2025: Breaking the order, welcoming new possibilities

The biggest gift this year my life has given me was learning to see change as bringing new possibilities.

I was building a tall tower with my toddler. As we placed one more block on top, the tower fell, blocks scattering everywhere. She laughed happily, shouting “More!” and pulled me to build again.

Watching her knock down what she just built without any hesitation, eager to start over, a thought struck me: Isn’t this exactly what my year has been like? The order I thought I had established got knocked down, and I started over, moving forward. The biggest gift this year my life has given me was learning to see change as bringing new possibilities.

Baby number two arrived

This year, we welcomed our second child.

I still remember when our first was born - our life went through a “reset”. Before kids, our routine was pretty fixed: home, work, occasional outings. After our first arrived, we went to places we never visited before: sliding down big slides at playgrounds, seeing dinosaurs at museums, digging in sand pits… These were places we had passed countless times but never noticed. When I started seeing things from a child’s perspective, those ordinary places suddenly became interesting.

Before our second arrived, we had established a comfortable rhythm with our first. But bringing home our second was like dropping a pebble into a calm lake, “breaking” our familiar daily routine again.

This time, though, I didn’t feel anxious - instead, I felt calm. I knew this was another chance to “reset”.

For example, with one child, we only needed to think about communicating with her. With two children, we started thinking: how can we become a great team of four? We want our children to collaborate and support each other, not compete. So we’re now paying attention to how we talk to them, encouraging help and cooperation among family members rather than putting ourselves against each other.

In the future, our second will also take us into worlds we never imagined, just like the way our first took us to explore around.

Reconnecting with the “I am not good at coding” version of myself

If my children brought a “reset” to my lifestyle, AI gave me a new understanding of myself - or another kind of “reset.”

I studied computer science, was a good student, but never liked programming. This was a major reason I decided not to become a programmer and switched to UX design. For a long time, I thought spending hours writing code was something I would never do again. I even gave myself a label: “I’m not good at coding.”

But these couple of years, with AI’s help, I actually completed some small coding projects. This surprised me. What surprised me even more was discovering I actually enjoyed the process.

I realized that the foundation I built years ago became useful in this new era. The code that used to give me headaches, with AI’s help, now lets me quickly build out ideas from my mind. And that foundation gives me a baseline to judge the quality of what I build.

This feeling is wonderful - like picking up an old toy I had tucked away in a corner and discovering it has new ways to play. It also made me understand that I’m not stuck with any professional label. Those possibilities I thought I had given up have always been there, just waiting for a new opportunity to be picked up again.

Just like my toddler knocking down the block tower and shouting “More!”, I’m rebuilding things I once thought I couldn’t build.

Moving forward

Looking back at this year, I feel fulfilled.

From welcoming our second child, to picking up coding again, to daily interactions with the kids, these moments that seemed to “break the order” were actually helping me “reset” myself - letting me face the unknown with a more open mind, exploring areas I thought didn’t belong to me.

I’m certain that whether as a designer or as a mother of two, my core hasn’t changed - I’m someone full of curiosity.

Now, when my children point to an unknown path ahead and ask me something, I don’t rush to give answers. Instead, I’m more willing to hold their hands and say: “I don’t know either, but we can try together and see.”

Just like that fallen block tower - it’s okay if it falls down, we can build it again, and each time it’ll be different.

2026 is coming, and I’m looking forward to seeing where those unknown changes will take us.