What is something you achieved this year that you're proud of?
What is something in the past year that makes you happy or proud? Maybe you learned something new, finally got that thing you wanted for ages, managed to make a hard decision with a good outcome. etc etc.
No pressure to share if you don't want to. Hope you all have a good new years eve :)
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2025 was awful so... I would say I am happy and proud to still be alive.
You're not the only one! Congrats on remaining vertical and warm.
Sorry to hear that. Here is to you making it another rotation around the sun. Hopefully the next year will be better! 🥂
2025 was also not great for me. Lots of bad stuff, and I lost the last of my friends in 2025 (not dead, just not friends anymore) and my family and relationships are long gone. I'm tired of being completely alone with no one to talk to or even just hang out with. When midnight came tonight I was sitting with one of my two cats on my lap, the only living things I have left. I looked at my cat and said well bud we made it through 2025, here's hoping 2026 goes better. My wish is to make a friend.
I hope it goes better for you too.
I am proud of the fact that after years of being inactive (partially due to laziness, partially due to health issues that I've finally found a doctor who was willing to help me take care of) I rejoined the gym a few weeks ago and have been going regularly. It's too soon to say I've made a habit of it, but it's already the only good part of my week and I look forward to it, so I'm hoping I can stick with it despite my crazy work and school schedule. I miss being strong and fit.
I’ve created some absolutely amazing photography in ‘25 and will continue to make even more!
These are awesome, keep up the good work!
Sometimes i miss that place 😆 what i wouldn't give for some Chopollos or Delta rn...
Stopped being an unemployed bum and got a solid union job that pays more than I ever really expected to make
It took two years but I finally achieved a 1000lb powerlifting total. It's not a huge number but I do feel proud of myself, and physically I have never felt better. Outgrew my wardrobe twice, and can't find jeans that fit but otherwise 10/10 would recommend lifting to anyone
Seems huge to me man. Congrats
You know I think that's the social media influence showing. Fitness influencers post these incredible lifts and physiques that are seriously impressive, it's important to keep in mind that these are genetically gifted people posting their highlight reels, in their prime, and on gear
mostly the gear, which can be misleading people.
I was going to post about having lifted consistently for four months going from a 20lbs dumbbell press to 45lbs and seeing results. Then I see your 1,000lbs and it blows my mind that you don't think that's impressive!
Great work! My one rep max on a deadlift is 200 and right now I am over the moon that I have lost my beer gut. Let's keep the momentum!
Dude four months is fantastic. You built the habit and now it's just a matter of time. You keep doing what you're doing and your gains will blow your mind. I've switched to dumbbell for overhead press and it feels great for strength and longevity, I started off with a questionable shoulder and now it feels rock solid because of these, you're on the right track!
holy crap
Literal zero usage of Windows or any Microsoft software or hardware. Also 99% no Google.
Went vegan.
Started my masters.
Didn't kill myself that week when I was fired a day after getting into a lot of credit card debt to treat the newly found cancer in my cat.
Said cat is alive and well, which is already a few months more than what the first vet said he would have.
Stopped smoking.
Keep it up. Best thing I did for my life. I had a hard time quitting but managed to get through it. Almost 10 years ago already, i stopped when i was 36. Never ever touching that again.
I'm usually a bit excessively modest, but if I'm reflecting on it... I left my precious job in the US & pulled off a successful cross-continental move with little to no outside help (even though there was a lot of stuff involved). Had a ton of fun traveling during the past year too as a result of that. I guess that would be the thing I'm most proud of
Congrats! It ain't cheap and it's truly a ton of work.
Almost ten years ago I got into a fight with a cop and some ER nurses after a suicide attempt and spent the next 48 hours twitching with EPS on the floor of a state hospital psych ward and thought I could probably do a better job of that. This year I'm considered enough of an expert in the management of violent patients that they've got me teaching verbal deescalation and physical disengagement skills, teaching people how to use restraints correctly, and precepting new nurses.
Wow, congratulations, you should be proud of yourself. I can't imagine your road here was easy. (No sarcasm intended).
it's been utterly wild at just about every turn
I started my handyman business 2 years ago. This past year i've been at full employment with zero advertising. I think that's pretty good for a new business with no existing customer base.
Ironically, at the end of last year as things were slowing down a bit I ordered like 3000 new flyers and I only managed to distribute around 500 of them untill the phone started ringing again and that still continues.
Honest question for you on this - what size city or town are you in, and what training or background did you have? I've been thinking about doing a basic handyman service in a mountain town where my parents live if I end up there later next year.
