This year felt like reorientation. Not forward, not back, not up or down, just a slow, often uncomfortable pivot toward myself. If last year was about survival, this one was about remembering that I am allowed to have a life.
What I Made
I wrote more than I have in the last few years, not the most ever, just more than the recent past. Writing gave shape to the days and somewhere to store the thoughts that kept piling up. You could say, I wrote my way through postpartum.
- 21 newsletters, primarily on motherhood/parenthood
- 17 blog posts across two sites (aurooba.com and aurooba.blog, some other day I’ll get into why I created a new blog)
- 9 Instagram reels
- This review
Not everything I wrote made it online. A lot of it stayed in drafts or notebooks.
Where I Went
I left the city once: Vancouver for a short work trip.
That’s it.
We made a conscious decision to stay home this year, figuring out parenthood and routines and the sheer logistics of daily life. We thought no travel would reduce chaos. Instead, it drained us. The absence of change made everything feel heavier. We were wrong. We need movement. We need contrast. We’ll course-correct in 2026.
What I Read
I read 15 books.
- The Desire Variable
- Us Dark Few
- The Passion Parameter
- Here for the Cake
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
- The Bone Season
- Us Deadly Few
- Managing Humans
- Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
- Start with Why
- Damn..not another love story
- A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
- Hyperion
- The Staff Engineer’s Path
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Some were pure escape. Some were anchors. All of them kept me company.
Work
I changed jobs twice this year. That alone could be the headline.
First, I closed the chapter on working at WP Engine. I’m grateful for what I learned there and for the friendships I still have from that chapter. Then, I found my way to XWP, a fantastic agency where I learned more about myself than I expected to. I worked with talented people, I made real friends, and I was reminded of what I enjoy building.
Near the end of the year, I landed at Jane, the first fully Canadian company I’ve ever worked at. It feels like the right place for this chapter. Not because I know exactly where it will lead, but because I’m allowing this role to be part of a life, not the whole thing.
Reflections
What I changed my mind about
That staying still is the responsible choice. That adulting means tolerating what doesn’t work. I accepted that changing things isn’t reckless; it’s responsible. It allows you to show up more whole for yourself and for the people who rely on you.
What created energy
Sleep. Because parenting a baby under one is a physical and emotional marathon, and rest changes everything.
Writing. Not on a schedule and not always for anyone else. Just often enough to notice the difference in how I thought and how I felt. It helped clear out the fog of postpartum and made room for direction to appear.
What drained energy
The lack of travel. Turns out our wellbeing is tied to leaving home sometimes. Staying still shrunk the world, and it shrunk us with it.
What I learned
If something isn’t working, change it. It’s not failure to pivot. It’s stewardship.
Looking Ahead: 2026
My word for 2026 is persist.
Not in the hustle sense. Not “grind harder,” “be better,” “do more.” Right now, I don’t want to build toward the next version of my life; I want to live this one well. When I sat down to think about next year, the question that kept surfacing wasn’t:
How can I improve next year?
It was:
How can I live well next year?
What if goals weren’t ladders but containers for the life I want to inhabit? What if goals were just tools to help me persist in what actually matters, instead of chasing the next version of my life?
2026 Goals
These are mediums of living well. Not metrics of achievement.
- Read 52 books
Because stories make me more human. - Write 52 blog posts / articles
Because I think and heal through words. - Clock 52 gym sessions
Because I want to feel strong in my own body. - Travel for leisure 4 times
Because we need the world. - Take a class with my kid
Because parenthood is not just logistics; it’s presence. - Do something social once a month
Life is better when hang out with your friends more regularly.
This isn’t about routines or finding the perfect structure. I’m not chasing discipline for its own sake. I just want to keep returning to the things that help me feel like myself.
If 2025 was reorientation, then 2026 is about persistence, continuing what’s worth continuing, letting the rest fall away, and living like life is something I get to participate in, not manage.
Let’s roll.