Year in review 2025 🎉

Highlights

Around the same time last year, I wrote up a yearly review, which coincidentally also marked the 1 year anniversary of my blog. I'd like to make that a habit, and with Christmas looming around the corner, and the New Year closing in, here are the main highlights from 2025.

Projects 📝

This year, I focused more on personal growth, and ended up having to sacrifice some of the free time I allocated to side projects. Nevertheless, here are some worth noting.

1. Added a Sleep Analysis feature to the Apple Health Parser Python package 🛌
2. Emulated a minigame from the Alien Isolation videogame (see this post) 👽

Milestones 🏁

Similarly to the personal projects section, not much to be said about milestones this year, but here are a few worth mentioning:

1. Growing within my role as a Software Engineer at KPN, a major Dutch telecommunications company 📡
2. Completed my longest biking trip (100 km) 🚲
3. Tried my hand at cross-stitching 🧵

Items 📦

This year, I was more conservative with my purchases. I bought a console, and a few videogames.

1. Purchased the Nintendo Switch 2 🎮

Prospects 🍃

With the new year approaching, I'd like to set a few (hopefully realistic) goals for 2026.

1. Pick up Rust again: Last year, I tried learning Rust, but got wrapped up in other things. This year, I want to pick it up again and get more comfortable with it for good
2. Focus on mental health: Prioritise mental wellbeing over everything else
3. Read more books: I read a lot due to the nature of my work, but I want to allocate more time to read books for leisure and personal growth

Retrospective 🍂

Last year was a year of change. It ended abruptly and with several challenges set up for 2025, most of which I wasn't prepared for. But that's life, and we adapt. This year, however, I feel more optimistic. I've learned to accept change, and embrace it. I've also learned to prioritise myself more, and focus on what matters to me. I'm looking forward to what 2026 has in store.