Ā«Ā This yearās wrappedĀ Ā» is the new trend on social networks, music streaming or gaming apps. As we should think about how much data is being collected in every nook and cranny of these connected platforms, it nonetheless is interesting to take a step back and reflect on what we achieved this year when itās really easy to sum it up based on what happened the last few weeks. Iāve decided to do a bit of a throwback so I can avoid facing the Christmas blues and really highlight the ups and downs of 2025.
Thursday, December 18th. Clockās over midnight. Unable to fall asleep after quite a long while, Iāve decided to get up and clean my stove. Going back to bed a bit later, Iām trying to get over this feeling of emptiness by thinking about more positive stuff and this is when the idea of writing a ā2025 My Life Wrapped!ā came to my mind. By doing so, Iād pinpoint my wins which matter more than this temporary negative feeling of the night. 2025 was quite a transformation year for me and the year during which I managed to finish a bunch of endeavours which lasted for longer than I expected ā as usual. At least, this is the perfect opportunity to clear things up with the people thinking Iām not someone that finishes up what they start; Iām often guilty of thinking this way. My achievements have been both personal and professional. Ultimately, if I can keep 2025 in such a high regard and can consider it a very successful year regarding how I pictured it by the end of 2024, it is because it also has been very balanced and I donāt feel like I had to sacrifice or fail on the side.
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Opening up and realizing I need a career shift
People who know me and/or read my previous article know that Iām kind of on a professional bridge linking two careers, looking for a delicate balance while still respecting my needs. Iāve been passing a skill assessment during this first half of 2025. Iāve always been a bit wary about it because I think Iāve done a pretty good job through the years to identify my strengths and weaknesses, my abilities, what were my main motives in life, what I couldnāt stand any longer and such. Nonetheless, the outcome was largely positive and I donāt regret spending some personal time on it. It allowed me to see things clearer about the paths I could take in the near future ā I had to rule some ideas out for money reasons or just because I wasnāt realistically motived enough to start from scratch and go back to studying even for a couple of years. Iām also way more confident now in my skills and what I can bring to the table, which means that I applied to jobs that werenāt necessary in my field or that could lead to quite a steep increase in responsibilities, because I felt like I could stand my own ground, explain and own to myself my choices, my experience, what I learned, what I liked and disliked, what I canāt endure any longer since Iāve stepped into the corporate world in 2010. Overall, this led me to what I could call āa ground-breaking awakeningā which I talked about in my previous article. Being unapologetically myself allowed me to step into the dehumanizing world you have to deal with when youāre looking for a new job. Keeping your resume up to date and having a bunch of different versions of it for the sake of perfectly fitting your application whilst losing its authenticity, the LinkedIn private messages and emails which are almost for all of them pretty uninspired and boring, the phone calls where you have to repeat the same things over and over again so you can guess another batch of untold truths or you can get ghosted. Iām not feeling sorry anymore for having standards and expectations, for not agreeing to anything some people or companies want just because theyāve not been told no enough so they feel like they have some sort of authority over the people applying and willing to trade some of their time and skills for money. It came through my mind that I donāt apologize for not being concise anymore: thereās always a reason for why Iām being precise and if it bothers that I take time to explain, write down things and make sure theyāre properly understood, that means weāre not meant to work together, and thatās okay. Different strokes for different folks.
Iām able to safely say that Iām every day closer to a career shift ā this might not be the only one Iāll go through, who knows? Iām squeezed every ounce of very-needed fulfilment out of it and I need to leave it at it before it turns into resentment. It doesnāt really feels like home anymore, I donāt feel like wearing a mask every day and perpetuating some very normative traditions and ways of life just so I can keep a routine and work from 9 to 6 for ā at least ā 35 more years. The skill assessment wasnāt easy to get through because Iāve been used to therapies of all sorts thanks to my neurodivergence so it always feels like my therapist or coach only gets a fraction of me and I almost always end up in adapting and telling them what they want to hear because I can see where theyāre trying to bring me. Needless to say, this doesnāt help at all. Nonetheless, Iāve managed to keep it as subtle as possible, not to care about being quickly and roughly analysed and broken into imperfect categories, so the interviews end up fair and accurate enough so theyāre actually meaningful.
