Dear 2025 Tiffany,
My friend, you did it.
You did what you set out to do, what you said you wanted to accomplish, and what you felt was most important.
- You learned to slow down
- You learned to sit inside moments and appreciate them
- You learned to rest
- You were present
- You were unapologetic
- You had fun
I am so proud of who you were in 2025.
You carried a lot in 2025. While it was a beautiful year for you, the weight you carried was substantial in a manner that’s hard to put into words.
You carried the weight of raising a daughter who is almost grown while still tying the shoes of a child who isn’t. You lived a year of transitions with intention and grace while feeling the emotional pull of change that you’re not ready for. You watched your first-born love begin her senior year of high school. You watched your second little love – the one most like you – leave behind her days of middle school and begin her high school career. You watched your babies – THE babies – leave behind elementary school and begin their middle school journey.
You watched all four of their lives change through their excited eyes with abundant pride while quietly blinking away the tears you were (are…) constantly on the verge of crying. Everything changed in 2025. Every. Single. Thing. Changed.
You went into the year knowing it was the last full year you’d have your family together under one roof. The last full year of actively parenting four kids. The last full year of seeing your daughter’s beautiful face every morning and every evening because she’s leaving for college in 2026 and those moments will become so few and far between.
You didn’t take advantage of anything. You embraced the moments. You were present. You made memories and you smiled through things that make you feel a million emotions all at once.
You gracefully made it through your son’s two surgeries. Pre-2025 Tiffany? She’d have never. You walked away from things that serve you no purpose. You celebrated 20 years of marriage with the man who does every single thing for you to make you happy and comfortable and fulfilled while you still ask him 39 times a week why he loves you. You enjoyed ten amazing vacations, made memories with your best friends, enjoyed countless date nights with your husband, and you still found quality time to spend with your kids both together and independently from one another.
You were on every sideline for every game, every match, every event. You watched dozens of flag football games, football games, sideline routines, and golf matches. You walked your daughter down the center of the football field on Homecoming Night in her beautiful gown while her friends cheered for her…but better yet, you got to watch her have the time of her life during homecoming week as she and her longtime boyfriend experienced Senior Homecoming Court together.
You read 107 books.
You watched dozens of documentaries.
You enjoyed the darkest, most bitter, most amazing espresso martinis ever.
You enjoyed the best champagne.
You embraced life.
You embraced changes.
You enjoyed your life.
You made sure your family enjoyed their lives.
You, 2025 Tiffany, gave your children the kind of life that most kids only dream about – the life you certainly only dreamed about at this age. You did it.
You. Did. It.
Well, you and Craig did it. Together. Because you’re an excellent team, and you’ve raised truly spectacular children.
You trusted your marriage in a quieter way this year. Less proving, but more knowing. You allowed yourself to be held, supported, and provided for without guilt. You remembered that love doesn’t need to be earned each day, it merely needs to be honored.
You treated your body with more grace. You listened instead of demanded. You stopped trying to outthink yourself and started trusting that you already know what you need, and you’re now in the best shape of your life…the year you turn 43.
You reclaimed your identity without announcing it. You remembered that you are still a woman with depth, style, desire, and curiosity – independent of who needs you. You didn’t abandon ambition just because you chose your family over hustle, you refined it. You chose a life that feels good on the inside rather than what the world wants you to do from the outside.
You lived beautifully in 2025, Tiffany. Not loudly. Not performatively. But honestly. You traveled well. You rested well. You loved well. You enjoyed the moments well. You chose softness in a world that expects women like you to harden, toughen up, and be everything.
And when you doubted yourself – as you do on occasion – you did it anyway. You trusted that this season, even when it felt quiet, was doing important work. 2025 was a year of beauty, magic, and simple pleasures in the midst of the saddest, most terrifying, most bittersweet breakup of your life – your daughter’s last year at home – but you handled it (mostly) with grace.
So, thank you, 2025 Tiffany.
For everything.
The memories. The moments. The beauty.
Because you were such a force of grace and beauty in 2025, 2026 isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about continuing to be the myself – fully, gently, and without apology.
Love,
2026 Tiffany
(Translated…I’m not working on myself this year because I’m good, so congratulations to everyone in my life for earning another year of my opinions, my thoughts, and my unfiltered words…what a treat!)
Tiffany Raiford 