Well then. 2025 did not go as originally planned. Not even close.
A year of challenges
We attempted to foster a puppy in January. She was a cute little rescue pit mix named Clover. Unfortunately, I discovered that I’m allergic to dogs. I don’t know if this is new or if it’s just something I never noticed before. While it seems to be a relatively mild allergy, combined with other factors, it meant we had to stop fostering. Luckily, there was another foster family able to take Clover right away.
The next event of consequence was Trump taking office. We knew it was going to be bad, but even my worst fears paled compared to what he did. In response, we decided I would attempt a different route to …
Well then. 2025 did not go as originally planned. Not even close.
A year of challenges
We attempted to foster a puppy in January. She was a cute little rescue pit mix named Clover. Unfortunately, I discovered that I’m allergic to dogs. I don’t know if this is new or if it’s just something I never noticed before. While it seems to be a relatively mild allergy, combined with other factors, it meant we had to stop fostering. Luckily, there was another foster family able to take Clover right away.
The next event of consequence was Trump taking office. We knew it was going to be bad, but even my worst fears paled compared to what he did. In response, we decided I would attempt a different route to immigration. I started applying to as many universities in Canada and Estonia as I could.
In March, one of them accepted my application: Memorial University of Newfoundland. So, we immediately began the planning process to move to Newfoundland. In April, we flew up to St. John’s to explore the area and see if we could find a rental that would accept cats. We were shocked to discover that rentals mostly disallow pets, with no possibility of pet rent or anything like that. However, we got lucky, and found a three-bedroom house whose landlord loves cats. So, we signed the lease and started paying for two places at once. While it meant the new house would stand empty for several months before we could move in, we guaranteed that we’d have a place.
It was around this time that I completed the most complex painting I’ve ever done. It was a painting of my sister’s eleven cats, and originally meant as a Christmas gift. Still, a nice achievement, and she ended up loving it.
The painting of Tasha’s cats
For the next few months, we watched as Trump ran roughshod over all the rules and rights that normally guide the government and began systematically destroying the United States. Then it came time to give notice at our jobs and prepare for the two-week drive it would take to get to our new home in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The trek northward
That drive took us to some amazing places with great views. Under other circumstances, it would have been a wonderful experience. However, I had our two cats and a ton of possessions crammed into my Kia Seltos, and the cats hated that drive. I will never put them through that again.
Mojave and Kalahari a few days before we took the trip
Still, we got to our destination safely, with everyone and everything intact. We moved into our new place in mid August. The UHaul U-Box arrived more or less on time, and we got everything that we’d brought with us sorted out. The majority of our stuff is still back in Wilmington, North Carolina, though, in a big storage unit. We can’t bring all that up until we get permanent resident status. That won’t happen until after I’ve graduated and we’ve both spent a year living and working here.
In order to retain access to our US bank accounts and a few other services, we have to retain our US phone numbers. We’re using US Mobile for that purpose; it’s about $15 USD per month for the two lines on the lowest service level. We have new Canadian numbers at the same time. Surprisingly, it was easy to get Canadian bank accounts and credit cards. Sarah was able to get a remote job to pay the bills, and for the first semester of university, I even got an internship that paid a reasonable amount of money.
Starting grad school
My first semester was stressful. I had to reacclimate to the university life, and between three classes, an entrepreneurship program, and my internship, I was extremely busy. One of my classes, Applied Algorithms, was really difficult for me. After a ton of studying, consulting my dad, and working with ChatGPT (and, later, Gemini) to understand the concepts, I managed to finish the class with a B, but it was a struggle. If you get less than a B in a class at the graduate level, you fail the class and have to retake it. If you fail two classes (or the same class twice) this way, then you’re kicked out of the program. If you’re an international student, that immediately invalidates your study permit, and you are required to leave the country. So, you can understand why I was stressed.
In the end, though, it worked out. I got As or Bs in all of my classes, and passed the entrepreneurship program. I finished my internship successfully, with an invitation to come back if I ever want to.
So, about those planned new habits
With regards to the new habits I originally intended to set this year, the events of 2025 completely derailed everything. I couldn’t bring my guitar with me, so the guitar habit died around about May. I was improving quickly, though, and apparently I can borrow a guitar from the local library here in St. John’s, so maybe I’ll pick that back up now.
The painting habit never took, though I have painted more this year than any other year since art school. I’m improving at that, too, and I now have a basic painting setup in the new place. There’s promise here for 2026.
Alcohol... well, quitting alcohol didn’t happen. While I didn’t drink as much this year as previous years, I still drank way more than I planned to. This will be another thing I address in 2026.
The daily walking habit never formed. However, I did start walking more in St. John’s compared to Wilmington, since there are a number of amazing trails here that are really close to our house. It should be easy to establish a walking habit going forward. I can even walk to campus in about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is ambitious but doable.
One of the trails near our house
Books read
My boss Dwayne at Apiture introduced me to the novel series Dungeon Crawler Carl early in the year, and I adored it. I read everything that was available, and for Christmas I got the latest book in the series, so I intend to start on that early next year.
I also got into the Dune novels after playing the survival MMO Dune: Awakening, and read up to Chapterhouse: Dune, which is the last Dune novel written by Frank Herbert. They were a strange and unusual series of novels. I have no idea how they could make a third Dune movie in the current series without touching on some very weird concepts from the books.
Total books read this year: 20
Music discovered
A little over a month ago, I started a new habit of discovering and buying a brand new album every Friday. I wanted to expand the collection of music that I actually own, as opposed to just streaming everything. My record player is still in storage in North Carolina along with all of my records, so I’m just buying digital albums. Still, it’s led me to discover some fascinating new music that I otherwise would never have heard.
I’ve discovered that I enjoy thrash metal and black metal. One unusual standout was Bloodywood, a nu metal band from New Delhi with Hindu and English lyrics. They even did a collaboration with Babymetal, a unique Japanese metal group that I used to follow years ago.
Hmm. Maybe I should start an "albums discovered" page in the same vein as my "books read" page.
Yoga progress
Another unexpected development this year is that I started getting into yoga. I start most mornings now with a basic routine that takes about 5 minutes. My skill level is still "absolute beginner," though. There are classes here in St. John’s, but I don’t have a lot of spare money for such things. I enjoy the practice, and use yoga workouts on Apple Fitness+ to learn new asanas.
I am interested in the other aspects of yoga, too, and not just the stretching. The world view is worth exploring.
In closing
That’s some of our adventures from 2025. I skipped mentioning a few things, but this post is already quite long enough. 2025 was a year of big changes. One thing is certain: no one will ever say 2025 was boring.