2025 in review: highlights and lowlights

[meitachi]

End of the year means time for annual reflection posts! Here's 2025.


3 highlights from the year

• Every year, this forces me to attempt to have a memory. I scroll through my phone photo album for reminders! But travel tends to always be a highlight: the trip to Prince Edward Island with Sarah in June was beautiful, delicious, and fun. I really appreciate having those annual trips with her because we travel well together and are always game to eat and look at scenery. Some stuff but not too much stuff!



• Overall, I settled more into being in Rochester this year which meant a little more exploring nearby locations! Or, you know, getting to visit Toronto a few times for kpop concerts -- which came with the bonus of good food and seeing Cath. OnlyOneOf in March where I made Michelle meet me, and Cath took us to delicious Korean bossam, and then Stray Kids in June, which was a completely different experience with the huge outdoor venue and tons of fans (and families) of all ages. It was fun to reconnect with friends and revisit what being in fandom was like. These days, I largely don't engage with other fans/larger fandom besides lurking and passively consuming. The internet is full of too many bad takes! But in person it can still be really fun to exchange that energy and glee. (But also the other little trips around NY were fun to Cooperstown, Ithaca, etc. Getting to know the area better is nice!)



• OK, non-travel: getting nominated and approved to be on the Monroe County Library System board! That was very cool.

3 lowlights from the year

• Wow, I truly have no memory. I guess being sick in September, felt like I was dying.



• Being stressed out by being involved in too many community organizations, many of which were frustrating through lack of good communication or strategic vision/planning.



• Politics. It hasn't even been a full year under Trump and it's genuinely such a nightmare.

3 things you're proud of from 2025

• Mei's Mini May Recs! It was fun and I should consider doing it again; I really do think we should talk more about the things we like.



• Student relationships -- having individual students reach out to me for advice/guidance gives me a *shocked Pikachu face* for a moment, and anxiety about if I'm giving them useful or helpful advice, but also I am grateful that they are willing to reach out to me. I am glad I feel like a safe or approachable or helpful adult/mentor in their lives.



• I got to participate in cool community events through my orgs: Lunar New Year at the community college, an initial APIDA Restaurant Week, an APIDA artists showcase, going to Albany for a conference with New York's AAPI caucus, a fun Mid-Autumn Festival, a Corky Lee film screening! I helped with some of these more than others, but overall I'm proud of myself being engaged because it was an opportunity to meet more people in the community and help support cool events. I want to step back a little more next year and focus on more specific goals, but I hope to continue engaging with community.

3 fannish highlights from the year

• OK obviously the big thing is the return to kpop. Thank you, OnlyOneOf, you opened this door after 12 years and I (mostly) don't regret it. Deeply enjoyed their discography, choreography, and visuals. Their cover of Baby Don't Stop led me to Ten and Taeyong...and Ten took over the rest of my year, and eventually WayV came along. New soundtrack to my life, lots of laughter over variety shows, and genuine pleasure/positive associations with Chinese language and culture. I'm grateful. Plus now I own two beautiful CDs (and gorgeous album jackets) with no CD player. Still avoiding kpop fandom (honestly it feels worse than in 2008-2013) but the groups themselves are bringing pleasure. I understand why it's fun to watch reaction vids now! (Oh, tangential to this, KPDH was a fun movie but also seeing it take off worldwide was crazy. Kinda like seeing Heated Rivalry take off.)



• I watched some fun BL shows this year! The biggest one is the most recent one (Heated Rivalry), which was a lot of fun to see adapted after the loving the book. Love you, Jacob Tierney, and the actor seem very fun and funny as well. But really I think I cried more over Thundercloud Rainstorm (holy shit, real kissing?! allusions to kink? in my kdrama?!) and Moonlight Chicken (Thai, made me sob about being old and life being hard and unfair every damn episode, yet still felt like a real love story). So on top of webnovels and webtoons, it was fun to have more fannish, tropey content that didn't suck me into Being In A Fandom.



• Following F1 was still mostly fun this year; I'm glad it's something I get to share with Kevin. No Danny Ric is bittersweet but honestly a lot less stressful, and it was fun to root for Max to overcome the Red Bull struggles. Let's be real, there was also a lot of schadenfreude seeing everyone but Max struggle at Red Bull. Bye, Felicia. Looking forward to what next year with new regs will be like!

3 recommendations from the year

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas truly is That Fun. What an epic adventure and revenge quest! Maybe I should try The Three Musketeers at some point.



• Amid all the webtoons and webnovels I read this year, many of which were tropey delights, Concubine Walkthrough is a standout. Probably because it's not a straight-up romance but has plot, a mystery, character and relationship development, and absolutely gorgeous art (with a limited color palette even). High rec for fantasy palace isekai romance that is more than you think, but remains super fun the whole time.



• Ten. In all his capacities -- as a solo artist, as part of WayV, as a member of NCT U, as a coach/mentor on China's Great Dance Crew, however. God, his dancing is incredible. His singing has evolved and improved and is genuinely great now (I can always recognize his voice). He loves cats and cleaning, hates fruit, knows so many languages (Thai, English, Korean, Mandarin, learning Japanese), has a body and those tats, yeah. Birthday, Stunner, Love Talk (Japan performance), Baby Don't Stop and Swipe. Boy, get yourself a U.S./NA tour, please. Come with WayV, wherever, I'll go.

hopes/aspirations/goals for 2026
From an article about finding happiness/satisfaction in life as you age:
1. Go deep or go home
2. Serve more
3. Care less

Also:
- maybe trip to DC
- learn ASL
- creative goals: get back into art or try poetry? journal more? let me think more on this.
- reread beloved books (and see eventual book post for reading goals)

Comments

[merit]

Prince Edward Island does look beautiful from the pictures I've seen.

Congratulations on being on the board! Hopefully a good experience for you.

I've delved into F1 as well this year. Mostly for the drama vs the racing. Even if the PR and media teams try to keep everything under wraps, it makes it more exciting when things are bubbling to the surface.

What are some beloved books you're looking to reread?

[meitachi]

Ooh, do you have a team or driver you root for? Or just generally following all the drama?

I want to reread the Bridge of Birds series by Barry Hughart, maybe The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Various Frances Hardinge books (I love her worldbuilding and her prose). Maybe some other things!

[merit]

Mostly the latter, but probably George + Max. Very unpatriotic of me ^^