It's a mid-sized town of about 100k people, but I've really only advertised to a few thousand in one tiny corner of it. Most of my customers live within 10 minutes of me.
I'm a plumber by training, but I'm naturally a bit of a generalist and a life-long tinkerer and have done some work around my own house. I did commercial plumbing for 10 years before I went self-employed. That's the only thing I'm trained at. Nowdays I just watch a lot of YouTube tutorials and sometimes just wing it, too.
Going self-employed was by far the scariest thing I've ever done - lost countless nights worrying about it - but once I jumped, everything just worked out. Probably the best decision I've ever made. Literally today, a customer told me "everything I touch turns to gold." As a plumber, I got a "thank you" maybe twice in 10 years. Now I get genuine gratitude almost daily.
If you'd asked me about going self-employed as a plumber or electrician, I'd have said it's gonna be a battle. But as a handyman, your customer base is way wider thanks to the broad range of services. Plumbing is still a non-negligible part of what I do, but I'd struggle if that was all I offered. Painting is something I do so much that it's one of the few trades I'd actually recommend specializing in.
Go for it - seriously. Even failure isn't as bad as the regret of never trying.
Thanks for sharing this, this is great to know. I'm thinking about a backup plan that doesn't require spending 4 years apprenticing in a trade. I'm too old for that type of career change, but I've been doing my own handyman stuff for so long that painting, patching drywall, installing sinks, etc. sounds like a typical visit to anyone in my family. Though, it's also because in the area where they live trades are a 40 minute drive away and are so slammed they never answer calls. If you don't know the plumber personally, he's not coming to your place without an appointment weeks out. My parents are getting up there in age, and the job market is weird, so it's goo to hear that apparently I've been training for this my whole life.
I moved out from my dysfunctional family, which has helped me heal or come to terms with a lot of childhood trauma. I definitely feel I've grown a lot more, and become much more social and confident in myself.
I asked someone out for the first time, and while I was turned down, that was still a huge step for me.
Did my first successful hard drive recovery including chip swapover while soldering on a microscope. Also started saving for retirement the first time in my life. I'm 38.
Finally got off my butt and started volunteering at my local wildlife rehab clinic. It's been a tough year for me mentally, so having something regular where I'm surrounded by kind people doing something positive itself was great, and then getting to work with a ton of unique wildlife was the icing on the cake.
I even got to release a few squirrel patients at my house, and a beautiful young Screech Owl on my wife's birthday.
I've learned a bunch about all kinds of animals and found out about some animals I didn't even know we had in our state. I also attended a conference and got to meet people from other clinics across the country and see some of the special projects they're working on.
I owe it to the community here for pushing me to get more hands on with this, and I hope to continue to give back with some great stories, facts, and photos. It's been a truly amazing experience that I wish to continue.
My utmost respect. I fostered a pigeon this year and it was the most stressful thing I've done.
Birds feel so fragile (even the big ones) but can require some intense care. Their very non-mammalian anatomy can even make feeding them tricky, and the babies need to eat every hour.
I have so. Much respect for the sacrifices of the actual licensed rehabbers. It's a literal 24/7 job and so many areas are underserved it's a massive workload. We did I think 4000+ animals this year with just 2 rehabbers and us volunteers.
its thier respiratory system, very efficient at getting oxygen, but it also means thier susceptible to any volatiles chemicals.
Bird respiration is very different than ours. It is much more efficient since there is such a high energy and oxygen requirement to fly, but they also don't have a diaphragm to fill or expel their lungs.
Instead they have a series of air sacs spaced out in their bodies and they have to flex their muscles like pumping a bellows system to pump air through themselves.
With small lungs, low body weight, yet a massive air intake for their body mass, that makes them much more vulnerable to anything damaging in the air. We don't even spray the surface cleaner directly into their enclosures, we spray the paper towel and bring it over to the incubators.
Hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
I helped successfully form a union at my job. Things remain very difficult, but I am so gleefully proud.
Having a photo I took accepted into a public gallery exhibit for the first time.
I stepped up my nerd game to start trying to land an IT job of some kind. I learned computer networking to set up my own website on recycled hardware and began writing about it. I started developing on a game engine making modules and making art assets to maybe one day make a commercial product. I released like a dozen open source projects under open source licenses.
