Ambitiously Ambitious: Putting the 20 into 2026 and My 2025 Wrapped
It’s the one-year anniversary of the Too Much & Extra blog and my website, which is super exciting! For the first time in the history of my blogging, I’m writing to you from my dream writing setup, and I’ll give you a hint. It isn’t the Amtrak train, my cramped dorm room, a Starbucks, or a bedroom in Spain. Thanks to my many amazing relatives and family, I’m writing to all of you from the most amazing desk setup in my bedroom at home, complete with a standing desk, one of those viral criss-cross-leg TikTok chairs, a huge light over the desk so I can see, a purple mouse, and some awesome blue-light glasses. Thanks to my Aunt Jayne (Uncle Steve + Charlotte), my Aunt Marissa (+ Uncle John), my grandma, and my parents for their contributions (Christmas gifts) to the setup. It’s great, and I’ve thoroughly been enjoying it for the past week as I’ve slowly restarted working on ongoing research projects and my application to study abroad in Oxford. While I’m thanking people, I’d also like to thank my Aunt Julie + Family and babcia for their gifts, which I have also been utilizing and enjoying.
Since we last talked (on the Amtrak train coming home from Princeton), not a lot has happened. My close friend from high school, Simiao, came to visit for a few days. And while she is a full-on adult, I quickly came to understand some of the challenges of parenthood when I had to constantly plan meals for us to eat and find activities to entertain (and chilling on the couch was not a good enough answer). The thing is, there isn’t a lot to do around here for activities, nor do I have a ton of knowledge of them, because as a child I was constantly in school or sports or training for a triathlon, and free time was usually spent watching a movie at home or just chilling. In middle school, when I had a lot more free time, my best friend and I would chill at each other’s houses, and as you all already know from one of the blogs this year, we were big into makeup challenges, fashion shows with her old dance recital clothes (with her younger sisters serving as judges), playing SPA, singing karaoke, watching the Ellen show, eating her mom’s amazing chocolate chip cookies, and playing with her HUGE bunny. Now, as a teenager (at least for a few more hours, because tomorrow is my 20th), it’s so much more complicated. The expectations are higher. There has to be coffee, driving, money, and preplanned activities. And of course, the power went our for one of the days she was here, making the planning even harder. Cue puzzles and board games in the dark!
It’s also weird hanging out with high school friends because our relationship only existed within the confines of a boarding school, where most of our interactions were talking at lunch, playing on the same sports team, or studying together. We didn’t really DO things because it was hard for those who lived at the boarding school to leave it.
Besides Simiao visiting, it’s been a lot of me just relaxing, rotting my brain out on movies and YouTube, some reading, some work, and a lot of sleeping. The sleeping has been kind of frowned upon because my sleep schedule doesn’t exactly align with the rest of the family. My brother and mother ALWAYS wake up at 5 in the morning, and my dad around the 6:30 mark. So me strolling down the stairs casually at 8 or 9 is not always appreciated.
But this slumber party will shortly be ending as I start my internship this coming Monday online. Technically, I believe it starts at 9 am, but me, needing to get a bunch of qualitative interviews done for my research, with scheduled meetings starting at 7 in the morning, meaning that I need to get up at around 6 am. Ugh. But I am super thankful that I’ve been rounding up people to participate in the study, which has been the most challenging aspect of the project. I just need to schedule one more interview to meet my goal and to have enough data for a “publishable article”.
Now that you’re all caught up, and before jumping into 2026 plans, let’s rewind my 2025.
In 2025, I:
- Officially declared my electrical engineering major
- Learned how to play the drums for a fire-dancing tradition
- Started learning some French
- Played “Dancing with Myself” 76 times
2025 was all about:
Ambitious
-the word ambitious, appearing in many emails and comments from professors and my family
2026:
Overall, I have to say it has been a great 2025! Maybe my best year yet, which says a lot because 2024 was one of the worst. But you know what they say about rock bottom. The only way is up! So while we’re on this upward trajectory, I have big GOALs for 2026 and for being 20. No, I’m not talking about resolutions. The only difference between dreams, resolutions, and goals is how much confidence and drive you have to actually achieve them.
Turning twenty tomorrow is actually crazy because being twenty sounds like you have your life together. And while I certainly have gotten my life on track this year, the overall uncertainty of where I’ll be in two years, whether I’ll be doing my PhD, what I’ll write my senior thesis about, or even what I’ll do this summer (which is ranging right now from working in Barcelona, biking across Spain, working in DC, or doing research in Princeton) is difficult but also exciting because it keeps life interesting and chaotic (in a good way).
That being said, while I have no idea what the next year will bring (hopefully some international travel and bloggable adventures), I have still done a good amount of goal writing and planning, thanks to my research seminar’s focus on goals.
So here are mine for 2026 (because they’re a LOT more likely to be followed through on if I publish them online).
Project (convo research):
- Track down those high schoolers and alumni. I’m aiming for twelve conversations, and I will hit twelve before returning in the spring.
- Talk to Alex (my research prof) more. There is a direct statistical correlation between “talk to Alex” and “research project gets exponentially better.”
Intellectually:
- 2026 is the year of the journal article. Shoot for two, get one.
- Just write a lot of academic stuff. Practice makes perfect.
- Find academic subjects/topics that get you really excited and read about them.
- Have a JP plan by summer and have a strong relationship with someone in my department who I want to oversee the project. → This one is going to be tough.
- Get into Oxford study abroad.
- Declare Sociology!
Personally:
- Figure out what it means to belong at Princeton… and I’m not talking about academics.
- Publish the blog at least once a month.
- Increase my blog’s readership.
- Make more friends.
- Increase the triathlon team’s participation.
- No buying coffee (unless traveling).
- Delete Facebook from my phone and keep it deleted. (Maybe I should get an El País subscription to stay entertained and informed)
- No watching short-form videos for the year (research says they’re killing brain function or something like that).
- A year without ChatGPT. No more images and no more blog editing. (This is the first blog that has not been grammar-checked by ChatGPT!))
I think that’s really it. My next few weeks will include tomorrow International Delia Day. The best way to spend it is to start by making an amazing cup of coffee (or, for me, getting a free coffee from Starbucks). I’ll also be breaking out my Paella kit, which I got for Christmas, and attempting my first ever Paella. And I’ll conclude the night with dinner with my family at this Spanish restaurant in Providence, RI, that makes octopus.
I’ll also be working on more Spanish recipes from my new cookbook over the next few weeks, starting my internship next week, interviewing my lovely high schoolers and alumni, and working on the literature review section of my inclusive language project.
So may you have an excellent 2026, with all your tortillas cooked to perfection and an International Delia Day (January 2nd) filled with amazing coffee.
Nos vemos,
