So, here are 25 things that brought me joy this year (In no particular order, obviously):
1. No Hard Feelings by The Beaches
Most of you know how much I love The Beaches, but their third studio album has brought me a profound amount of joy this year. Even though the singles started dropping back in 2024, the full album finally arrived in August. Despite having half the tracklist on repeat for months, I’m still in my car screaming to Did I Say Too Much. When I think about this year, so much of it was me driving around listening to this album way too loud.
2025 was tough. For so many. So much of what made this year bearable was being surrounded by my people. Thank you for holding me up this year. I feel profoundly grateful to be so well-loved and cared for. I’m hoping 2026 feels a little softer.
25 Things That Actually Brought Me Joy This Year
December 30, 2025
So, here are 25 things that brought me joy this year (In no particular order, obviously):
1. No Hard Feelings by The Beaches
Most of you know how much I love The Beaches, but their third studio album has brought me a profound amount of joy this year. Even though the singles started dropping back in 2024, the full album finally arrived in August. Despite having half the tracklist on repeat for months, I’m still in my car screaming to Did I Say Too Much. When I think about this year, so much of it was me driving around listening to this album way too loud.
2025 was tough. For so many. So much of what made this year bearable was being surrounded by my people. Thank you for holding me up this year. I feel profoundly grateful to be so well-loved and cared for. I’m hoping 2026 feels a little softer.
Summer. It's been a strange one. Not broken, not even really bad, but definitely not the kind of summer I had mentally penciled in. And honestly, I've been feeling more and more like Sylvia Plath this summer — longing to feel like myself (whatever that is) again.
Un verano sin mÃ
August 1, 2025
Summer. It's been a strange one. Not broken, not even really bad, but definitely not the kind of summer I had mentally penciled in. And honestly, I've been feeling more and more like Sylvia Plath this summer — longing to feel like myself (whatever that is) again.
As I reflect on 2024, I can't help but see it as a year of restoration for me. A year of bringing my life back into a state of equilibrium, a place where I feel like myself again. But this version of me is different, stronger, having weathered the monsoon that was my life, exacerbated by COVID, but now it finally feels like a turning point has happened.
It was the first year without my grandfather, Michael, a year of learning to live with the absence while also embracing the beauty of change and new beginnings. I said goodbye to my sanctuary for the past three years and moved into a space that is even more comforting and comes with the most healing love I've ever experienced. I said goodbye to a job that I felt so comfortable at, but had outgrown. Instead embarking on an entirely new opportunity. And while New York City remains my beloved home away from home, this year, I prioritized discovering new horizons.
And when the insecurity sinks in about all my choices, and it does, I think what I reflect on is this: the future is uncertain. No matter what one may try to convince you no one truly knows where their path will lead. We have some control though to do the best we can with what we know at the time and when things get too comfortable and start to feel stagnant, we can embrace change, pack up our closet, and take the road less travelled. To quote Robert Frost, "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
This is the first year in a very long time that I have felt less optimistic about the year ahead. It is also the first year an intention or word hasn't come to me. There is still time. There is always time.
Regaining My Center
December 31, 2024
As I reflect on 2024, I can't help but see it as a year of restoration for me. A year of bringing my life back into a state of equilibrium, a place where I feel like myself again. But this version of me is different, stronger, having weathered the monsoon that was my life, exacerbated by COVID, but now it finally feels like a turning point has happened.
It was the first year without my grandfather, Michael, a year of learning to live with the absence while also embracing the beauty of change and new beginnings. I said goodbye to my sanctuary for the past three years and moved into a space that is even more comforting and comes with the most healing love I've ever experienced. I said goodbye to a job that I felt so comfortable at, but had outgrown. Instead embarking on an entirely new opportunity. And while New York City remains my beloved home away from home, this year, I prioritized discovering new horizons.
And when the insecurity sinks in about all my choices, and it does, I think what I reflect on is this: the future is uncertain. No matter what one may try to convince you no one truly knows where their path will lead. We have some control though to do the best we can with what we know at the time and when things get too comfortable and start to feel stagnant, we can embrace change, pack up our closet, and take the road less travelled. To quote Robert Frost, "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
This is the first year in a very long time that I have felt less optimistic about the year ahead. It is also the first year an intention or word hasn't come to me. There is still time. There is always time.
Ciao, 2023!
