stay tuned for the rest of those recaps (coming soon to an email update near you).

What’s Ahead

I really enjoyed 2025.

It was challenging and rewarding.

I learned a lot of stuff that I think will serve me well going forward.

I’m kinda sad to see it go.

I’ve said for decades (😱) now that 2005 was the best year of my teens.

I think 2025 has been my favorite year of adulthood so far.

But I’m also glad for a new year and whatever adventures lie ahead.

I’ve got a list of things to shoot for that’s a bit more manageable:

I’ve purposely left some spaces open to fill in as I find stuff over the course of the year.

Some other items, like establishing a healthier relationship with technology, I’ll have to define and flesh out more at some point during the year.

Anyway, it should be easier to focus on just these ones.

And I’m glad to have another year to see how far I can get this time around.

Happy New Year, and here’s to what I hope will be a wonderful 2026 for you all! 🥳

Excelsior,

Frankie J. Bailer