Dear readers, it has been an entire year since I wrote a post! I can’t believe it but it is true. My last post was reflecting back on 2024, so I wanted to start this year by reflecting and sharing how the past year 2025 went for us. It is almost the end of January, […] The post Reflecting back on 2025 & welcoming 2026 first appeared on Dawn and Hope- Every day is a new beginning.
Dear readers, it has been an entire year since I wrote a post! I can’t believe it but it is true. My last post was reflecting back on 2024, so I wanted to start this year by reflecting and sharing how the past year 2025 went for us. It is almost the end of January, and I hope that each one of you reading this post has had a great start of the new year 2026. Wishing everyone a hopeful, positive, healthy and prosperous new year, cheers!
Summary of 2025
In 2025, professionally I changed jobs and started at a high school. My readers know that I am an educator and have been working in HISD for 18 years now. More than half of these years include my experience as a classroom teacher- I have taught high school as well as middle school Science for a decade. Rest of the years, I have worked as instructional support staff on campus. In 2024 briefly I tried a central office job which I enjoyed but it didn’t last long as there was a reduction in force within 6 months of my hiring. So I looked around and now back in high school as a coordinator. Although I have my mini up and down like everyone else, I do enjoy my job as I feel I am able to make small difference around me.
In 2025, at home front, my younger one graduated from high school and started as a college freshman more than 1400 miles away. I am so proud of all her hard work! She was the Salutatorian of her class, auto admitted to the top in-state universities and even got a full ride to one as she was awarded the National Merit Finalist scholarship. We went to UCLA on Admit Day and pondered over Georgia Tech but in the end she chose Johns Hopkins University for her 4 years of college journey. So my husband & I became empty nesters in August; on my birthday August 17 we dropped her off and came back home to Houston. We were fortunate enough to keep meeting her monthly as we went for Family Weekend in September, she came home for a short Fall Break in October, and she visited in November for Thanksgiving as well as a for a month long winter break in December. She flew off for the Spring semester just last week on MLK day, January 20th. I was getting back to the routine and then the Winter Freeze/Storm in Texas this weekend gave us another long weekend as the schools were canceled and I am home today. This is now inching towards the end of January and we will be one month in the 2026 shortly. Wow time really flies..
2025 was also the year when my older one graduated early (in December 2024 actually) and started her new job. We are incredibly proud of both of our girls and had a combined Graduation Party (high school graduation and college graduation) for them in June beginning. One picture below from the event
As my readers know we are a travel enthusiast family, so I can’t help but share about where all we traveled last year. In June we flew to Turks and Caicos, and in July took a trip to India. Spring break in March & Thanksgiving break in November were at home and we just socialized and met up with couple friends. We ended the year in December by taking another short 4 days vacation to Grapevine, Texas. Below are some of the pictures from our travel in 2025
Hope for 2026
It was a wonderful writing for me for couple reasons. One, this is my first post after a hiatus of 13 months. Second, this helped me reminiscence the beautiful memories I made with my family and the experiences I gained in work front as well as life in general. Last year has also taught me that things don’t always fall in place the way we want to, but having patience, faith, hope and positivity makes everything worthwhile.
So my hope for 2026 is to continue making memories, travel a little, reflect a lot, keep in touch with friends and make new ones, if possible, not to take things for granted, live in the present, and look for small joys on a regular basis.
Dear readers, please share what you are looking forward to in 2026 and any hopes or aspirations you have. Take care and see you next time
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
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