December 31, 2023
Not easy but worth it 2022
December 31, 2022
Chane-lo is a great way for me to share all the things these days. How I'm feeling both in written and visual form, what I'm listening to, what I'm gravitating toward in my closet, and poetry that strikes a chord. While at its core Chane-lo is an email newsletter supporting the content of JMC and my musings it feels personal in a way that's different than JMC. I'd been sending it out to a handful of people and now I feel like I'm ready to open it up to any interested, beautiful human! Sign up, here.
It feels like JMC is in an off-season right now and I'm leaning into what that feels like. As I continue to pour back into myself at this very strange time in my life I am excited to see what openings come my way. Aries season unfolds.
Not just love, much love,
S
Photo by Bella Grace Cordero
The Off-Season
April 2, 2022
Chane-lo is a great way for me to share all the things these days. How I'm feeling both in written and visual form, what I'm listening to, what I'm gravitating toward in my closet, and poetry that strikes a chord. While at its core Chane-lo is an email newsletter supporting the content of JMC and my musings it feels personal in a way that's different than JMC. I'd been sending it out to a handful of people and now I feel like I'm ready to open it up to any interested, beautiful human! Sign up, here.
It feels like JMC is in an off-season right now and I'm leaning into what that feels like. As I continue to pour back into myself at this very strange time in my life I am excited to see what openings come my way. Aries season unfolds.
Not just love, much love,
S
Photo by Bella Grace Cordero
I don't think I'll ever fully let go of people I love, but filling the space they held with something else in time. Well, that's just beautiful. So often people tell you to let go. It feels so callous. You never really let go of people and things you love, do you? Reframing it and asking what I want more of was such an honest way to acknowledge the space that once was and invite in curiosity. Something new. Something golden.
So, I ask myself. What do I want more of? I've come up with a few things. More sun on my face. More presence with Mother Earth. More time rooting for my friends celebrating their little victories and standing by their sides when things get tough. More energy to create. More trust in the process of life.
So here I am letting go in all the marigolden glory. I didn't think I'd share this post, but it feels inauthentic not to share something that was so big for me. There have been more Dear Diary posts recently and it's something I'm proud of. It's funny the night I wrote this post my aunt Nelu who lives in India sent me a text with an image that said, "When you let go you create space for better things to enter your life."
And this slip dress? I had a dream about it. I was wearing a silk marigold slip dress. It was wonderful. If you know me you know that I take my dreams very seriously. So I searched and searched for a marigold slip dress. I had given up when this one appeared. Silk, in my size from a company named De la Terra, which naturally dyes textiles in California. It was a sign.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Zane Lee Todd III.
Photos by Bella Grace Cordero
Wearing: Dress - De La Terra (exact, similar), shoes - Valentino, lips - Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella
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On Letting Go
March 5, 2022
I don't think I'll ever fully let go of people I love, but filling the space they held with something else in time. Well, that's just beautiful. So often people tell you to let go. It feels so callous. You never really let go of people and things you love, do you? Reframing it and asking what I want more of was such an honest way to acknowledge the space that once was and invite in curiosity. Something new. Something golden.
So, I ask myself. What do I want more of? I've come up with a few things. More sun on my face. More presence with Mother Earth. More time rooting for my friends celebrating their little victories and standing by their sides when things get tough. More energy to create. More trust in the process of life.
So here I am letting go in all the marigolden glory. I didn't think I'd share this post, but it feels inauthentic not to share something that was so big for me. There have been more Dear Diary posts recently and it's something I'm proud of. It's funny the night I wrote this post my aunt Nelu who lives in India sent me a text with an image that said, "When you let go you create space for better things to enter your life."
And this slip dress? I had a dream about it. I was wearing a silk marigold slip dress. It was wonderful. If you know me you know that I take my dreams very seriously. So I searched and searched for a marigold slip dress. I had given up when this one appeared. Silk, in my size from a company named De la Terra, which naturally dyes textiles in California. It was a sign.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Zane Lee Todd III.
Photos by Bella Grace Cordero
Wearing: Dress - De La Terra (exact, similar), shoes - Valentino, lips - Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella
Similar:
Back in April I was walking back to my friend Steph's home and we were talking about how, like many, I felt like I've lost a year of my life due to the pandemic. I told her I was turning 25 again. Steph looked at me and said, "What if, instead, you make this year the best year yet." As I reflect on this year that moment with Steph sticks out.
Goodbye 2021
December 29, 2021
Back in April I was walking back to my friend Steph's home and we were talking about how, like many, I felt like I've lost a year of my life due to the pandemic. I told her I was turning 25 again. Steph looked at me and said, "What if, instead, you make this year the best year yet." As I reflect on this year that moment with Steph sticks out.
Part of the Plan
November 11, 2021
