🎉 A Year in Reflection | Badge of the Month | December 2025

“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam”- I will find a way or I will make one.

After a series of setbacks and rejections, including even a visa denial, being able to travel to Sydney this year for a prestigious conference felt especially meaningful. It stands out as a milestone I am genuinely happy about.
 

It’s my honor to serve as the Friends of the Olathe Library Book Sale Chairperson. As a child, the book sales were pure magic—my siblings and I each got a sack and could fill it with anything our little hearts desired and those moments shaped my love of libraries, community, and discovery.

It is incredibly special to me to carry that tradition forward for today’s families and community members.

This year, our Friends Board supported one of my new ideas: Member Preview Sales. On book sale weekends, we open early on Thursday evenings so members can browse in a quieter, less crowded space. The goal was to offer meaningful perks for our members—and since launching this, we’ve grown by more than 80 members.

Tonight, a member shared that he bought a membership because he struggles with anxiety and isn’t able to attend during regular hours. Knowing that this small change made the sale more accessible for him and for others is a powerful reminder of why this work matters.

Creating welcoming, inclusive experiences is at the heart of what libraries do. I’m grateful to play a small part in that. 💛📚

Something minor but still a win for me.

My overeating issue have been ongoing over the years, causing various consequences and without me really noticing them. After a few events that occurred earlier this year, I begin to notice some of them, with sudden worsening health and spike in weight being the obvious. However, I find it difficult to restrain myself munching down the food when multiple cravings thoughts popping up in my head all the time. I tried drinking sweet drinks as an alternative to prevent the cravings, but I usually end up taking too much sweet drinks and also consume something savory as well. 

Mid of this year, I begin to add both water and ice to the sweet drinks, starting with lightly diluted to eventually heavily diluted. Thus, having fewer craving thoughts and being able to focus better. As of last month, I can finally say that I am able to cope with my overeating issue with this method and resist buying excessive amounts of food for my meals.

Next up is to (hopefully) reduce the portion of sweet drinks even further and exercise more to reduce that belly fat.

This has been a year of change for me. I’ve honestly debated even talking about this with the community. I apologize for the length of the small novella I am about to post.

This year has had some of my highest highs for work, and lowest lows for my personal life. I finally started working the role I have been angling to create in my organization for over five years, the lead for Employee Listening, this last September. I took over surveys years ago and there was no true strategy to our listening program. We have evolved to the point where our senior leadership is invested in how we are employing experience data, and how we are pushing our program to better sustain the company. Through constant education and pushing, we have moved from sporadic surveying, to creating a mapped out program with intent and purpose to leverage our O data and experience data to help solve business problems and improve employee experience.

The week before I was to start my new role, i lost my oldest son in a motorcycle accident. Being on the brink of seeing so many things I have worked for years to come to fruition was so satisfying,but it felt so hollow as my new role starting so soon after the accident. It all felt a bit meaningless. I took bereavement leave for over a month, and even contemplated retiring. The leadership at my company has been first classs in their support for me and my family during this time, and although it was tough returning to work, a few things made it easier. My role allows me to make meaningful and impactful change for our employees and their experiences. I get a chance to make someone else’s day better, and  love my work for it. I have worked here for years, and my teammates now feel a bit like a second family to me, so it did make it easier to slip back into work. Their suport during this was second to none (they insisted several times that I was returning to early and have been more than understanding on days where I just need to step back and take a minute for myself or my loved ones). I wanted to get back to work so I could make sure that employees having rough days like mine would know they aren’t facing it alone. That we are leading with collaborative empathy and we have their best interest at heart. I also get to show my family that we can move forward, and we can chose to live after this awful mess. It hasn’t been easy, but at some point, we had to go back to living. 

I am an avid reader and huge history buff. Years ago, I read the story of Hannibal and his commanders telling him it was impossible to cross the Alps. His response:

“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam”- I will find a way or I will make one.

I adopted this as my personal motto years ago (I even have it stenciled on the back of my laptop), but my family has also adopted this as we work through heartache and learn to shoulder our grief as we learn to live with it. We are taking each day one at a time, and leaning on each other for strength. Each day brings its own struggle, but we keep pusing forward, relying on each other.  We find a way, or we make one. The key thing is, we do it together. 

I hope this wasn’t too sappy or heavy.

I also hope y’all had a lovely year, and have an even better one next year. 

Something minor but still a win for me.

My overeating issue have been ongoing over the years, causing various consequences and without me really noticing them. After a few events that occurred earlier this year, I begin to notice some of them, with sudden worsening health and spike in weight being the obvious. However, I find it difficult to restrain myself munching down the food when multiple cravings thoughts popping up in my head all the time. I tried drinking sweet drinks as an alternative to prevent the cravings, but I usually end up taking too much sweet drinks and also consume something savory as well. 

Mid of this year, I begin to add both water and ice to the sweet drinks, starting with lightly diluted to eventually heavily diluted. Thus, having fewer craving thoughts and being able to focus better. As of last month, I can finally say that I am able to cope with my overeating issue with this method and resist buying excessive amounts of food for my meals.

Next up is to (hopefully) reduce the portion of sweet drinks even further and exercise more to reduce that belly fat.

A personal milestone that I’ve accomplished this year is taking a leap and moving to a different city all by myself. I’ve always known that I wanted to experience living alone in a major city both for the life experience and the personal growth. I truly believe you learn more about yourself and who you are when you push yourself past your boundaries. I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to come back to Qualtrics and make this move to Seattle just about 2 months ago now. 

I’ve already had so much fun, ate some amazing food, met some really cool people, drank some delicious coffee and tried some great locally brewed beers! I’m very excited for whats to come both personally and professionally in this upcoming year!

This year our first born began college states away. My husband and I have been adapting to the change in household members and how that affects our daily life. In addition to that, we are realizing after all these years learning how to parent, we must now begin to learn how to UN-parent. Conversations are different, needs and question are different, and our influence and responsibilities are different. 

Changes in life are normal, but that doesn’t change the level of difficulty that comes with each change. My daily perspective has shifted to working towards being in the moment and slowing down. Listening more, saying less, being comfortable with letting others be where they are at - NOT trying to “fix” something.

I’m failing more often than not, but I’ll keep trying. 

This year has been one of the most challenging of my professional life, but what’s consistent is that I have the peace of being with people whom I love and are the best companions on life’s journey that one can imagine. My wife, son (not pictured here) and our goofball pup. This is what really matters, and having the right people in our lives teaches us the value of listening and being there for one another

​@AdamK12 I think we are all ready to say goodbye to 2025 and the challenges that came with it, both professionally and otherwise! I hope you get to enjoy some family time over New Year’s and some well-deserved rest, as well!

It’s a reminder that the effort, pain, growth, and distance you’ve already covered weren’t meant to end at this point. Where you are now is not the destination—it’s proof that you’re capable of going further.