It all kind of culminated with Christmas. The kids in my life have been begging for multiplayer Minecraft server but Microsoft destroyed the he so hard with money grabbing we refused to pay for realms or make a bunch of Microsoft accounts or whatever.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on creating a mineclonia server built on luanti/minetest engine, patching in all the Minecraft assets like textures, sounds, music that I legally own with python tools I built myself and released,
I really wanted an in game fullscreen map and nobody had ever figured out how to make one on luanti engine so I so spent a few weeks developing one from the ground up. I released the map mod two days ago and people quickly noticed saying I had changed the game forever, congratulating me on my technological achievement or whatever.
Its just a little frustrating because it feels like I'm somewhat competent at the nerd professions but I have no idea how to advertise my talents or if what I'm doing even translates to real Dev work. How Does creating universal map colorizer + generator for proceeduraly generated voxel worlds or designing a full model animation interpolation system for an engine from scratch or hosting public services on my own network built from scratch powered by solar turn into resume stuffs? That'd what I guess new years focus needs to be
Held a job for more than 6 months because after 23 years in the workforce I finally found one where the pay is equal for the level of work I do, which is next to nothing on both fronts. ($20/hr)
So while I still can't afford groceries, at least I'm not busting my ass while being poor at the same time anymore. All I do at my job is sit in front of a computer, take screenshots and then upload them, so now I'm just poor.
I wrote a one man play! I am not a professional writer, even though i have tried, and not at all an actor, and the play touches some things in me, i get both angry and sad for real while playing -- 13.1 is the date, and i'm both super stoked and super anxious. but proud! a real achievement in my world.
After 5ish years of semi-regular practice, I don't completely suck at chess anymore. This year saw my most dramatic improvement since I started learning how to play in earnest.
Yesterday I hit a new personal best rating at chess puzzles: 2013 Elo. Pretty proud of that
That's pretty cool :D Over 2000 is impressive!
One of the projects I worked on won several major awards from a major professional organization. Part of the reason it won those awards was because of my work.
I got my A+ and Network+ certs. So far they've been wastes of money lmao
I felt the same way when I got my A+ a decade ago (it really is worthless in practice if you already know a good bit about computers), but it at least unlocked the door to my career, so I can't complain looking back
Yeah im trying to switch careers into IT and even with the certs I can't seem to land an interview. I've had the A+ for several months and just got the Network+, so perhaps in just haven't reapplied to enough places. Studying for Sec+ now, hoping its not in vain.
Sec+ is super easy if you got network+. Its literally common sense with some tech terms sprinkled in. Go for it.
Sec+ is a great one to have if you are looking for a job with the Federal government (looking at your home instance that might not be your thing but it pays decent and they are the largest employer in the US if you live over here). Check out the 2210 job series on usajobs.gov, most want Sec+ within 6 months of hiring but it helps to already have it.
Sec+ will probably help, security is in high demand these days. I chose systems because I could see how much heartburn that would give me and didn't want to deal with it. If nothing else, having a lot of skills under your belt can help you better sell yourself.
Also, look into learning a scripting/programming language, that's another skill that can take you far. Since I'm a win admin, I went with powershell, and I use it every day (and it's one of the reasons my employer hired me, because I love programming and hate doing repetitive/menial bullshit). I've gotten tons of kudos from my team (and saved hundreds of man hours) for the various processes I've automated.
Finally moving into my own apartment (away from my dad)
Didn't give in to my demons. So far so good...
I started going to therapy which has done insane wonders for my anxiety and ability to make progress in life.
How long did it take to find a decent therapist? I've been trying for 15 years to no avail because the soft-spoken personality they all seem to have doesn't work for me. I need someone who is willing to get loud, call me out on my bullshit and put me in my place, but unfortunately most therapists seem like they're afraid of offending me. It's annoying.
I can't help with that cause my therapist does that and it helps a lot. He's the only therapist I've had, but he does point out when my mindset is completely wrong and steers me towards a more healthy and helpful one.
👍
I made more money in one month than I did in any one of the first three years I started in my field.
It finally feels like the work and dedication paid off.
Well I be damned. You tricked the system.
I've got ADHD and my organisation skills have improved quite a lot.
I'm still a scatterbrain with 5 zillion unfinished projects, but at least I'm writing them down. Sometimes.
I'm very proud of my partner getting a new job and starting her career in earnest. I'm super proud of myself for having been able to support that endeavor. This isn't something that I did last year obviously, this was a process over multiple years. I'm just very happy to see the results of my life decisions from the previous 5 years culminating in actual tangible outcomes this year. Not just for me, but for the people close to me as well. I have my path for the next 5 years visualized as well, and this type of stuff gives me the confidence to pursue things that i would have previously considered out of reach.
Wrote two erotic fiction short stories, both of which will be audio books soon!