Coming back to this career shift, I quit my previous job in December. It was a necessary end. I pretty often had this feeling that giving my resignation was taken as a personal attack or some kind of failure on my soon-to-be ex-employerās side. It really is important not to take it personally here. I was done working there, my motivation was at an all time low and I couldnāt bring myself to keep up with my own standards. Day after day, my mental health was getting worse ā since I wanted to avoid reaching the point of no return and get back into a negative downwards spiral, quitting was the best solution. That being said, quitting has never been easy; Iāve done it more than ten times and Iāve never gotten used to it, even though it was my own decision. You donāt only quit a job, you end up social relationships amongst professional ones, and it sometimes is a tough trade. My only regret is that I went for it quite late. Iāve been thinking about it in January 2025 but the economic trends werenāt helping at all and slowly May and June arrived which meant that only a miracle would help me find a new job before September. Ultimately, I accepted a new position for a retail company Iāve worked for as an external consultant a couple of years ago. Iām not really putting myself at risk here since I know the people, the management and how well I fit in there, which I was really craving for so I can, for at least a couple of years, relax about my professional situation.
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Let me be a bit materialistic here…
Iāve moved out of my last apartment in 2020 when I broke up with my ex-girlfriend of several years. I found then a new place that I liked, which I didnāt choose in a heartbeat like I used to but it was close enough from the place I was leaving and especially from a well-known city park. Itās also close from public transportation which is how I move around in a fast manner even though Iām 6 miles away from the city centre. Back then, it was only temporary and Iāve been straightforward with my landlord, āIāll be out in 6 months or so, Iām planning to be a homeownerā. Well, things didnāt turn the way I expected them to be thanks to COVID, the house market crisis and some very rough years on both personal and professional scales. Only in 2024 I had a stable enough way of life, meaning I was finally able to move forward onto this project and I ultimately got the keys in October 2025. Obviously ā itās becoming a trademark or a meme at this point depending on your point of view ā it took longer than expected because of the summer holidays and some administrative issues on the sellerās side. As they say, all good things come to those who wait ā I donāt know where does it come from but I guess itās nice to live in a fairytale? ā and after short of 6 years in a place I planned to stay in for 6 months, Iām living in my own apartment.
Overall, it doesnāt make a difference because instead of paying rent, Iām just paying for my loan, it was still a huge commitment for me because this thing goes for 25 years (granted I donāt negotiate the loan to get a lower interest rate in a couple of years and I donāt sell the apartment, the latter being highly unlikely). Iāve often been thinking about moving abroad or starting from scratch somewhere in France but for now, I have to postpone these plans. Moreover, Iām also tied to having a high enough income, even if I could rent a cheaper place to live and pay back my loan with the income generated from this apartment. Iād be lying if I said that I didnāt go through anxiety, fear of losing my independence, not taking the right decision, being stuck here in a way of life I donāt like. I went through this phase and I realized that nothing is set in stone, these are only material and financial matters and I can deal with these if I ever have a life-changing project I want to commit to. Now that all of this exhausting administrative crap is behind me, Iām glad and proud of myself for sticking to it and not giving up, since Iāve done of all this mainly by myself. I have some friends and some close relatives but I donāt really have a support circle I can rely on when things get tough ā I had to navigate through these times alone. Being brain-wired a bit differently than others, it has always been a bit hard to open myself on these kind of personal matters.
This year-long project came to an end when I had to move from my older apartment to the new one. I value my personal privacy a lot and I consider my apartment as a sanctuary being my safe space from the outside world; since I donāt have an extended list of people trustworthy enough to come inside my place and I kind of struggle to ask for help because I hate bothering people with things they wouldnāt do otherwise ā even though people who care about you will be more likely to love helping! ā Iāve moved almost all of my flat by myself. Well, the fact that theyāre 500 ft apart surely helped. I waited until my back was against the wall and a friend of mine insisted to help ā fully aware that I have a hard time asking for help ā to move what was left and that I couldnāt realistically move myself (washing machine, bed frames, couch and some other living room piece of furniture). Now, itās been two months that Iāve fully settled in. This long haul project is my very 2025 achievement and milestone; maybe not only 2025ās but since Iāve been in my thirties since Iāve dealt with a lot of underlying necessary steps since then.
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Keeping on riding the positive waves
These milestones helped me establish some new life foundations in a global environment Iām trying not to worry too much about. In this world where the fields are being chemically poisoned for decades and where people arenāt able to sleep in a warm and dry place, weāre being flooded with artificial intelligence ā this is a personal take but intelligence canāt be artificial; if it is, itās no longer intelligence but an existing thinking or routine weāre going through again ā which already has visible social, environmental, ethical and economical consequences. This might sound selfish but these personal wins allow me to not focus as much on the systemic losses weāre facing but on how we can fight back in a more structured and cohesive manner. I donāt know what 2026 has in store for us but thanks to 2025, I feel readier than ever to purposefully act, to let my mind roam freely and express my ideas, turn them into something tangible while calling for everyoneās natural intelligence, for every cause and being that matter to me.