In which we pick a word for 2025 like it's almost 2025
even though by the time you get this it will actually be 2025
As is customary, I have picked a word for the coming year. I got the idea from Amie Kaufman at least a decade ago, and I think it’s a good one. It’s nice to have something to focus on. As we stare down the, frankly, terrifying maw of 2025, it’s even nicer to have something to hold on to, like Sam said.
For 2024, I went with “fantasy”. Those were the first books I loved, and the books I always assumed I’d write. I knew that 2024 was going to be a year to poke at things, and poke I did. Some of them worked out. Some of them exploded a little bit. I wrote a novella and planned a series of them, and I made rough scratchings at four ideas that I might be able to build an adult fantasy career on someday, but now it’s time to get back to the main task.
I didn’t really do very many measurable things this past year. Pretty Furious was published, quietly. I visited my seventh continent. I made new friendships and deliberately strengthened existing ones where I could. I loved Dragon Age: Veilguard almost beyond measure. I planned and plotted and hoped, because to do anything else when you have books out on submission is to stare endlessly into the void. I can’t really make a chart or graphic about it, but it was a decent, if off-centre, year.
And now I am ready to go.
So, for 2025, let’s move.
I want to change my prescriptions from Shoppers to my local pharmacy. I want to find a better place for my newsletter. I want to put away the clothes I’ve folded on the day I fold them. I want to leave behind the things that make my life harder for no reason. I want to stop reaching for things that don’t reach back. I want to write my words less frenetically, now that I have the meds to help my brain get the job done. I want to keep being thoughtful and considerate, but I want to be better at being myself, too, even if it makes me less useful to you.
(I also want to play the other four romances in Veilguard, though I still feel like I am too much like Bellara to romance her, but maybe I’ll just do that run as a dude for some distance. And then maybe go back and Crow-mance Lucanis.) (omg) (i’m sorry) (i regret nothing)
ANYWAY
I don’t think I want the coming year to be more countable. I liked getting things started without keeping tallies (though I can tell you that I read all of the Murderbot books once a month in 2024, because the Murderbot books are amazing). I want midnight whales and Muskoka sun, or at least similar sensations. I want new shows to love and comfort watches of David Attenborough. I want bright words and big ideas. I want the spruce trees we plant along the ruins of the back fence to flourish. I never want to make another Canva graphic again, but I will (I’ll just be watching television when I do it).
In 2025, I just have to get it done. I have a new planner and brightly coloured pens, two whiteboards, and enough ideas to make magic. Let’s do this. Let’s move.
UNRWA still needs us, desperately. Another great option is Medecins Sans Frontieres. The situation in Gaza is beyond critical, and now Lebanon and Syria are threatened, too.
