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

It is said that’s it’s the small things in life that are important. Although my initial thinking was to come up with some major breakthrough, a big achievement or significant milestone I’m opting for this little 💚 that my son left on the hood of my car one day while playing basketball on the driveway. To this day it remains something unspoken yet deeply telling nonetheless.  

I work in PreK-12 education and this year we got a new data warehouse and are transitioning to a new student information system, so some of the biggest systems we can use are all new or changing (along with maintaining our Qualtrics use).  We have roughly 11,000 students and 1,400 staff members and these systems affect everyone and there are only two of us in our department that are responsible for moving this work forward.  It has been successful so far and feels phenomenal to know that my teammate and I are handling one of our biggest shifts in almost 20 years in our district.

Let’s face it some days are harder than others, but we can do hard things. I shared this with my team in the last month to inspire and encourage them.  

This year I put a fair bit of time into personal fitness goal setting, and set a number of goals for myself along with a plan of how to achieve them. I often use this approach for work but not as often in my personal life. Last month I achieved the biggest item on the list which was running my first marathon. 

Now I’ve got to start thinking about next year. 

2025 has been a year full of growth, challenges and meaningful milestones. Professionally, I pushed myself with projects that stretched my skills and taught me the power of persistence and adaptability. On a personal level, I developed daily reflection habits that helped me celebrate small wins and shift my perspective, even during hectic days.

The highlight of the year, though is that my partner and I are expecting our first child in March 2026! This exciting new chapter makes everything feel even more meaningful and reminds me to embrace both the big milestones and the small, everyday moments that shape life.

I can’t agree more with ​@SteveBelgraver.

Despite several professional achievements, what stands out for me this year is the change in my relationship with my three children, from being a caring but somewhat distant and occupied father to one who forms meaningful connections with them. And that as they enter their teenage years, a time when the opposite tends to happen.

They have shown me their love in return with small gestures that mean all the world.

I played competitive volleyball for almost 30 years and now my daughter is playing. I joined her club as a U14 coach this fall and am having so much fun. I love spending time with her and her friends, helping them learn a game I love, and feeling like I am giving back to the community that I benefited so much from. The work day can be tiring but when practice comes around I am full of energy!
 

I started running in consideration of my health and physical strength in 2025.
After accidentally participating in a 10km running competition and finishing 69 minutes, I set three goals this year.

1. 10km run, goal in 50 minutes
2. a half-marathon
3. Half marathon in an hour and 50 minutes

The best time for the 10km run is now 44:22 two weeks ago,
The half marathon was completed in the first competition and scored in 1 hour and 47 minutes 

We have achieved all the new plans this year.

And above all, I can feel better health and increased physical strength, and I am proud to have more time to focus on reading, networking, and work.

The accomplishment I’m most proud of this year is starting a certified plant nursery with my wife (all while keeping the day job).  It’s small and run out of our home, but we’ve already got plans underway to grow our business in 2026.  And I promise it’s not a typo on the sign--that’s the way we chose to spell “Fancy Danc’in Plants” (inside joke).

A big learning (and breakthrough) for me this year is modifying the way I work to allow me to delegate effectively.

Late last year, we hired an analyst in the team to help me with various tasks. Prior to this, I was used to working on sheets, systems, and analysis solo.

The extra resource was very welcoming but it came with the requirement to properly structure my working systems.

It took a few weeks but ultimately, we did it and are now very well placed to delegate, share, or handover work whenever the situation calls for it.

This year taught me the power of boundaries and clarity. After navigating several fast-moving projects, my biggest milestone was finally embracing the discipline of reading every agreement thoroughly and invoking change-order processes early. It seems simple, but it transformed how I work, communicate, and protect my time. That shift in mindset made 2025 a year of growth, confidence, and much smarter execution.

​@VirginiaM That is fantastic and the sign is beautiful💗

It’s end of the semester here so it’s on my mind, but making it through another year of my grad program has been significant.  It’s been a tough year so I may be taking some much needed time off in the spring to re-evaluate and re-organize my goals.  

There are some great personal stories here! I have a million things I am grateful for and proud of in 2025 as well. I will share a work story here. We have been struggling for decades to really know what our customers needed in regards to experience. We always “knew best” and did not have the tools to really measure. Thank you to our dedicated internal and Qualtrics teams, we now have our first automated after call survey in place! We take about 100,000 calls per year and this is a huge milestone not only for data and our customers, but monumental internal wins and teamwork around the customer voice. Many are well beyond us, but this was a huge step and I am so proud of our team.

This year I started a new job in November and part of my new role is becoming the team expert on all things Qualtrics. I'm so excited to learn about the active Qualtrics community and start expanding my intermediate knowledge about Qualtrics to learn even more. I’m so proud of the amount I’ve already learned in less than a month and the contributions I am making to the team. Here’s to a great 2026!!

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. 

Wow. I am so sorry for your loss. I am uplifted by your attitude and vunerability. I can feel your passion for your work as well as your family in these words. I wish you a steady road going forward. My family will be thinking of your family and wishing you the best.

I’m very sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing your experience with such sincerity. Your strength and commitment during such a difficult time are truly admirable. Wishing you continued courage, healing and steady support in the days ahead.