A Year of Many Goodbyes

This was a year of many goodbyes.
A year of departures.
A year in which I witnessed entire life cycles come to a close.

The world I once knew began to dissolve. Long-term work changed its narrative. An institution I had devoted nearly half of my life to suddenly shut its doors, declaring bankruptcy after years of existence and meaning. Close friends moved continents away, stretching love across time zones and oceans.

This year also carried the heavy reality of physical loss. Dear people passed away. Each departure pulled me inward, into some of the deepest internal journeys I have ever taken.

The Inner Earthquakes That Redefine Purpose

These losses did not just hurt; they questioned me. They questioned my purpose.
They forced me into long contemplations about life itself.

I was confronted with my deepest insecurities and long-standing fears. I asked myself questions that had no immediate answers: What am I meant to do now? Where is my life leading me? Who am I becoming while building something in a foreign land?

It was a time when I had to face my ego—gently, honestly, and begin dismantling it. And then dismantle it again. And again. And again.

Learning to Move Forward Without Clarity

There were periods when I could not see a clear path ahead, yet I kept moving. Times when everything felt foggy, but I had to develop a deep trust in the process.

I learned to walk forward at my own pace, sometimes slowly, sometimes with determination while remaining in quiet inner contemplation. It often felt like everything was standing still and moving at the speed of light at the same time.

This year taught me that progress does not always look loud. Sometimes it looks like stillness that keeps breathing.

Letting Go of Titles, Roles, and External Definitions

This was the year I faced the essence of myself.

I stripped away external titles, labels, and achievements. I practiced introducing myself without mentioning any of them. And in doing so, I discovered something more real.

Who am I, without credentials?

I re-discovered I am a curious being. Someone who loves to travel and explore the world. Someone who finds joy in diversity, art, and human connection. Someone who loves to hug her son while he is still sleeping and kisses his warm cheek before the day begins.
Someone who kisses her partnerand holds them with gratitude for his presence, for his love, for simply being there. Someone deeply thankful for family.

A Year of Departures

These experiences were not easy. They were complex, emotional, and often uncomfortable. But they were necessary.

This was a year of endings but also a year of subtle beginnings. A year of many departures, and many good yeses.

Yes to growth.
Yes to humility.
Yes to becoming.

And perhaps, above all, yes to trusting that even when life dissolves what we once knew, it is still guiding us somewhere meaningful. A trust that felt unfamiliar at first because it was no longer rooted in certainty, structure, or visible outcomes.

It was trusting that when life begins to dissolve what we once relied on roles, places, people, routines, it is not doing so to leave us empty, but to make us available. Available for something truer, even if it remains unnamed for a while. Available for a life that asks us to listen rather than control, to feel rather than rush to rebuild.

When life dissolves what we once knew, it is often guiding us away from who we were expected to be and toward who we are becoming. Not through grand revelations, but through small, almost invisible movements: a softened heart, a humbler sense of self, a deeper capacity to love without attachment to outcomes.

And so the yes is not loud.
It is quiet.
It is steady.
It is the decision to believe that even in dissolution, life is still working with us patiently, deliberately toward a meaning that cannot be rushed, only lived.