I asked the internet a simple question: what tests did you go through in 2025?
- Former employees threatened my family.
- Ten months without a salary.
- My husband was sick for two long months.
- And in one stretch of hospital time, I went through a hysterectomy, an appendectomy, and kidney stone surgery.
It sounds brutal when written down like that. Yet here I am, still standing. Still breathing. Still grateful. Because somehow, in the middle of it all, I never felt abandoned. I truly believe I have a bigger God than my problems. And now, thank God, all is well.
What I didn’t expect was how heavy the replies would be. Cancer diagnoses. Consecutive deaths in one family. Betrayals. Scams. Losses layered upon losses. I read them slowly, one by one, my chest tightening. It really has been that kind of year. A year that forces shedding. Like a snake changing its skin, painfully, unwillingly, letting go of what no longer serves, and sometimes of what we still wanted to keep.
Maybe that’s what 2025 was. Cruel, relentless. Teaching us to release and be released.
I whispered a small hope for all of us. May 2026 be gentler.
The rest of the day moved at a softer pace.
Breakfast was the same as yesterday at the ibis Trans Bandung. Just as crowded, just as smoky. We lingered in the room afterward, unhurried, asking for a late checkout. At 12:30 we finally left, only to realize we hadn’t had lunch. Right before the toll gate, a batagor stall appeared like a small mercy. We stopped. Snacked. Enough to get by.
By 3:30 in the afternoon, we were home. I told my husband to have a nap, coz I’d already slept most of the drive. I prepared things to bring to my child’s dorm for the Christmas bazaar. At six pm, we left together and ate first in Taman Sari. I had catfish with serundeng, my husband chose chicken. Our youngest joined later after finishing dinner at the dorm. We talked, shared updates, and fed the polite cat who was already waiting for us, as if this had always been part of the routine.
We walked toward the dorm with the boxes, only to find out they weren’t going inside just yet. They were for the Christmas bazaar, and we were invited to walk around the area being set up. I didn’t expect much, but I was genuinely amazed. A carousel. Booths. Decorations. An entire event, organized by high school students. From tenants to sponsors to programs, all handled by them. And the chairperson is Jason, Mbak Eva’s son, who chose that school after seeing my Instagram story. Proud!
Before heading back to the car, we stopped at the Christmas installation in the middle of the roundabout. We took spontaneous photos and videos, laughing, feeling oddly nostalgic. It stood right in front of the penthouse we used to live in. A different season. A different version of us.
It was a full day. A gentle ending to a hard year. Proof that even after shedding old skin, there is still beauty waiting, quietly, just ahead.
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