2025 – Worst Year of My Life

The year was supposed to begin with promise.

I stepped into 2025 believing I was on the rise, finally building the life I had always pictured for myself. By March, my money market fund was glowing with over 50,000 in savings. I was living softly, comfortably, beautifully — a 23-year-old whose diary was filled with plans of buying her dream car before the year ended. I could almost feel the leather seats. I could already hear the engine.

Life felt aligned.

But the very same year that began with hope became the storm I never saw coming.

In 2024, everything had seemed perfect. I had a stable job, a car to drive, savings growing fast, and a home that felt full of light. I had help at home, learned how to drive, kept my nails and hair done, fuelled the car without thinking twice, and saved over 15k every single month. People envied me — the young girl who seemed to have figured out life early.

But hidden beneath all that softness was a sacrifice: I was taking care of someone else’s children. Their presence took away my freedom. My house was not really mine; I couldn’t invite anyone over, couldn’t enjoy silence, couldn’t even exist freely. The noise, the...