The Year in Review: Lessons Learned, Favorite Stories, and Goals for 2026

2025 has been the best year of my life. It began with a quiet decision: to finally step out of the corporate world that had pressed me flat for years. I had begun to feel like a diluted version of myself, defined by someone else's ever-changing rubric. Leaving felt like slipping out of a costume I never realized I was wearing. The relief was immediate.

Once I reclaimed my space, the rest of my life rushed in to fill it.

In the past year, I taught over 200 dance classes. I’ve danced since childhood, but always in the wings, always convinced I was “not enough.” But something shifted this year. Teaching has made me a sharper communicator, a more grounded friend, and a more embodied woman. It has forced me to stop apologizing for my own expertise and instead claim it. I’ve discovered that the confidence I found in the studio followed me everywhere else: into my writing, my PR work, my relationships.

Speaking of writing: I finished a book this year (Muscle Memory), and I’m nearly done with a second (Best Served Cold). They could not be more different, and yet they both feel like pieces of me I’ve been waiting to articulate. Muscle Memory will meet the world in 2026, and Best Served Cold in 2027. 

I also published three magazines. One about sacred wellness; one exploring womanhood and our tangled, tender relationships; and the last a guide on returning to the inner self. The next issue arrives in March 2026, and its theme is RAGE, which feels like both a confession and a liberation. A reclamation of the heat women carry and the stories we’re told to swallow.

Cycle syncing wove itself through my work as a major passion of mine. I wrote two journals on it (one for menopause and one for menstruation), taught it inside my online programs, and built meal plans for my dancers based on the rhythms of their bodies. It felt like stitching something ancient back into modern life: practical, mystical, and instinctive.

I created three online dance courses, each one its own little world: The Creatress, Intro to Belly Dance, and Intro to Afrobeats. I learned how to film, direct, produce, trust myself. In-person classes expanded too, and I began teaching at AfterHours Dance Studio in Costa Mesa. I hosted two 420-friendly dance at the beach events, and will be hosting another for Galentine’s Day (keep an eye out). 

In PR, I found a new rhythm. 

I connected with new clients, earned them some major coverage, and achieved a renewed sense of authority. I launched my PR course and stepped more boldly into thought leadership, connecting with writers, founders, dreamers I’m grateful found me. It brought me back to the part of myself that loves amplifying other people’s work, telling their stories, giving shape to their ideas.

I also started a writers group in OC: a once-a-month gathering in Tustin where writers can come together, brainstorm, and connect. To attend the next one, email me now.

This was also the year I celebrated two years of marriage in San Clemente: two years with the man who has witnessed every version of me and chooses me every single day. Our home is small and sweet and ruled by two cats who we are simply here to serve.

When I look back, the throughline of this year isn’t productivity, though there was plenty. It’s reclamation. Returning to myself, rebuilding my life around desire instead of obligation. Crafting a future that feels not just possible, but inevitable.

2025 was the year I stepped into who I actually am. 2026 will be the year I build from that truth.