6 V Specific Things I'll be Doing in 2026 & 6 Corresponding Emojis

(Because I am someone who severely believes in the power and hope that a new year brings.) (Also, a big emoji girl 💅🏾)

1. Charing my phone across the room when I go to bed at night. 📵

There are a lot (a lot, a lot, lmao) of things that annoy me about myself, but one thing that really grinds my gears is that as soon as my alarm goes off, I reach for my phone and I immediately start scrolling. My preferred order? Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit. LinkedIn and my personal e-mail get added to the line up too if I’m pushing the snooze button one too many times.

I’d imagine the majority of people my age do this as well, and anyone who’s worked as a funeral director (or in any other position that would require being on call) wouldn’t blink twice at me having to keep my phone right next to me even—and especially—when I’m sleeping. But since that isn’t the case anymore, I want to give this a try again. I was pretty good about it in 2023 when I was in funeral home management¹ and saw pretty quickly how doing this one thing helped with honoring a morning/evening routine as well as bringing down my screentime. But then I fell in love with someone’s son and fucked my sleeping schedule behind it because of course I did and then a couple of years passed and that brings us to present day. Here’s to having an individual thought before one is given to me as soon as I open my eyes!

2. Start practicing tarot again. 🃏

I bought myself my first tarot deck back in 2019, and I bought it solely because I was in love with its artwork. I used it kind of consistently for about a year, practicing mainly on myself and a few (very brave) coworkers, but then stopped pretty abruptly because COVID brought her ass to the United States and we got busy at the funeral home.

Fast forward to last year, I had a random conversation with a random girl on my flight back from Atlanta about tarot cards which made me realize how much I miss a) practicing in my own little way, and b) learning more about my cards. Three months later, a coworker² gifted me a gorgeous deck and I made time to practice here and there throughout the holiday season and now I am ready to COMMIT.

3. Mission Cake Impossible. 🎂

I think it was briefly mentioned in my debut post, but I fucking love to bake. People have asked me where I got my love for baking from, and to be honest, I don’t really know where it from. Both of my parents cook, as does my older brother, but I’m pretty much the only baker of the bunch. When I think back, my adolescence is littered with memories of baking up all kinds of silly things with my friends when we were too broke to do anything else, so that could very well be its origin. I’d say that cookies are what I’m best at, but one thing I’ve always wanted to get better at is cakes. The cake part itself I’m okay at, but the icing/decorating part is where I have a whole hell of a lot of room to improve.

That said, I’ve decided I’m going to be baking at least one birthday cake a month so I can get the regular practice of not only decorating but also trying my hand at making different kinds of cakes³. I made my first January cake today—strawberry (cup)cake(s) with strawberry icing—and had a BLAST, so I’m really excited about this one!⁴

4. Cutting back energy drinks to once a week. ☕️

Because having a heart attack isn’t on my bingo card for 2026 lmao. Also? They⁵ just don’t hit like they used to and its way more expensive to pick up one every morning at the gas station than it is to make a cup of coffee at home or work.

Admittedly, I have to refocus on this goal every few months or so because I’m only human and I stay tired, but I figured I’d go ahead and jump on the wagon now to start the year off on the right foot.⁶

5. Keep sticky notes on my nightstand. 🗒️

If memory serves me, I had a friend jokingly recommend that I do this my senior year of college when I was trying to write a book (more on this eventually lol), and it ended up being helpful as hell. I’d randomly come up with an idea for an essay or the most perfect edit to something I was already working on, I’d scribble it down on a sticky note, and then I’d slap in on the wall before getting back to the business of bed. In the morning, I’d wake up either delighted or horrified at my tiny strokes of kind of genius, but it was fun and otherwise kept me feeling creative.

As I’ve been writing more and more lately, I’m finding more and more ideas come easily to me.⁷ Unfortunately, those ideas leave as quickly as I come, so I gotta strike when the iron is hot, so to speak.

6. Don’t quit my job(s). 🔪

One thing I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the last couple of years is how I’ve historically had this silly habit of taking on the full identity of whatever job/career I’m currently in and otherwise overcommitting to my position by like… a lot. Because of this (and several other mental health challenges lmao), I almost always ended up feeling bored and trapped and also a little resentful which then almost always ended with me quitting and going elsewhere to start the cycle again.

Last year, when I was very briefly thinking that maybe autopsy tech-ing wasn’t for me (even though it is very much for me in just about every way it can be), my therapist called this behavior out.

“I wonder what it would look like if you took that feeling and applied to anything but your job,” she said so passively on a random Thursday. “Like, what if instead of looking for joy and fulfillment in another job that may not give you same the financial freedom and separation of church and state (e.g. work and my actual life) that the MEO does, what if you created your own spaces for those things you feel like you’re missing outside of your job and put all that energy there?”

“Almost like a second job,” I mused, “except I’m my own boss.”

“Exactly.”

She gave me a week to think it over and I came back with two things I wanted to focus on making space for: writing (by way of Substack and you guys) and baking (by way of Mission Cake Impossible and also forcing a LOT of sweet treats on to my boyfriend/coworkers).

And it turns out that she, my therapist, was right: creating space for the things that make me happy outside of my job may be the very-obvious-to-some key to happiness that I’ve wanted for years. But when I then put my own spin on it of still kind of treating those things like a job/serious commitment (because I’m unfortunately coded that way)? That’s when the real magic happens.

Today it looks like me not being crazy about (e.g. hating) this post and otherwise not wanting to share it because it doesn’t feel “good enough”⁸ for you guys. But then I remember that not everything I write is going to be Hemmingway or Burroughs worthy, and that this project is more about creating consistently than it is about being Good, so I’m going to send it out into the world anyway. It can also look like me wanting to throw a fit because I absolutely don’t want to remake the strawberry puree reduction for Jenn’s birthday cupcakes because I already (kind of) did last night. To that, I reminded myself that I knew better than to be lazy and try to make a new recipe work with frozen strawberries when it clearly called for fresh ones, so I while I was absolutely allowed to complain and whine, I did it while I processed those fresh berries and then watched them simmer over medium heat for half an hour. And I’m so, so glad I did.

In its own strange way, it works, and most of the time, I’m left feeling happy and fulfilled at the end of the day.

So, I want to make a greater effort to remember that autopsy teching is, in fact, working out extremely well. It gives me everything I’ve ever wanted in a career, and it does that even when I’m moments away from rage quitting over something unserious. Besides, it’s literally only up to me to make my life the way I want it to be, you know?

Other honorable mentions: read 12 books, go visit Mark in California, clean out my fucking closet, go visit Alyssa and the kiddos I haven’t seen in far too long, get my Duolingo back on, complete every monthly fitness challenge my Apple Watch annoys me about, AND finally get my washer fixed.

✌🏾

1. And thus not on call nearly as much as my directors were and could get away with not having my phone right besides me and otherwise turned up to its full volume 24/7

2. Hi Crystal!!!!!

3. Because have y’all ever heard of a Coradillo Cake? Cause up until about three months ago, I sure hadn’t.

4. Also going to be heavily documented on my Instagram so like… if you’re curious…. link in bio 👀

5. Redbulls, Celsiuses, Ghosts, Bangs, Monsters - I unfortunately mean all of them.

6. Also admittedly? Between me and you?? This isn’t just about energy drinks; it’s also about 🍃🤣

7. Now most often when I’m driving or, curiously, when I’m in the middle of an autopsy

8. Please don’t ask me what this means because I don’t know and have never known and will probably never know so lmao