New Year’s Eve
As I think about today’s date, and the fact that we have somehow arrived at the very last day of 2025, there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty:
I survived.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like a grand accomplishment to everyone.
But sometimes, surviving is the accomplishment.
I think back to the beginning of this year—to the prayers I prayed, the hopes I carried, the dreams tucked quietly inside my heart, and the goals I thought I would accomplish before another December 31 rolled around.
I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions. I don’t like making promises to myself simply because the calendar changes.
But I do usually add an item or two to my personal Bucket List.
Something to experience.
Something to accomplish.
Something that reminds me that there is still life to live.
And then 2025 happened.
Some things I finally surrendered completely to God.
And in return, some prayers were answered.
Those are the things that mean the most to me.
Not the things I could force into happening. Not the things I could carefully plan, organize or control.
But the things I finally placed in God’s hands and said, This is Yours.
And then watched Him work.
Some goals were met.
Some goals had to be rewritten.
And some?
Well, some were simply tossed out.
Because sometimes we begin a year thinking we know exactly where we are headed, only to discover that life has an entirely different route planned for us.
Some hopes were crushed this year.
And some dreams…
Well.
Some dreams are still just dreams.
Maybe even pipe dreams.
The kind of dreams that have lived inside of me for so long that I’m not sure I even remember when they first began.
Dreams that feel so far out of my reach that sometimes I wonder why I continue to think about them at all.
Why do we hold onto something when deep down we wonder if it will ever happen?
Why do certain dreams refuse to leave our hearts?
There are dreams that still bring tears to my eyes because they remind me of something difficult to accept:
Prayers do not always get answered the way we want them to.
And hope?
Sometimes hope can feel terribly false.
Sometimes we hope and hope and hope, only to find ourselves standing in exactly the same place, wondering why we allowed ourselves to believe again.
But maybe that is a topic for 2026.
Tonight, I don’t want to spend the final hours of this year trying to figure out everything that didn’t happen.
Because tonight, there are plans.
New plans.
Fun plans.
Plans for New Year’s Eve and for ringing in 2026 in a way that will be a first for me.
Am I excited?
Yes.
Am I a little worried?
Maybe a tad.
But perhaps that is exactly how we are supposed to enter a new year—not knowing exactly what is waiting on the other side of midnight.
Maybe we don’t need all the answers.
Maybe we just need enough courage to show up.
So tonight, I’m going to show up.
I’m going to laugh.
I’m going to make a memory – actually replacement memories – Yay!
I’m going to say goodbye to a year that gave me answered prayers and unanswered ones, accomplishments and disappointments, laughter and tears, beginnings and endings.
And most importantly, I’m going to acknowledge the woman who made it through all of it.
Me.
I survived 2025.
Maybe I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted.
Maybe some dreams are still painfully out of reach.
Maybe there are still prayers sitting somewhere between my heart and Heaven.
But I’m still here.
And as midnight approaches, perhaps that is enough.
So…
Let’s see what ringing in the New Year will be like.
Goodbye, 2025.
You certainly weren’t everything I hoped you would be.
But I survived you.
And 2026?
Look out! Here I come.
Wishing you all a happy ending to 2025 and glorious new beginnings to 2026!
Feeling melancholy ….with a touch of sass …..
gussiewrites.com
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