Dear 2026, today it's my birthday

Today is January 2nd, 2026, and… it’s my birthday. Yep. Another year in my twenties. But that’s not really what I want to talk about today. Ish.

On one hand, I want to reflect on how these last years have been from my point of view. On the other, I want to set my goals for this “new” year. Nothing crazy or ambitious—just a small number of goals I want to reach, because they truly matter to me. Pretty much.

So… what can I say about these last years? Well, I’ll focus on the period from 2019 onwards, because I feel like I’ve changed so much in these years.

My life started to go in a negative direction with the arrival of the infamous Covid-19, which changed everything, maybe forever. Naively, I thought it would last “just a few days,” and in that time, without really noticing, I let myself drift. I’m not exaggerating.

At the beginning, I thought — like many other students — that we’d be home “just for a few days.” Classes continued online, and I treated those moments like a pause, doing almost nothing except a little studying. I didn’t notice that, by letting my mind rest too much, I was slowly walking into the consequences of it.

I stopped writing in my personal diary, thinking there was “nothing new to say,” since every day felt the same. I didn’t read as much as I could have, even though I love the activity of reading. I didn’t work on creative writing, or laterally on academic writing, even though I wanted to become a good novelist. And I didn’t make much progress with the languages I already knew — Russian and English — or start a new one, like German.

I didn’t do many things, mostly because of the silly thought that “there’s always tomorrow,” or because I got absorbed in social media, trying to escape difficult situations I was living through — situations that weren’t really my fault, or “technically” not my problems (though, in some way, I was involved, but I don’t want to get into that).

It’s not that I was doing big things before 2019, but at least I was mentally more active… more cheerful, more alive. Looking back now, I realize I can’t let the chance to become a better version of myself slip away, keeping that same mindset. I also want to return to being mentally calm… not necessarily happy, but to find that sense of well-being I used to have for so long.

With this little reflection in mind, I’ve decided to focus on a small number of goals — ones I know will somehow improve my life and the “status quo” of my mind, which needs both the security of the familiar and the challenge of new things to stay active.

1. Leave the nest. I feel a strong need for my own independence — to take the reins of my life, with all the challenges that come with it. I know it won’t be easy, but the need is stronger than the comfort of staying in the familiar.
2. Improve my English and Russian. I’ve started to feel a slight discomfort with the language I speak every day — Italian. My brain starts to get bored without challenges, and I feel the need to improve the skills I already have. It’s also hard to do certain things without at least some knowledge of English. As for Russian, it’s the first language I used to interact with the world and my family, and there’s always been a blurry line between what I know and what I don’t.
3. Improve my writing skills. One of my biggest lifelong projects has been becoming a novelist, creating new worlds and stories that have never been told.

And you? What kind of goals do you have for this new year?