I’m a little late to the party, but I wanted to mark the occasion of my 8-year “freelance-versary.” Technically, October is the month when I started my freelance career, but there’s nothing wrong with extending the celebration a bit, right?
If you’re curious to read any of my past editions, you can find them all here:
- Two years of freelancing
- Three years of freelancing
- Four years of freelancing
- Five years of freelancing
- Six years of freelancing
- Seven years of freelancing
2025: A year of highs and lows
I often take a moment in these posts to reflect on the past year. As a solopreneur, my personal and professional lives are often intertwined, so it can be hard to untangle what was happening in one sphere from my feelings about the other.
And 2025 in particular was a year that felt much more intense in its highs and lows. While there have been some incredible highs (which I’ll go into in much more detail shortly), I feel like I need to at least acknowledge the lows as well.
I experienced two major losses this year—first my father-in-law and then a beloved friend, Pedro, just a few weeks later.
These losses have been heartbreaking and painful. They’re also a reminder that we truly never know how long we have with someone. Hold those people you love close (in whatever way you can) and don’t hesitate to tell them what they mean to you.
I have taken some comfort in the fact that the reason it hurts is because I had the privilege to love. When we open our hearts to love others, it means that we’re opening ourselves up to the pain of losing them. But that’s so much better than the alternative of remaining closed off and never letting anyone in.
It will be hard to look back on 2025 without feeling at least some sadness—these losses will forever be defining moments of this past year. But luckily, there have been some bright spots as well.
Highlights of the past year
On a lighter note, I’d love to share a few of my highlights from 2025.
Stretch, Service, & Safari in Tanzania
2025 started off strong: In February, I traveled to Tanzania (my first time on the African continent!) as part of the Stretch, Service, & Safari trip with Jill Knouse.
We spent several days volunteering at a secondary school, which involved chatting with the students about our educational background and careers, letting them beat us mercilessly at their version of Uno (played with a regular card deck and called “Last Card”), and teaching them some yoga moves. I was so impressed by playfulness of the students, their easy laughter, and their dedication to walking through the intense dust for an hour each way just to get to school every day.
Next, we traveled to several national parks, including Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti, where we had the opportunity to observe the animals of the savannah in their native habitat. It’s hard to sum up how awe-inspiring this experience was—the quiet grace of the elephants as they splashed in the watering hole mere feet away, the power and speed of a lioness who took down a wildebeest right before our eyes, the synchronicity of the gazelles flicking their tails and leaping in elegant arcs.
My trip was sandwiched with a few days in Amsterdam on either end, and it was wonderful to spend a few days catching up with friends, wandering along the canals, and eating stroopwafels as big as my face.
Connecting with creative ladies at Alt Summit
Just a week after I got back from Tanzania and Amsterdam, I headed down to Palm Springs for another incredible edition of Alt Summit.
What exactly is Alt Summit? It’s essentially a gathering of creative women business owners. Attendees include designers, photographers, artists, and writers.
I’ve now gone several times—if my counting is correct, 2025 was my fifth Alt Summit.
I love that the sessions aren’t just panel discussions and keynotes. During nearly every time slot, there’s at least one room where you can do arts and crafts. Over the years, I’ve learned that those tend to be the most fun, so this year I went to a bunch, including water color painting, alcohol ink, and gelli printing.
I wish this was more common at other conferences! It’s such a relief to get out of your head and do something tactile. Plus, it’s a much easier and more low-key way to connect with other attendees than striking up a conversation while you’re waiting in line for the bathroom (although there’s plenty of opportunities for that, too!).
Returning to the same event for several years in a row also means that you start to see some familiar faces, so I love having the chance to reconnect with conference friends from previous editions.
This year I also had a “small world” moment because super talented designer Heather Mueller (who is friend I met through Zumba) was also at Alt Summit.
Another fun aspect of this year’s event was getting the chance to check out a few of the Desert X installations. One of my Alt besties, Morgan First, organized an informal art adventure/roadtrip where several of us headed out to a few sites in the greater Palm Springs area to check out the artwork, like the mirror/reflection piece by Sarah Mehoyas shown below.
