As I pause to reflect on the year, it’s hard to believe how quickly 2025 flew by. My three-year-old son, Andrew, enjoys making me chase him around our kitchen table, Tom and Jerry style, using a low center of gravity to his advantage while I try to gain enough traction to catch him (I never do). That’s sort of how I picture 2025.
This one felt especially rushed, too. The holiday season, compressed by a late Thanksgiving, arrived with all the subtlety of a leaf blower. My December heart rate ran about 20 beats per minute higher than normal, and my to-do list doubled as an alarm clock, reliably waking me sometime between 3 and 5 a.m. each day. Happy birthday, Jesus. I’m sorry your party was so stressful.
Given all that, my brain hasn’t exactly eased into the gift of slow reflection. Coupled with the awkwardness of trying to objectively recap another polarizing year, my fingers aren’t eager to dance across the keyboard the way they sometimes are. So, to relieve the writer’s block, I abandoned the traditional month-by-month recap and opted instead for something looser: a look back at 2025 through a handful of themes. This more honest approach leaves room to acknowledge the hard moments, notice progress where it showed up, and connect events that didn’t always sit neatly next to one another on the calendar.
As always, my hope is that this reflection offers perspective rather than prediction, and clarity rather than commentary. The Hurt, the Hope, the Humanity, the Headwinds, and the Headway of 2025 are all part of the story we just lived, and, I think, worth a moment of consideration before we turn the page.
Join me.
Hurt — Collective loss, tragedy, and moments that exposed fragility
- A deadly aviation collision near Washington, D.C. renews scrutiny around air safety and oversight, shaking confidence in systems we rely on without much thought. It also reminds us how casually we trust thousands of pounds of metal, software updates, and strangers with authority.
- A powerful earthquake in Myanmar devastates communities and prompts an international humanitarian response. The scale of this disaster underscores how suddenly life can be upended in areas typically so far from the world’s attention.
- Winter wildfires in Southern California disrupt daily life and displace families in a disaster that was both unseasonal and indiscriminate. Entire communities are left to reckon with loss and uncertainty.
- Historic flooding in Central Texas causes widespread devastation, including the heartbreaking loss of children and counselors at an overnight camp. That same week, my own daughter attended her first summer camp, drawing the tragedy uncomfortably close to home. The contrast between ordinary joy and unimaginable grief is impossible to ignore.
- The death of Pope Francis marks the end of a globally influential papacy, closing a chapter defined for many by humility, moral courage, and a persistent emphasis on care for those on the margins.
- Acts of political violence, including high-profile attacks on public figures such as Charlie Kirk and Melissa Hortman, highlight not only the loss of life, but the growing fracture in how we respond to tragedy as a society. In moments that once might have brought collective pause, grief increasingly collides with division.
- Audrey Acosta breaks her arm thanks to an age-old culprit: the monkey bars. She navigates this childhood rite of passage on a road replete with literal speed bumps, thanks largely to her mother’s poor critical thinking skills in the face of danger. When it comes to fight, flight, or freeze, I’ve learned that I am…informationally absent.
Hope — Progress, restraint, and reminders of human resilience
- Ceasefire phases and coordinated international efforts lead to the phased release of hostages throughout 2025. These moments are fragile and incomplete, but for families living in prolonged uncertainty, they represent real relief and a reminder that diplomacy, however imperfect, can still save lives.
- NASA astronauts return safely after an unexpected nine-month delay. It is, in many ways, a real-life version of the vastly underrated 1997 film Rocket Man. Their return reflects patience, problem-solving, and quiet competence under extraordinary conditions. In addition, it further confirms my long-standing belief that space travel is best left to literally anyone but me.
- A record-setting pig-to-human kidney transplant demonstrates meaningful progress in organ replacement medicine. The transplanted kidney functions for 271 days, the longest documented success of its kind, offering cautious but tangible hope for patients facing chronic organ shortages. That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
- Signs of hope emerge for a technologically saturated generation, as institutions began rethinking digital norms:
- Schools across the United States moved to limit or ban cell phone use during the school day. Lunch rooms are noisy again.
- Australia passed legislation restricting social media access for children under 16.
- We successfully break my son Andrew’s addiction to Paw Patrol, with minimal withdrawal symptoms and no formal intervention required.
- Individual endurance offers its own kind of encouragement when an 80-year-old woman completes a hike of the Appalachian Trail. Reflecting on the journey, Betty Kellenberger says, “We put all kinds of limitations on ourselves. Sometimes the biggest one is we don’t get up and try it.” I’ll keep that in mind the next time I consider revisiting sourdough.
Humanity — Shared experience, culture, family, and the connective tissue of the year
- REAL ID enforcement officially begins, sending Americans on a nationwide scavenger hunt for birth certificates, utility bills, and that one document we were sure we had somewhere. It is inconvenient, chaotic, and oddly unifying.
- Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, which several people have strong opinions about. I am not one of those people, but her ring slays (that’s slang for ‘it’s really awesome.’ I’m a cool mom.).
- The election of the first U.S.-born pope marks a historic and human moment for American Catholics.
- Dan Brown releases his 6th Robert Langdon novel, continuing the popular series that bore The DaVinci Code. This is good because we need him to tell us what 6-7 means.
