👋🏻, I'm Julia.

Strangely, I'm experiencing some resistance to writing this review. I'm normally done and published before the year end, but it's now the 10th of January and am only now settling down to write this. I'm either (i) way out of practice with utilising my writing skills (uff LLMs!) or (ii) don't want to review 2025 for whatever reason. Perhaps it's a mix of both.

But anyway, here we are. 2025 was a year of transitions, which was to be expected considering how 2024 ended. Reading back on what I wrote then, there are things that I'm happy with, things I wanted to improve upon but didn't, and things that I thought I wanted, but really didn't.

📅 Key Events of 2025

• I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina and Chile, with the express goal of hiking Patagonia (did the W Trail). This was a huge bucket list item.
• I went skiing twice this year, Val d'Isère in April, then Les Deux Alpes in December. I'd never been to either before.
• I visited Georgia for the first time to hang-out with one of my best friends.
• I saw The Offspring in concert 🤘🏻. What a blast (to the past).
• I travelled to Miami for the first time, as part of a work trip. Don't think I'll ever return, but it's nice to have visited once.

🏆 Milestones

• I joined a new company in April. I'm staying within the sector I'm passionate about - healthcare.
• I started indoor bouldering more consistently and am currently around V3 level.
• I continued weekly therapy and came to some realisations. It's definitely improve my daily operating system.

💪 Challenges

• Pretty much exactly the same as last year's. Which says something.

🎓 Professional Growth

• I'm continuing to learn French daily, though didn't make as much progress as I would have liked. I'm currently at CEFR B1 level.
• I'm now working for a company that operates within the US Healthcare system. It's a brand new domain for me and quite complex. There's also a whole new tech stack to get to grips with.

🚀 Looking Forward

• I'm much more cognisant about needing to set clear work-life boundaries. Being cognisant doesn't necessarily mean taking action though. I'm getting better at it, but there's still some ways to go and will continue chipping away at this.
• Travelling with the intent of escaping into nature continues to be important for me. Mountains are my happy place.
• French! I'm improving ever so slowly, but I'm glad I'm at least consistent. I do want to speed up and reach B2 level though, especially with my spoken french.
• Finding a community and building stronger ties with others.
• ...And more important than anything else, continuing to take care of my health, and being grateful for it.