2025 Letter
Reflections on 2025 and what's coming in 2026.
I have no idea how to write a reflection piece. In fact, I have never done that. In an endless stream of social media reflection posts and stories, do people write anymore? Well, some do. And one of them has inspired me to do my own. Kudos is Dan Wang for it. Here's his one: Dan Wang's 2025 Letter. I will write in a different tone, a bit personal, and some feelings.
I am also not someone who is good with memory. If I understood something about myself over the last few years is that I remember the feelings, not the events. Events are like some endless strings of blur to me. But feelings remain.
Last year, I decided to finally take the step to move out of my home country, which was under the tyranny of a fascist dictator, to Canada to pursue a master's degree, and I settled in Nova Scotia. This year, I moved to Toronto. where my sister and a few school friends live. I rented an apartment in Scarborough, and my wife joined me here. I guess that's the biggest highlight of my year. I also bought a new car here. Well, car ownership is almost a must here. The city's public transport and lack of a metro network would make you question your choices here. Here are some stats: Canada has the 6th highest number of vehicles per capita.
I traveled to a new continent this year, Europe. I went to Belgium, Germany, Czechia, Austria, and the Netherlands. It was quite a trip, I visited so many historical sites, and I lived in hostels around cities. But I was alone and understood solo traveling in the 30s is quite different from in the 20s. It's quite hard to strike up a conversation with a stranger. At the end of the trip, as I was sitting by the Amsterdam waterfront, I yearned to come back home. I was wondering, where is home? I go back to Toronto, but I am an immigrant there. My home country is in the east, the same distance, but a place I left to make another city my home. I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere.
I have also made significant progress in my master's thesis. Let's hope I can complete it in time. Last year, I finally learned to cook since I've had to live alone for the first time in my 30+ years on this planet earth. And now I've almost forgotten again since my wife is here.
This year, I finally mustered enough energy to learn about the Transformers and LLM, which I always thought I was not smart enough to understand. Oh, I have also decided to start writing in my blog again.
I've also matured a bit more, or at least that's what I want to believe. I realized there are so many things I won't be able to experience, so many places I won't be able to visit in this lifetime. But there are still so many things to do. Life to live. Let's see where 2026 takes me. I don't plan too long ahead. Actually, I can't. I plan things maybe a week ahead, or a month at max. Planning something in the distant future scares me.
That's it, that's all that happened, or what I remember. Not that eventful or some would say boring. Maybe that's what it is. I could not make it more colorful than that. I think that's okay.
Happy New Year!