2025 Word of The Year: Reclaim

Without any ado, my Word of the Year for 2025 is Reclaim. Reclaim what exactly, and how?

First, a look back at last year’s word, Present; as in living present and engaged in the here and now, focusing on what’s in front of me today, without dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

Did I live up to it? In many ways, yes. I became much more self-aware of my thoughts and made a conscious effort to redirect them toward the present. While I’m not yet where I’d ideally like to be, I’ve made meaningful progress—progress that I’m proud of. By choosing to live in the present, despite how I felt, crippling strongholds were permanently weakened, and new healthier mental pathways were forged. The biggest external evidence of it is that I am FINALLY done with school!

Part of living present was also about enjoying the things that brought me joy without crippling existential angst hijacking my thoughts. For too many years, that angst was my default. By choosing to intentionally turn my thoughts to the present, I’ve been able to keep the angst in check, which is a huge win.

Which is a perfect segway into my 2025 word:

Reclaim

I’d been bouncing a few words around but none of them really hit. One of those words was Restore/Restoration, based on Joel 2:25 which says, “I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.” But after a bit of reflection, I decided against it. Will 2025 be a year of quantifiable restoration? Perhaps. But it’s not something I have complete control over; I can’t decide if something I have no control over will be restored to me or not.

So, I opted for a word that reflects something I can control. Reclaim communicates the same spirit as restore but suggests initiative and action on my part. That’s not to say that I will get everything I want, but it means that everything I do will be driven by a spirit of reclamation and restoration, regardless of the outcome. That’s a hard lesson I’ve had to learn; we cannot pin our hopes and dreams on specific outcomes. Instead, we must focus on our attitude, mindset, and efforts which are the only things we have any real control over.

Reclaim what?

Myself. Joy. Dreams. Finances. Sound mind and body. Softness. Authentic (to me) living – after what seems like nearly a lifetime of survival mode (though it’s been “only” 10 years) where each of those things took a strong hit, along with peace of mind: inherent rights and privileges as a daughter of God.

How was it lost?  

In retrospect, I realized that over many years I was steamrolled and overpowered by the negative stuff where I just didn’t stand a chance against it, despite whatever desire I may have had to push back. I felt bullied by outside pressures and influences that were not aligned with my values and were not in my best interest. I became very reactionary rather than proactive and being easily swayed emotion, making many decisions based on what would keep me sane and safe at the moment even if it wasn’t necessarily of long term benefit. Over time I conceded a lot of myself to circumstances.

Reclaim how?

Not necessarily by taking things but through thinking and living intentionally; focusing on values, and living proactively rather than reactively. By making consistent upward strides in implementing my Course Correction Life Navigation Protocol. The protocol is driven by my core values: truth, simplicity, and authenticity. I am no longer willing to be a part of anything that doesn’t align with these values or isn’t meaningful to me.

Though I didn’t realize it initially, going back to school was the first foundational step in armoring up to reclaim stolen territory. Because earning a bachelor’s degree — read: the personal growth, discipline, and refinement the process offered — was so foundational and restorative I now feel a sense of completeness and readiness to successfully – and definitively – tackle other foundational things such as my health and finances. And I’m definitely ready for new and better; better opportunities and hopefully better money. I’m ready to have options and choices I don’t currently have. I am ready to tackle personal writing projects and new hustles. I’m ready to fully resolve a few pending personal matters so I can chuck them into the incinerator once and for all and move on. I’m ready for an almost inordinate number of better things.

This made me reflect…When my inner world started crumbling and imploding on itself in 2022(ish) one of the biggest pain points that hit me hard was that I had reached a certain age and felt I had nothing to show for it in terms of having achieved anything truly foundational or meaningful. When it all hit the fan internally, I knew I had two choices to make: crumble and die, figuratively first, but eventually literally, or do something. I chose to do something. The choosing to do something instead of nothing was like striking a match that lit a fire within me to restart this blog after several years of dormancy and scattered attempts, and thus, Fresh Start 5.0.

I also realized there were so many times in the past when I used to try to engage – be present, thrive, enjoy – but I was miserable, and I knew it. I was living totally out of alignment with much of anything meaningful to me and I knew that whatever I was doing wasn’t going to bring me joy and wasn’t going to be all it could be. I felt enveloped in a dark cloud of what I can now clearly identify as liminality – the happy past was gone, and the future was murky – and dystopian emptiness. Everything — and I mean every.thing — during that time fell flat on its face and had zero flavor or joy to it. But what was there but to but put on a brave face and give it a shot anyway?

Fresh Start 5.0, which included my Course Correction epiphany, truly was the beginning of a fresh start in that it lay the internal groundwork for deciding a year or so later to go back to school. When I did go back to school I did have to lay aside fleshing out and fully implementing Course Correction. Fresh Start 5.0 lay the groundwork and I feel truly ready to embrace Fresh Start. 5.2 by implementing my protocol as a means of reclaiming all that was lost or taken.

As always, there is still a lot of uncertainty and hardship ahead of me, but for the first time I feel much more equipped to navigate through and past it. In practical terms it’s going to look like focusing on my protocol, but also creating content for the blog and YouTube, and working on a few creative projects which I will share later in the year.

As I step into 2025, Reclaim is more than just a word—it's a promise to myself. A promise to live in a spirit of restoration, protecting what matters, and fully owning my journey and story. Here’s to taking back everything that has always been mine.