The year 2025 was a year of sad endings, but also some exciting new beginnings.
Let’s start with the good stuff.
Relationship Status Change!
In the “wins” column, I started seeing someone in August! After being single for more than a decade, to be in a relationship with an awesome person is kind of mind-blowing.
In the midst of all the hits I took this year, finding a kind, fun, beautiful girlfriend is a big boost that I needed. I’m relearning how to be in relationship with someone else, which honestly is going to take some getting used to. But I’m feeling optimistic and hopeful about us.
Worshipping with the Unitarians
Another big positive in my life has been going to the local Unitarian church on Sundays. Finding a healthy, welcoming and active faith community near me has helped me grow and develop my spiritual life so much.
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco is a gorgeous space in downtown SF that I first encountered last December at their holiday service. As a Quaker, I am not a fan of the trappings of mainstream Christian services, with all the corporate prayer, singing, sermons, and top-down hierarchies. And at its face the Unitarian church has a lot of that nonsense.
But from the first few minutes there, I felt something different – a bit off-beat, quirky, and more authentic. Folks seemed to be actively seeking to connect to each other and to something divine. But they weren’t dogmatic of what that something is.
To be honest, I find a lot of the service to be overly busy and noisy. But two things keep me coming back — the sermons (particularly by the head minister Vanessa) and the organ playing by the lead organist Reiko. Hearing an inspired talk and being awash in gorgeous organ music is such a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!
I do miss going to Quaker Meeting for Worship. I’m hopeful that I can start attending more Meetings in 2026, to balance out my Unitarian service time.
More Adventures in Skating!
Skating continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Now five years in, I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a skater and a dancer. The biggest change is that I’ve finally started learning how to partner skate! Coming from the lindy hop world, the last thing I wanted to do was lead or follow someone else. I just wanted to be free to express myself, by myself.
But I’ve started to slowly understand the beauty of skating with a partner —- particularly “ballroom” style, but also New Jersey style. Honestly skating ballroom is the hardest skill I’ve attempted for years. For a minute, I despaired if I would ever get the basic step. But slowly, with a lot of help from my patient skate friends, I am starting to get it. And it feels amazing every time I unlock some step or combo.
The other big skate accomplishment was finally doing the SF Friday Night Skate! Since I started skating in SF in 2020, I have know about the Friday Night Skate and honestly been a bit terrified of it. The idea of flying through the hilly and sketchy streets of San Francisco in the middle of the night just felt so beyond what I was comfortable with.
But my friend Lainie and leader of the Friday Night Skate has been encouraging me for years to try it. It was Lainie’s 69th birthday in June that finally threw me over to committing to do it.
Not gonna lie — it was hard! I fell a couple of times and was pretty scared at various points. But I got through it. And I even did it again in October for the Halloween skate.
Now I’m dreaming of getting a new set of inline skates and doing it again in 2026.
Travels to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Atlanta and Chicago!
This year, I had the opportunity to travel quite a bit.
The biggest adventure was going to both Hong Kong and Tokyo in February. My main goal was to complete my personal bucket list of visiting every Disney theme park in the world. Hong Kong Disney was the last remaining park, and it did not disappoint. While small, it definitely packs a punch, with a good mix of classic rides and arguably the best version of the haunted mansion in the world.
Getting to go back to Japan was also a huge thrill, although not as ambitious as my previous trip. The highlight of this visit was the new TeamLabs art experience “Borderless.” So mind blowing and beautiful.
I also go to visit Atlanta and Chicago, two of my favorite cities and major centers of Black skate culture. It was so cool experiencing these two distinct styles of skating where they were born. Now I need to go to New York / New Jersey to experience that style!
Saying Goodbye to Mole Negro
In February, Mole Negro, my beloved cat of 19 years, finally breathed his last. I was fortunate to be with him for his final moments. His health had been gradually declining over the past couple of years, so I was somewhat emotionally prepared for his death.
Still, losing my constant companion of nearly two decades has been so hard.
At the same time, I feel so grateful to have had him in my life for so long.
Leaving KQED
The other major hit of 2025 was losing my job in August.
The entire public media system in America has been under threat from the Trump administration from day one. And in the summer, the President made good on his promise to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to all PBS and NPR stations in the country.
While KQED is one of the largest public media stations in the country, this resulted in millions of dollars of lost revenue. So the leadership was forced to eliminate tens of positions, including most of the education department.
It totally sucks to lose a job that I love, working with amazing coworkers, for a cause that I believe in. But I feel very fortunate to have the cushion of a generous severance package, a huge network of supporters, and relatively modest expenses.
So I am looking at this unexpected “sabbatical” as an opportunity to explore topics and industries that I’m interested in, to work on passion projects, and to just have more time for self-reflection and resetting of priorities.
Lots more awesome stuff happened in 2025. Here are the pics as proof!
