Can we just Talk? | Stephanie's October 2025

Happy Fall! As I am writing this, October truly feels like a blur with a rollercoaster of change and emotions both professionally and personally. Let’s get into the recap — Stephanie 

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Lifestyle, Lows, Lessons

Professionally, this month has been a lot to say the least with all the change. From transitioning to my new role, while wrapping up my old role, learning to push back even more - all while still learning to accept the reality of this change and learning to adapt with it. On the bright side - due to this situation, I’ve gotten to build deeper relationships with colleagues who seem truly my friends and want what’s best for me. This even led to some unexpected bonding, long chats, and corepower yoga. The new stakeholders I’ve met with thus far, while intimidating, seem deeply passionate about the work they do - and I haven’t seen this level of work ethic to get excited and get things done, to be re-energizing and exciting. While I still have a million things I’m doing and am anxious about (hint: more public speaking and potentially difficult people) I’m learning to accept the positive and growth opportunities to come with these challenges of the new role. Outside of my current role, I also ended up interviewing (and not getting it unfortunately) for a role - while it hit harder because of the vulnerable position I was in this month, it was also a good learning lesson to self-reflect on what I want next in my career and how I couldn’t done better preparing. 

Family-wise, this was a month of surprise celebration and I’m all in for it. We started off the month with a bang, celebrating my grandmothers birthday - while we always celebrate with good food, this year felt extra special because my aunts and mom wanted to go all out as if we were kids again and sing her happy birthday and all. It’s been difficult for my family, my mother especially with my aging grandmother - when we visit her she sometimes forgets who we are. I can’t imagine what’s it like for my mom because she cares so much about her parents, I can tell its hurting her every time my grandma doesn’t remember her - I’m just thankful my grandma is still with us. With that being said, it was also my mom’s birthday this month - I had always planned to take her out and told her to wait on her birthday gift from me during hawaii, but what surprised me was that her sisters (my aunts) surprise visited my house with a birthday cake and tons of homecooked food and decorations and planned a whole party for her as if she was a kid again too. We sang happy birthday and blew out candles and all. What’s more even my sister reached out to me on splitting on a thoughtful gift. I hope my mom felt extra happy and loved this year, she deserves it. The following week, my mom pre-calculated the weeks I will be out of town (she wanted to make sure I was there) and so she decided to do an extra early birthday celebration for my grandfather, I felt extra heartwarmed from my mom who thought so far ahead for her parents and it was so sweet seeing my grandfather being celebrated, I felt extra thankful to have my grandparents here with us even at their age. It is these moments that help cope with the unfortunate news, despite the celebrations this month has been tough for my family as my sister got laid off. I hope these celebrations have helped my mind get off things. I truly wish my sister all the best and I am hopeful that this is a temporary setback for something much better for her. 

Friendships-wise, this was yet another month of monthly reunions with all my close ones. Honorable shoutouts include my usual therapeutic yaps with Christina W, corepower and serendipitous walks with Pearl, and cheesecake factory with Diana , even on a monday night yes. And also Lauv and Khalid in the park with Tammie and Ashley, loved how this event was held in my favorite park Golden Gate Park - and how chill the event was, no pushing and shoving, just chill vibes and good music. Hearing Khalid play all his old songs got me all in the feels, not only from the lyrics but also how much it reminded me of my college years and all the fond nostalgic memories from it. 

Romantic Relationships-wise, I am still seeing the person I’ve been seeing since previous entries (lol) and as another month passes, I feel like we’ve continued to progress and grow. While the start of the month he was still funemployed, he still wanted to have occasional special dinners so it meant a lot when he booked RH for us despite his financial situation, the very next day he ended up receiving great news and plot twist.. We will be coworkers! Lol. neighbors and coworkers wow. Jokes aside - I am so happy for him to see all his hard work the past months pay off, I ended up celebrating him with a little cake and champagne and a dinner at Little Original Joes. I also got to meet his sister and close friends this month, which was overall a pleasant meeting. I will say this month we also had some uncomfortable conversations that I won’t get too deep on here, but since we got through it - I feel like it only made us stronger and that I am closer to feeling ready to be official. 

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My pick of the month: Family Birthday Celebrations

This month felt like a weekly celebration of birthdays (quite literally) but what made it extra special was that it was for members of my family in ways that I didn’t expect. Surprise birthday parties, blowing of candles, and singing the happy birthday song - I hope my mom and grandparents’ inner child feels healing, I know I did. 

October was a whirlwind of emotions and events, but I already know November will be another jampacked one. With everything going on, I feel so lucky to have so much going on in all aspects of life. While unfortunate events happen, I feel so lucky for my strong support system and my family and close friends. They say life isn’t about feeling better, but being better at feeling -- I agree wholeheartedly that life doesn’t necessarily get easier, but we get better at it. 

Here’s to Fall, the crisp air and cozy vibes, and welcoming November, 

 — Stephanie