Goodbye 2025

may the door smack you on the way out

Hello, my little plum galette!

I’ll just go ahead and say it: 2025 was a fuck-ass year (derogatory). Yes, yes good things did happen, I have many things I’m grateful for, but I often feel a lot of pressure to be overwhelming positive and optimistic when reflecting on a year like some sort of good luck ritual for better things in the next, but I just don’t have it in me to sugarcoat things. This year sucked.

And you know what? Maybe that’s okay.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update on here (self-flagellates for being bad at book promo please pre-order my upcoming book for 25% off etc) but for some time now, I’ve felt like I’ve run out of things to say… no doubt that would be a gift to many but alas, I am persisting. This year has done a number on me, and I’ve been vacillating between burnout and existential angst, and none of that has felt particularly easy to face and condense into a silly little newsletter where I spill my guts. But this time of year, when the veil thins and there’s more time to sit in uncomfortable feelings, I see how I’ve (yet again) stretched myself too thin. And I think a lot of people are feeling the same way.

There are a lot of really horrible things happening in the world right now. We are witnessing genocides and wars, political violence, the stripping away of rights and freedoms, attacks on our most vulnerable communities. We’ve lost the concept of loving thy neighbor and instead proudly condemn them and hunt for the most basic acts of living. We’re becoming desensitized to the wonderful splendor of our natural world and the beautiful, imperfect, agonized-over art created by humans with the saturation of generative AI. We are losing our wonder and our whimsy in the burn-out rat race to produce and consume more, more, MORE.

We are being beat-up by the world we created, and looking back on 2025 with rose-colored glasses simply does not serve me as I prepare for the year ahead, and, if it doesn’t serve you, see this as your permission slip to indulge in the grief and anger this year might have caused.

But when I sit with my anger and heartache, I’m reminded of the things I love and cherish most in this life: Art. Science. Plants. Books. Curiosity. Animals. Medicine. Truth.

I usually start off a new year with a lot of really specific goals for my careers—both dentistry and writing—but this year, I think my biggest, grandest, goal, will be to harness all that grief and fury and put it toward fiercely protecting those fundamental things I love about this strange little life we’re all given the opportunity to explore.

I hope peace finds you in 2026. I wish you a year of wonder and good books and devastating kindness (and idk maybe a lot more Heated Rivalry season 2 updates and it miraculously being available in six months or less). I wish you such an abundance that you can’t help but to share with loved ones and strangers alike. I wish you adventure and stillness. I hope 2026 brings you everything you need. You’ve worked hard enough.

All my love,
Mazey ❤️🧠🦷

The [Horrifying] GIF

Oh, and can’t forget this thing to close out the year…

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