Happy New Year’s Eve! 2024 is officially over and I couldn’t pass up sharing some of my thoughts about this year coming to a close.

My social media feeds are now full of year-end celebrations, highlight reels, and big wins—things we all want the world to see and celebrate with us. While this is always so fun and exciting to witness at this time of year, I still get overstimulated and somehow anxious trying to keep up and end my year in the same light. It’s like I’ve been trying to do something, anything that would make me end this year in the most picture perfect way, when in fact, real life is as mundane as it could get.

Maybe some of you are also feeling a bit distressed as the year is about to end. It could feel like everyone on social media is having a grand New Year celebration, while you’re simply at home just like any regular day. Maybe you’re caught up in relationship issues, whether that be in the family or with other people you love. Maybe you just don’t feel festive at all—just because.

In the thick of the holiday season, I’ve also been feeling the most cluttered and disregulated. Personally, I think it’s because a part of me still has the desire to curate an extraordinary ending to my year, like a gymnast trying to end a performance a with pristine landing. For years since I was younger, I set expectations for myself really high, always wanting to finish the year loud and strong. While it’s still a challenge to unlearn this all-or-nothing thinking, I’ve somehow become much more open to the idea of a slow, quiet, and steady ending.

Contrary to what my younger self would want to focus on—achievements, promotions, external validation—my current self seems to just want to sit still, spend time alone, and simply bask in gratitude. I realized that I don’t have to try so hard. We seem to get too caught up in the glamour of this season that we forget how life is still an ebb and flow and a series of highs and lows. Life is not perfect, and our year-ends also don’t have to be.

Let this be a reminder that wherever you are at right now, as we close one year and welcome another, everything you think and feel is valid. Ultimately, it is your choice how to respond to what’s in front of you.

Maybe what matters is that regardless of how our individual 2024s went, if you’re reading this, know that you are still here in this world and that you still have a purpose. You are still human—living, breathing, alive. Maybe that’s already enough.

It’s such an interesting time if you really think about it, actually. We’re all collectively making sense of our lives at the end and start of every year. We try to find meaning and purpose again, and become much more intentional about how we live our lives. Uncomfortable emotions, past hurts, and grief may come up, but so are moments of joy and laughter, breakthroughs, and wins. It’s all quite a beautiful mess just like this thing we call life.

At the end of it all, maybe it’s still about acceptance and gratitude. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’d be encouraged to take a step back for a moment and maybe try to list down everything you’re grateful for—the big and small, happy and sad, good and ugly. I’m doing the same.

Thank you for being part of my journey here. I am truly grateful for you. My prayer is that you will have a peaceful end to 2024 and a hopeful start to your 2025. I’m rooting for you!