2025 has been a roller coaster. I'm a DJ, and played a festival for the first time and got booked for a gig on my favourite label - amazing, rewarding achievements for me!
I also got evicted, developed panic disorder and have had to navigate our healthcare and benefits system for my partner who has a disability and hasn't been able to advocate for himself.
I kind of feel like; we made it. And that's an achievement on its own.
I finally quit my shitty job and will do a fresh start in '26 🥳 The job was really draining all my energy so this is a big win for my mental health
Went back to school for electrical engineering. Took a hard class with a hard professor and got a B+ while working almost full-time. Now I know how computer memory works.
I got invited to a furry convention, but still had to pay my own way and only had a month to make up the money so I took all the extra hours I could just to be able to go and barely have food the whole 5 days.
But it was worth it. BLFC was awesome. 😃
Finished the year with $3 in my bank account.
Thanks, Trump.
We can easily solve the problem of inequality by [Redacted, my lawyer has advised me not to finish this comment for legal reasons]
Its a me, Luigi!
I got a lot better at guitar and even recorded a song.
It's been a goal of mine for a while to keep up with practicing and get good at fingerpicking. Just for myself, more of a therapy than anything. I did pretty good with it this year.
Got to Norwegian A2 level in about two months and some change. My small farm business had its first sales.
I failed at everything I set out to do and hoped for in 2025.
Happy New Year! I'll try again or die trying.
I got my highest semester GPA ever and started reading significantly more books
Pretty good later half of the year!
I'm looking forward to building more of a core social group, traveling a bit, and climbing outdoors.
Happy new years!
I have started to figure out my art style when I paint. It's objectively way uglier than anything I have ever painted (not the style itself but the execution), but at least I like it.
Quit my job and decided to take a gap year. But it wasnt hard...so cant really say im proud of it since it wasnt difficult. I will however say that its really nice to not work (doh).
It's ok to be proud of something you did without overcoming great challenge.
Refurbished an electric guitar on my own. I found a Washburn (decent make) for next to nothing in a junk store and got a kit from Temu for the electronics which were totally shot.
Total cost was 1/4 of the price of the same guitar second hand in working order. YouTube tutorials sorted me out - only one of the pickups actually works well but it's the humbucker which is the only one I like anyway.
Context: 12 years ago I used to play professionally but sold my equipment when I had a kid (musician job does not pay well).
I actually like my new home made electric guitar better than my old one. Also, I now play for fun which is nicer than rehearsing repertoire all the time
I got an A in legal writing this semester.
medical?MD
Relaunched Travel to fix the name and reached 100 subs in a week(took half a year the first time).
I'm not in Jail for killing a MF. Win
Uhhh... wtf am I reading?
Making these 3 video games: https://lemmy.world/post/39584705
1.Went very very VERY low contact with my nparent, which is something I would have never imagined doing when 2025 started and I feel so proud of myself for having this boundary. Being a people pleaser in recovery, feels like I can exhale again. 2.Got my very own atelier where I create and keep busca just on my art. It took me thirty years! And I love having this New space.
TLDR: Distro hopping
The thing I am proud I achieved last year (2025) is distro hopping from a Arco/ArchLinux bloated mess of an install to EndeavourOS.
Prior to it, I had files from all kinds of installs: Manjaro, ArcoLinux #1, Arco #2, then Arch after Arco went EOL. It was a mess, and a lot of bloat eating up disk space.
So, I took some time to backup everything, install EndeavourOS, then over the course of a few days, restore the essentials. I only copied over the data I knew I would use. Additionally, while I copied my documents, pictures, etc, I left my downloads folder empty so I can have a fresh start.
This method allowed me to cut a lot of fat from my system, and now my drive is only 2/3 as full now, and it boots way faster.
Setting up a fresh install is always the most fun and most painful part of Linux for me. It was fun as I had a clean slate to work with, and even changed up my desktop layout this time around. The pain arose from having to reinstall all the software I needed, setting them up (some configs I couldn't copy over), setting up servers again, SSH, firewall, etc. The sheer amount of stuff to do was daunting to say the least.
Overall, though, I did enjoy this transition I made and it allowed me to tidy up my computer.
Edit: grammar
I learned the importance of money
Another year and I practiced restraint in sending mind body crippling pain towards the oppressors. I’m gonna let Jesus do his job in the new year or Ima need to go get back at it with visualizations of destroying the goons telepathically. Either way, staying focused on this through the deep of winter until springtime provides the lift to let the ass kicking continue. Next thing you know, it’s summer time.