My six-week sojourn through Japan, Germany, and Austria
Because my husband is from Japan and I used to live there and love visiting, we tend to travel there together at least once a year. This year, the timing worked out that our Japan trip was going to be just a few weeks before Product at Heart took place in Germany.
As I started thinking through the logistics, I realized that it didn’t make sense to travel all the way back home from Japan (and have to deal with the jet lag I’d inevitably suffer from), only to turn around a week later and head to Europe so I could be there in time for Product at Heart.
What made much more sense was to extend my stay in Japan by a week and then to fly directly from Japan to Europe. Going that route would cut down on the long-haul flights I’d have to take, it would give me an extra week on my own in Japan (which is never a bad thing!), and it might even mean I could stop off in Mongolia on the way. It was a win-win-win!
Long story short, I didn’t end up flying via Ulaanbaatar (this time around), but I discovered that flying from Japan to Europe means that the jet lag is not as bad as when I fly to Europe from the US, so this may not be the last time I end up doing some version of this itinerary.
This meant that what I’d originally envisioned as two separate trips (Japan and Europe) combined into one six-week sojourn. It was the longest time I’d ever been on the road and while there were certainly some ups and downs, overall I loved this little foray into the life of a digital nomad.
My time in Japan was a mix of catching up with friends and family, revisiting some favorite spots, and discovering some new places as well.
Over the past decade or so, tourism in Japan has exploded. I find this hard to wrap my head around since this development took place after I moved away. I have so many memories of wandering through temples in Kyoto alone and soaking up the silence and tranquility. Seeing another person at all—let alone someone who was visibly foreign—was somewhat of a novelty.
Now, many of Kyoto’s delicate tiny streets are clogged with people from all over the world and it’s lost some of its magic.
But I still find little pockets of peace and beauty that keep me coming back.
Watching the Kamo River float past—with its egrets poking around, mama ducks with their ducklings drifting behind them, and sparkling sunshine lighting up the water—is something I never get tired of. So I intentionally booked an Airbnb that had a terrace overlooking the river and spent as much time as I possibly could on it.
I had been wanting to do a little excursion to Uji (about an hour outside of Kyoto) and hadn’t squeezed it in during my previous visit to Kyoto, so this time I decided to make it happen. Unfortunately, it was a day of heavy rain, which is not ideal when you need to spend a lot of time walking around outside. But on the plus side, it meant I was one of the only visitors at Byodoin!
I also found the photo and poem below especially poignant on that particular day where the water in the river was certainly flowing.
And indeed, time did flow. All too quickly my visit to Japan was over and it was time to head to Europe.
In Europe, I spent most of my time in Germany and Austria (with a brief half-day trip to Bratislava in Slovakia as well). We took the ferry from Vienna to Bratislava, and while the boarding process was a little more chaotic than I’d prefer (it seems to be a popular trip for bachelor/ette parties and other revelers), the actual ferry ride was relaxing and the scenery was beautiful.
In Bratislava, my friend Amy and I visited the UFO Tower, part of the World Federation of Great Towers! Neither of us had ever heard of this federation before, but appreciated the fact that we’d now visited the smallest tower in their ranks.
I also got to spend a week with my brother and his family in Graz, where we did all kinds of fun things, including visiting a chocolate factory, going swimming in a lake, and attending a summer solstice party where we got to write down our intentions and then burn them in a ritual.
I eventually made my way to Hamburg for Product at Heart. As always, it was wonderful getting to connect with my clients Petra and Martina, as well as with the other people who are involved in Product at Heart as speakers, vendors, volunteers, and attendees. Petra and Arne do such an incredible job of cultivating a community of kind and curious people, and it’s such an honor to get to be a part of it!
I also had a little more time to explore Hamburg before the conference and really enjoyed discovering some new (to me) spots, including a Japanese tachinomiya (standing bar), an incredibly cool hand-pulled noodle shop, and the most dazzling exhibit on glitter at the MK&G.
Bonus trips to Japan and Croatia
I’m referring to these as “bonus trips” because they both came up at the last minute and hadn’t originally been part of my 2025 plans.
