think the argument is more « you can’t say bad things about rodgers (or ben) as people if you cheer for a team who embraced ray lewis » but here’s the thing…i’m perfectly capable of hating all three of those people even if i don’t hate their teams.

wait what did i miss?

that and/or the jack smith testimony

i've decided that 2026 is going to be my year, and a lot of it starts with the infrastructure these goals are designed to build. can't wait to see y'all throughout the year with updates!

i think the intentionality goals will be the ones that are the most impactful. i'm doing monthly reflections and quarterly life audits where i spend 60-90 minutes reflecting on the previous three months. my best friends are planning on doing the same and getting together to update each other.

i'm also back at it with the french goals. i fell completely short last year, but i'm not giving up. i think i'll be the proudest if i can complete a conversation in french while i'm in paris in a few months! i'm also going to create an app to programmatically track my goals so i have visual updates

beyond that, my goal is to find more consistency in my running and lifting journeys, and to facilitate that do more active recovery. i'm also going to learn to do a backflip and learn some type of dance (leaning towards swing dance atm).

the one i'm most excited about is my vball analytics blog. i'll be revealing more on that at @nerdabovethenet.bsky.social in the next few days, but the short of it is i've finally making public some of the volleyball analytics work I've been sitting on for too long. i'm so pumped for this journey.

tomorrow, i'll share my 2026 goals, but today i'm sitting with 2025 - the wins, the misses, the injuries and the persistence.

here's to goals that stretch you, even when—especially when—you don't hit them all. happy new year, y'all.

even with the misses, 2025 taught me that i can handle more than i think, and i can afford to be more ambitious. it also taught me that the process matters just as much - if not more - than the results. finally, it taught me that honest reflection is the best way to get better.

i also learned that even if i don't make time to sit on the cushion and meditate everyday like i want, there are ways for me to be present with myself and my surroundings - and my 2026 goals will reflect that.

i missed the mileage and the lifting goals because of injuries in march and october. i was forced to choose pretty early to listen to my body, and as hard as that was i'm better off going into 2026 because of it. sometimes doing the hard thing actually means resting and letting your body heal.

the close misses:
- meditated 187 times
- ran nearly 800 miles
- got a 3.93 GPA in my master's classes (missed the 4.0 by <0.5%!)

and the not so close misses:
- read 6/10 books
- lifted 31 times 💀
- literally any of my french goals (ironically after i booked a trip to paris for february 😅)

the 7 i hit were:
- ran a half marathon in under 1:45 (1:43:55!)
- went to 41 yoga classes
- visited 4 new national parks
- made connections with people in the political realm
- listened to 108,000 minutes on spotify
- listened to 157000 minutes of podcasts
- watched 14 new movies

when i was a kid, no one was ever at the movies. we’d have the pick of seats in the theater. by the time i graduated hs, it was so busy you either had to go incredibly early or drive further to the nearest amc to get decent seats.

it was crazy to me how much attendance changed in like a decade.