Tag: skiing

Goodbye 2025, It’s Been a Year

2025 has been a year. That’s the best way to describe it. Not all bad, not all good. A lot of fun times, a lot of not so fun times. While most of the year was good, I feel like I need to mention the bad as well. Every year has things we love and things we wish didn’t happen. That’s just how life is.

It’s been such a long year it’s hard to remember what exactly happened. One of the first things I remember doing was going to Colorado to ski. I went in early January. It was supposed to be a fun time, but everyone got norovirus and that kind of ruined the trip. We made the best of it, but it was definitely not easy.

What was supposed to be a fun week only got worse upon coming home. My mom informed us that my grandma had passed away. It happened the weekend after we got back. She was my last living grandparent. Thanksgiving and Christmas this year felt so different. I visited her grave not long after with two of my brothers and my sister after we played some pond hockey.

In May, I finally graduated from college. I got a degree in TV and movie production. It took me 15 years, but I finally did it. People like to make fun of me all the time for taking so long. It honestly doesn’t bother me. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do, and if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing. The path I was given was exactly the path I needed to take.

Every concert I went to this year was amazing. Most notably was Linkin Park. I have waited so long to see them play. Chester’s death still hurts to this day. Seeing them play his songs and some new stuff healed my inner child a bit. Emily fits very well into the Linkin Park. While she struggled to sing Chester’s parts, she absolutely killed her parts. I’d go see them again in a heartbeat.

Towards the end of the year, in November, I strained a tendon in my arm playing hockey. That put me on the sidelines for about a month. It’s still not fully healed, but I can at least play hockey again. I’m just not taking any slap-shots until after I go to physical therapy in January. Not playing hockey for a month was awful. I missed playing it so much.

After years of wondering, I was also diagnosed with OCD and ADHD this year. I’ve suspected for a long time that I had them and it was finally confirmed. Does this change who I am? No. But now that I know, I can start getting help to manage it, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past few months. Progress has been slow, but there is progress. That’s all anyone can ask for.

With the year coming to a close, the only thing left is to talk about goals for next year. Next year I’m putting me first. I’m tired of doing things for everyone else just to be trash talked later or called lazy. I’m just going to do my thing and that’ll be that. I’ve also been looking for a new job. No luck so far, but something will hit eventually.

I also want to spend more time learning a foreign language. I do my daily Duolingo lesson, but I feel like I could do so much more to help myself learn. I grew up with English and I always thought it was so cool when people could switch between two languages. I want to be that person.

Finally, I want to read 15 books by the end of 2026. As of this post, I’ve read 11 for 2025. My goal was 12. I’m halfway done with a book and if I really get on it I could finish it before the new year. If I don’t finish it, that’s OK too. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could ever read 11 books in a year. I was never much of a reader, but as time has gone on, I’ve developed the desire to read. It’s calming and just a good way to wind down. It also keeps me off my phone which I also want to do more of.

Winter is the Best Season

How do you feel about cold weather?

As a resident of the Midwest, I absolutely love Winter. I know a lot of people who hate it, but it’s definitely my favorite time of the year. To be fair, I don’t actually like being cold. I hate being cold, but I absolutely love being in the cold. I love it when things freeze over. I love it when it snows. It’s just my favorite time of the year.

One reason I love the cold so much is because I do play hockey. While I do play hockey indoors (most of the time), I do like skating outside and occasionally playing hockey outside. This winter, I had the opportunity to play hockey outside three times. It was nice because it reminded me of where I started. I learned to play on a pond over 15 years ago, and those were some of the best winters I’ve ever had.

Secondly, I love skiing, and I ski at least once a winter. I usually go skiing with some family and friends. We try to go to Colorado, but it doesn’t always work out that way, mostly because of the cost. Colorado is expensive and we go for a week. Not to mention, ski lift tickets are way more expensive now than they were five years ago. If we don’t get the chance to go to Colorado, we just head up to Wisconsin. Our resort of choice in Colorado is Winter Park, and recently, we’ve been going to Granite Peak in Wisconsin.

As for Wisconsin, Wilmont is too easy for us. Alpine Valley is ok, but still too easy. Cascade is fun, and we spent a lot of time there over the years. We started going to Granite Peak more recently because we wanted something new in Wisconsin. It’s a fun time there, but nothing in the Midwest can compare to Colorado. Colorado is just magical. We did make it to Colorado in January of 2025, but unfortunately, we all took turns with the Norovirus. It was not our most fun trip.

I am still editing a ski trip video that you’ll be able to watch on my YouTube channel here. As of posting this blog post, I have not finished editing the video yet. I’ve definitely been slacking on it, but you can watch ski trips from past years. They’re all up there, from Wisconsin to Colorado.

Overall, I love the winters here even though they’ve gotten warmer as time goes on. I don’t think I’d ever move somewhere warmer, though. And if I did, it would be to Colorado. There’s just something magical about winter in the Midwest that I don’t think I could ever leave behind.