The purpose of this trip to Japan was mostly to attend my father-in-law’s funeral and be there with my husband’s family. While it was much more somber than a typical visit, there were still some lovely moments to connect with friends and get out with my husband and mother-in-law to take their minds off of the heaviness of what they were experiencing.
And because my last-minute trip to Japan required shuffling some things around in my schedule, I ended up getting to attend Jill’s yoga retreat on the island of Korçula in Croatia.
This was my first visit to Croatia and I was blown away by the architecture and the landscapes. So many gorgeous cobblestone streets, narrow alleys full of friendly cats, and dramatic cliffs with rocky beaches below.
I also attempted stand-up paddle boarding, and while I still have a lot to learn about steering, I was happy I managed to stay standing and balanced the whole time!
My second 100-day challenge
Last year, I was inspired to do a self-guided 100-day challenge in the last 100 days of the year. My goal was to spend a few minutes each day working on my descriptive writing, trying to come up with similes or metaphors or attempting to describe a memory or a scene in detail. This is the type of writing I rarely get to do for work, so I wanted to spend some time trying to build this skill.
But at the same time, I believed that continuity was more important than content, so I wasn’t too strict about always doing descriptive writing. Sometimes I’d do more typical daily journaling/travel cataloguing/annual review type writing.
And I did it! Between late September and December 31, I wrote something for myself every day for 100 days.
So when September approached this year, I decided to give it another go. Every day (usually in the morning when I’m making my first cup of tea), I sit down and write something. Again, sometimes I do a better job of focusing on the descriptive aspect, sometimes I recount events from the day before, and sometimes I just write about whatever is on my mind.
I haven’t attempted to share any of this writing with anyone since it feels like a random assortment of odds and ends. But there is certainly a feeling of satisfaction that comes with setting a goal for myself and proving that I can stick to it.
Where does work fit in?
Reflecting on the highlights of this past year, I can see that so many of them revolved around time away from my desk, whether it was connecting with friends and family in person, exploring new cities and countries, or expanding my perspective on the world through new experiences.
So this past year, I’ve been incredibly grateful that I have work that allows me to do all these things. I can bring my laptop along for some adventures (this was certainly the case for the latter part of my Japan trip and my time in Germany) and leave it at home for others.
And while I haven’t always been quite as fully booked as I’d like to be, I’ve been reminding myself that not every moment needs to be on the clock and that it’s okay sometimes to simply exist and be there for the people in my life when they need me.
Hopes for the year to come
When I wrap up these posts, I always like to look ahead. Here’s what I’m hoping 2026 will hold:
- More travel (No big surprise there! I decided to join Jill for a yoga retreat in India, a country I’ve long wanted to visit but have never been. I’m also potentially going to combine this with some time in Singapore and Japan—the exact details are still TBD.) Fingers crossed I’ll be returning to Hamburg for yet another edition of Product at Heart! I’ve also signed up to attend a conference in Austin in February (New Media Summit), so I’m hoping this will be a great opportunity to connect with other freelancers and maybe potential new clients.
- Finding the right balance—having enough work to keep me busy but not so much that things feel hectic, at least not for a sustained period of time. By the way, this feels like it is the eternal struggle of freelancing!
- Continuing to cultivate connections with creative people and inspiring clients. Over the years, I’ve started to build a network of other freelancers who do similar work and we meet (virtually) on a regular basis. Those conversations always remind me that I’m not alone and there are other people who are facing the same (or at least similar) challenges. And it’s the same with my clients. Getting the chance to connect in person is so meaningful, and I love hearing how their businesses are evolving and how they’re confronting their own challenges.
On a final note, I do have some availability in my schedule in the coming months. Would you like to work together on a writing project such as a blog, newsletter, or maybe even a book? Would you like me to attend your event and post about it on social media or write recaps afterwards? Do you have another idea about how we might work together?
Get in touch to let me know! You can fill out this form to let me know a bit more about yourself or email me at hello AT ms-content DOT com and I’ll get back to you shortly.