To outline or not to outline the 2025 life’s chapter

Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are behind us, a new year awaits, fresh and full of possibilities. Perhaps. Some might call it “a blank canvas” ready to be filled with new adventures and dreams come true, a brand new chapter in the developing story called life.

Life is a living, breathing story. And, like any other story, it eventually comes to an end.

Life is a work-in-progress manuscript. There are no do-overs in life, as an entity. Rather, in some of its chapters. Would that apply to 2025 or the next few years, too?

And speaking of life, books, and chapters, here are a few questions to ponder upon at the start of this new year:

• If life were a book, how would we write it?

• Do we outline it or not?
• And if we do outline, how would we go about it? Where would we start?

• How closely would we follow the outline during the writing process?

And also…

• If life were a photography book, how would we capture it?

• How and what images would we select to include in that photo book?

• Would there be any #bts images included in the book? An introduction? A bio?

• How about captions?

• How would we call our book? WIP or not? Or, for starters, how would we call its 2025 chapter?

Myself?

I believe that life is a blank canvas on which we attempt to sketch out our stories. And even if we start with an outline, we often veer away from it, on purpose or not, influenced by others or simply because we sketch out a new outline or decide on not having one at all. We learn from our mistakes, hopefully, regroup, and continue to tell the story.

I believe in the power of storytelling, and in its role in documenting lives and experiences, leaving something behind for posterity, and thus, hopefully, creating a legacy, carving out paths for future generations to continue a good fight, a mission or cause we believe in so vehemently.

Oftentimes it takes me a long time to figure out this puzzle of a story called life, or even chapters in my life. I always feel that I’m a step behind, trying to catch up, never quite able to see a finishing line of sorts. Maybe, one day.

Coming back to this particular year, I ask myself:

• What will 2025 bring?

• What are we going to celebrate come December?

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, if you so desire. I’d love to read them.

Hope that 2025 will be everything that you wish it to be, and more, for you, and for us all.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Alina Oswald