In 2025, I completed almost half of the units of my graduate degree. I have one calendar year left, with one class in the spring, one in the summer (ugh), and my ePortfolio in the fall. When all is said and done, this will have been a four-year endeavor. (This is a terminal professional degree — 43 units instead of 29-32 — that is designed for working adults, so we have seven years to complete it.) This year I did some instructional design and data visualization, studied copyright law and cultural competence, and did a refresher HTML/CSS course and an introductory PHP and Javascript course. The content of my schoolwork was fascinating (a lot of reading, writing, and coding). I learned a lot, and got a glimpse of how much I still don’t know. I met a lot of interesting classmates. And I performed well (gold star for me).
Both of my in-laws had significant medical challenges this year, starting in May and running through December, when my father-in-law died from complications from lung cancer. My mother-in-law’s situation is ongoing and will hopefully resolve — positively — soon… knock wood. We do not live close to either of my in-laws, so in addition to all of the other accompanying issues, my husband travelled a lot in 2025. As challenging as my year has been, multiply it by infinity and you *might* approach the level of challenge my fabulous-and-talented husband faced in 2025.
My contribution to all of this: I kept the household running (taxes and bills paid, animals fed and cared for, laundry done, minor repairs managed). Of course, it was not the only thing, not the main thing, and not the most important thing. But it was a thing.
The upshot: 2025 was a lot. Much of it was unavoidable, but there were some painful realizations that I need to do a better job at managing the things I can control. My limitations, in terms of attention span, time management, and real life, are becoming more apparent the older I get; my willingness to ignore them is increasingly problematic. 0/10, do not recommend.
Sure, many things did get done, like school, keeping the house going, and volunteering ~180 hours at the OLC. In the plus column, I added another walk with Lu every day (we do two now, and she gets an after-dinner perambulation with fabulous-and-talented husband), which is good for both of us.
While I got a lot done, many things fell by the wayside: nature journaling, writing, my social life, cooking/baking, any kind of future career planning. These things are important, even if they (rightly) aren’t top priorities. I could say something about the difference between unscheduled time and availability, but the truth is that this year it would not have mattered; I didn’t have as much unscheduled time (that was my choice), and much of the rest of my time was used to attend to other pressing matters (that were out of my control).
2025 was challenging in some unpleasant ways, which makes the bar for improvement in 2026 pretty low. Backing off of my school schedule will hopefully help a little bit. And the missing things I can easily identify point to things I can hopefully find time to add more of… knock wood.
Carmen Yount 