- A $100+ million haul of royal jewels is stolen from the Louvre in broad daylight. Disguised as maintenance workers, the thieves used a scissor lift to access a second-story window and speed away on scooters. I’m pretty sure the heist-master asked ChatGPT to binge The Pink Panther before prompting, “a plan so crazy it just might work; bank on security guards feeling underpaid.”
- We vacation in New York City, and my “city kids” emerge, navigating subways and busy streets without a second thought. I’m so proud. Except they blow all their spending money in overpriced novelty stores. By contrast, my husband and I blow all our spending money in overpriced novelty restaurants, like grown-ups.
Headwinds — Uncertainty, volatility, and the emotional weight of economic friction
- Trade policy reenters the spotlight as new tariff announcements and repeated deadline extensions introduce uncertainty for businesses, consumers, and markets. Even when policies didn’t immediately change outcomes, the on-again, off-again nature of negotiations shape behavior, decision-making, and confidence—at times evoking a geopolitical version of he loves me, he loves me not, played one deadline at a time.
- Markets experience a sharp drop in early April, followed by a rapid rebound days later, offering a familiar reminder of how quickly sentiment can swing. The speed of the recovery underscored how difficult it is to time fear or relief, and how often both arrive louder than warranted.
- Economic pressure is uneven, with corporate bankruptcies rising in select sectors while other industries post strong earnings and growth throughout the year. The contrast highlights a K-shaped economy, where outcomes depend heavily on industry, balance sheets, and access to capital rather than a single, shared economic reality.
- Interest rates remain elevated for much of the year, shaping borrowing, housing decisions, and consumer behavior. Rates eventually decline later in the year, easing some pressure, but only after households and businesses have already adjusted both behavior and expectations to a higher-rate environment.
- Government cost-cutting efforts add another layer of uncertainty, including DOGE-related restructuring and a government shutdown that disrupts services and planning. The policy details don’t stand out as much as the reminder that institutional instability has downstream effects.
- I learn that optimism is not a haircut strategy, especially when cutting your own children’s hair. Some headwinds don’t show up in economic data, but they do appear in family photos.
Headway — Forward motion, innovation, and disciplined progress
- Markets deliver strong returns in 2025, rewarding discipline and long-term positioning. The S&P 500 finishes the year up roughly 17%, the Nasdaq Composite rises about 21%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains approximately 13%.¹ Despite periods of volatility and policy uncertainty, progress is driven primarily by earnings growth and productivity, not speculation. This reminds us that boring, done well, can still be very effective.
- Artificial intelligence delivers one of its quieter breakthroughs in 2025: it actually makes work easier. As companies move from experimentation to application, productivity gains show not merely as speculation, but in fewer clicks and faster results. Human capital can be redirected toward synergizing deliverables, piggybacking on stuff, and circling back once everyone’s had a chance to weigh in.
- The U.S. releases a national AI Action Plan alongside new governance standards, signaling a shift from open-ended innovation toward more intentional stewardship. The message is clear: artificial intelligence has officially graduated from “that’s neat” to “we should probably do rules for that.”
- Labor market participation shows resilience even as unemployment edged higher. While hiring slows and joblessness rises modestly over the year, prime-age labor force participation remains near multi-decade highs, and real wage growth stays positive for many workers. This suggests continued employee engagement rather than broad retreat from the workforce.
- Commercial space exploration reaches another milestone in 2025, with private company Firefly Aerospace successfully completing a civilian trip to outer space. It is a striking demonstration of progress, which I’m perfectly content to admire from the ground, where gravity, oxygen, and sanity remain relatively standard features.
- My husband and I go to Disney World without our kids. Under the guise of a work trip, we sneak away for 3 days with some of our closest friends. It redeems the hellish landscape of our last family trip to Disney, which, like geniuses, we planned when Andrew was a newborn. We owed it to ourselves. A small therapy fund has been established for the children.
Hindsight
- Patience beats prediction again. Volatility tests confidence, but it consistently rewards discipline over reaction. 2025 offers plenty of moments that seem decisive at first, but then quietly reverse course shortly thereafter.
- The loudest risks aren’t always the most important ones. Several early fears never fully materialize, while smaller, less dramatic forces end up shaping outcomes more meaningfully. Kind of like how quicksand never played out as scary as we thought as kids. This pattern reinforces how difficult it is to tell signal from noise while you’re living inside it.
- Progress rarely moves in a straight line. Some areas advance quickly, others slowly, and a few stall altogether. Taken together, 2025 resists tidy narratives and instead favors nuance, patience, and ongoing adjustment.
- Perhaps most clearly, 2025 reinforces a familiar truth: long-term thinking still works. Even in a year marked by uncertainty, restraint and consistency quietly do what they’ve always done: create resilience. The ability to step back, contextualize, and avoid reaction remains a competitive advantage—not just financially, but emotionally.
As we ring in the new year:
Thank you for your continued trust in all of us on the Benchmark team and for allowing us to walk alongside you through another unforgettable year. In a world that moves quickly and often loudly, it’s a privilege to help you stay grounded, intentional, and focused on what matters most.
As we step into 2026, my hope is that we continue to approach decisions with clarity rather than urgency, patience rather than prediction, and confidence rooted in perspective. The headlines will keep changing, but the principles that guide thoughtful planning rarely do. We are here to help you remain anchored in these truths.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve you, and I look forward to continuing the work we’re doing together steadily, purposefully, and with care.
