The Truth About This Year

A few weeks ago, I reconnected with someone who I hadn’t seen since this exact time, last year.

After exchanging the general surface level niceties on how we’re “good!” and work is “going well!,” we decided to cut the BS and get into the reality of, well, our realities.

One of the first things this person said to me was, “it seems like you had a great year - you did so much!”

In my mind I thought, “huh, this person hasn't even seen me in a year, I wonder where they got that impression from.” I then realized that most of the relationships we have with people in this day and age are superficial, and the most we know about each other is whatever we have chosen to display about our individual lives online.

So, if all people know about me is from the accomplishments I decide are important enough to boast about on LinkedIn or filter through an Instagram post, then yeah, it must seem like I am living the high life!

This interaction is unfortunately a real consequence of the heavily filtered and performative lives that we live in 2025. It inspired me to write my final post of the year breaking down some of my highlights from this year, alongside their unseen lowlights, to show you that one really does not exist without the other.

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Accomplishment: I completed a 100 hour Meditation Teacher Training Certification, and started teaching meditation classes throughout the region! I now teach weekly to students at the university I work at, and throughout the year I hosted a handful of pop-up events in collaboration with other practitioners in the area.

Set-up of an event I co hosted last month with Andrea Sacco, of You Empower Tomorrow Niagara.

Setback: I struggled to keep up with a second gig on top of my 9-5, and I often would return home at night feeling emotionally drained and empty. I still am learning how to advertise myself and the very humble, grounded practice of meditation in a way that is authentic to who I am and not just a performative way to gain more traction as a teacher. I feel a clenching in my body every time I have to open up a social media platform and conjure up a post, but that is unfortunately one of the only ways to promote your work in this day and age.

Accomplishment: I was approached for a few writing gigs, after six years of mostly unacknowledged writing on this personal blog!

I wrote a post over on the YET Niagara blog every month in 2025!

Setback: Any artist - yes, writing is an art! - knows that you have to really hustle before you want to see any sort of success from your craft. This often means taking on more work than you can manage, simply because you are grateful for the fact that you have work. The scarcity mindset is real, and although writing is my truest passion, it is highly unlikely that any money I make from writing could ever support me full time. Alas, it still gives me the most meaning, and I’m learning that sometimes that is worth much more than what money can provide. I'm sure my credit card statement has its own two cents on that, though.

Accomplishment: I completed an Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Program, that taught me so much about how to build and see success as a start-up entrepreneur. I developed and pitched a brand concept, Vitality by Ventresca, increased my confidence in my side hustle, and met some incredible entrepreneurs and influential businesspeople along the way.

Me presenting my business pitch to a panel of judges in the final competition!

Setback: I was thiiiiis close to rejecting my application offer to the program, due to a major lack of confidence in myself and the lack of knowledge that I have regarding anything business related. I struggled to keep up with the program amidst the side hustles I was working on growing, and I worried that I didn’t put as much effort into the program as I could have if I had more time.

Accomplishment: I developed a consistent exercise and eating routine for the first time since before being diagnosed with an eating disorder - see recent post on that. I finally started using movement as a tool to uncover strength rather than as a way to punish myself. I found genuine community through fitness (shoutout to the beautiful yogis that made space for me throughout the year🥹!). I saw the beautiful benefits that come with eating properly and enough - hair and nail growth, a regulated hormonal cycle, a stable mood and digestion, to name a few.

Setback: I gained - or as my psychiatrist says, restored - about 15 lbs of healthy weight since this time last year, and I struggle to accept the changes in my body and the tighter fit of my clothes. Any changes in weight or appearance are always difficult to accept and get to know, beneficial or not, and the body dysmorphia is at an all-time high. I worry that my relationship to my body will always be tainted, and it's hard to imagine a life where this isn't something I struggle with.

Accomplishment: My relationships with the few people who are the closest to me have become stronger than they ever have been. I really stood up for myself and my needs in different scenarios, and as a retired people-pleaser, it really strengthened my confidence and self worth.

Setback: This only came after a loooooot of heartbreak, fighting over things I thought we had overcome already, and a buildup of resentment. I have learned to accept that with any relationship there will always be room for improvement, and tender areas that you may just have to learn to work with.

Accomplishment: I was able to squeeze in a couple of good trips to locations that make me feel inspired, and spent time with people that I really enjoy being around. Sometimes all you need is a trip out of your small town to remind you that there is in fact more to life than what exists between your two ears.

Setback: On vacation I really struggle to be out of routine. I still don’t know how to fully “relax” and unplug, and I spent more time on my phone or in my head than actually enjoying the beautiful locations that I was blessed to be able to visit. This means I never really came home fully recharged, and I often had a lot of regrets with how I spent my limited off time.

Accomplishment: I learned how to cut back on unnecessary expenses and made a head start on savings and investments. I can assure you the stereotype is true - Capricorns do in fact love money.

Setback - I still live at home and with my parents, in a town that I have been desperate to get out of since the age of 16. Probably the only thing I compare myself to is people that moved out at a young age to an area of their dreams, and I struggle to find that sense of independence, maturity and worldliness while still being tied to the town I grew up in. Every birthday that passes reminds me that I am not where I ideally would like to be location/career/independence wise, and it continues to be a huge an insecurity of mine.

Journal prompt: What are 3 accomplishments or areas of growth that you can identify from the past year? Why are you proud of yourself? I bet you never took the time to pause and acknowledge your successes - so this is your time to celebrate yourself!

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This post isn’t to inspire you to shine a pessimistic lens on everything that you have accomplished this year (although my depressive brain tends to get a kick out of that). Rather, it is to remind you that even the life you see online is still a real life, which means that it is also a sad life and a hard life and a scary life and a stressful life. Next time you overlook all of the perfectly good things that you did in fact do within the year in comparison to what it appears others have done, remember that what you are not seeing is all of the setbacks, heartbreaks, and struggles that also coexisted. Despite the tiny worldview that you see on social media, no one is high rolling all of the time, and you never really know what lies behind the perceived successes. Unfortunately, not everyone is a way-too-stripped-back oversharer like me, so you’re just going to have to trust me on that one. ;)

Here's to another year of real life - whatever it looks like.

All of the love,

Julia 🌞