Goodbye, 2024. Hello, 2025 😍
Looking back on the BEST year of my life.
If you’ve been with me on my journey for a while, you might remember that 2023 was one of the worst years of my life. Sure, my career was looking good, with a 2-book deal for my adult romances and a young adult queer romance ready to be submitted to publishers, but my social life and love life had gone down the drain. I’d invested all my time and energy into one failed relationship instead of being a present friend, which meant I had no one to rely on in my city, unless you counted my mom and my therapist.
Yeah. 2023 SUCKED.
All I wanted for 2024 was to focus on my career, new friendships, and most importantly, my relationship with myself. My word for the new year was SELF. I decided to look inwards, work on my traumas and insecurities, and fall back in love with life.
So… how’d that go?
Amazing. 2024 has been the best year of my life yet! Let’s take a look back, shall we?
My 2024 Wrapped
1: I found a girl gang that I love to pieces, and I realized friendship isn’t about how long they’ve known you, but rather how well they get you and how much they’ll go to bat for you. These two women are my champions, my rocks, my besties. I also rebuilt a friendship that had fizzled out over the years due to my fixation on my love life. Now, these are the people I text as soon as something happens, whether it’s a career milestone or a personal setback. I can’t imagine going into 2025 without them by my side.
2: So many career achievements! My debut romance novel Match Me If You Can released, and I officially became a published author in June, with my sophomore novel Can’t Help Faking in Love releasing in early 2025. But that’s not it—I signed a 2-book young adult romance deal, again with Penguin Random House, starting with As Long as You Loathe Me (Spring 2026) AND I got another book deal that I’ll get to talk about in the new year. So yeah. That’s a total of FIVE books to my name. Two years ago, this would have been a pipe dream. Today, it’s my reality.
3: I’m still a regular at karaoke, although I no longer go there alone. Now, I have someone to cheer me on and take videos of me when I sing Taylor Swift songs off-key. I can’t say much about this person just yet, but I hope that someday, I get to.
4: I moved to a new place in a completely new neighborhood in the heart of the city, away from my family—and it brought me so much peace. I’m 15 minutes away from most restaurants, pubs, cafes, and parks. I get to see my friends more often. I no longer feel lonely or out of place in my own city. I have a place I get to call home that’s all mine. It’s the best feeling in the world.
5: I traveled a lot. Being the workaholic that I am, I’m not fond of vacations. I love my job so much that I hadn’t taken time off in years. This year, though, I went on two beachy vacations and barely opened my laptop. It was refreshing and relaxing, my chronic headaches were less intense (I guess my parents were right about the pitfalls of too much screen-staring), and I clicked a lot of great pictures.
So… what do I want 2025 to look like?
A year of joy. A year of fun. A year of hard work. Of working on self-love and faith in myself. Of saying yes to new opportunities and dreams. Of saying no to the voice in my head that tells me I’ll never be good enough.
My word for 2025
Like I said before, my word for 2024 was SELF, and focusing on my own journey led me to so many unexpected connections. For 2025, my word is BUILD. I want to build on everything I made happen this past year. My friendships, my career, my lifestyle, my dreams. And for the first time in forever, I know I’ve got this.
Goals for 2025
Can’t Help Faking in Love releases on February 11, so doing marketing & promo will be my main focus, alongside working on my projects slated for 2026 and 2027. I also want to sell my online course, Self-Editing School, to more students who are hoping to polish their first drafts and get published.
As for my non-career goals, I want to get back to working out regularly, learn to better manage my anxiety, and find peace and joy in the journey, not the ever-changing, unattainable destination.
Hit ‘reply’ or comment below and tell me: how was 2024 for you, and what’s your word for 2025? Who do you want to become in this new year? How will you care for yourself in the months to come?
Until next year (lol)!
Love hard & dream big,
Swati 💛