Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026.

Thank you 2025 for all of the growth, lessons, new strength and clarity. It was a year of death, love, betrayal and resilience.

I started the year with 25 subscribers and am surprised to see I am ending with over 85.

(THANK YOU)

A year ago I was still pretty new and nervous about Substack. Since, I wrote twenty Stacks as I practiced finding my voice, putting my words imperfectly out into the world, and being visible as a transman and human. Expanding my sense of self as a writer through a lens of self proclaimed “outside art”.

It was - and still IS - a terrifying time to be trans in this country. The Transgender Lunacy has raged on. The amount of focus and targeted harm toward us this year has been unprecedented.

Yet, I have mindfully chosen to be happy as I continue to believe it is the greatest form of resistance. Staying curious, searching for growth and finding lessons toward self love to bring healing to the greater consciousness. Continuing to collect gifts from the sea, while finding the courage to accept my trans body as it is, in all of it’s beach-dad-bod glory and start going shirts off on the shores of the Santa Monica Bay.

Stepping into my voice and valuing my lived experience to share more about my story against mainstream voices and their no-contact blind spots. Grappling with my own mother wound as I work my way through a memoir, and pay witness to the unhealed traumas of those around, everywhere.

Bringing voice to the reality that trans lived experiences are sacred and powerful, as humans who have mastered the ability to step up and into living authentically. We are skilled sailors.

Awakening to a life off of Meta and setting a new standard for my connections with others, in deeper real life engagement and encounters. Sitting with a fractured glenoid and torn labrum that forced me to slow down and acknowledge the healing power of connection and the loneliness in its absence.

Acknowledging that happy people don’t harm people as I paid witness to the shame that can hide behind being a man in this country. Evolving the focus of my business to support masculine leaders toward making it a Goodyear to become the man they are meant to be; my small contribution toward making manhood great again.

Reckoning the notion that death becomes us, there is death down the hall, and we and/or our loved ones may find ourselves dying alone.

Finally settling in to the notion that California is my home state now after a decade and half of collective time living here while coming to understanding I am a not so average middle aged white guy.

Doing the math on the probability of finding love, living as a subset of a subset, and being at peace with my independent bachelorhood knowing I will not settle for less just because the odds are against me while keeping my mind and heart open if she/they is out there. I am right here ready for love.

I am not one to do New Years resolutions. However, I do pick a word to act as an anchor for the year to come. For 2026, I carry forward the insistence that joy is the greatest act of resistance and happy people don’t harm people. 2025 helped me realize I will no longer be available to people who benefit from misunderstanding me. I will move into the New Year with discernment which will guide me toward what is waiting for me in the months ahead.

Let us not lose hope and remember the power of smiles and the quiet strength of kindness and that love will always win in the end.

Thank you for being here and having a read. I’m grateful to have you here with me on my journey.

I am curious, what one thing are you leaving behind in 2025? What one word are you caring forward in 2026?

As always, I look forward to your comments below.