Homecoming | Stephanie's September 2025

This month felt so long and short at the same time, what do you mean Orlando was a month ago? So much has happened this month per usual, but this month truly felt like a rollercoaster of emotions and people, with my last week and ride of this month ending with gratitude. 

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Lifestyle, Lows, Lessons

I started off this month with a bang as always - returning from a fun filled trip to Orlando for our annual besties reunion. As much fun as I had, I also had so much to come home to - in particular celebrating my sisters birthday. While we didn’t always have the best relationship, I’ll always be thankful to have had someone to grow up with and especially go on this current house journey with. I was happy to be able to provide for my family during my sisters birthday - though it felt like a whole month of celebrations - from her free buffet San Jose lunch, to kbbq the following week, to taking her out to Santa Cruz, I hope my sister had a memorable 29th birthday and a year that’s the best one yet for her. 

In addition to my sister’s birthday, we had another birthday - or anniversary as some would say. I can’t believe how we turned 1 years old already, no matter how difficult or fun or fast - it’s been a year since we got this house and I’ll forever be thankful for this even if it didn’t turn out the way as expected. 9/9 was the day we closed the deal and 9/10 was the day we got the keys to this house. I decided to do a mini celebration (and I’ll continue to do so) - to celebrate and a reminder that we can do hard things.

Interestingly enough, that week of our one year home anniversary - a mix of my regular friendships and old friendships that I haven’t seen in a hot minute, all started reaching out to me. Before I knew it, I had a whole week every day where I was seeing a different person or group from different aspects of my life. It truly felt like a homecoming. 

I got to catch up with Tiana who was in town - can’t believe I haven’t seen her since Vegas in March…! We yapped as if time was non-existent. I also got to catch up with my ex-coworker outside of work for a 1:1 for the first time, we’ve only ever hangout in groups - but I got unexpectedly got to get on a deeper level with her. I also hosted the first bar-club hangout for my work friends. I also got to have a long-awaited reunion with Sadie and Pearl (can’t believe we haven’t seen each other since the start of the year). I also had an ex-intern friend whom I haven’t seen since pre-covid(!) reach out and we were also able to catch up. It truly felt like a week of rounds and homecoming. I feel so thankful that the people in my life, especially these old friendships where we haven’t seen each other in a hot minute nor do we text constantly- reach out to reconnect. It feels surreal to be so lucky to have both best friendships, close friendships, and good friendships in my life all throughout different lifestages. 

Of course I can’t forget to mention my time spent with those in my life monthly regularly too - from Ashley whenever I visit my old home, Tammie and our workout/post workout catch ups, Christina and our monthly catch ups - it’s always such a fun and therapeutic time together. 

With all the people and highs, unfortunately this month also had strong emotions of lows. At the start of the month, I received notice that my coworker would be leaving our team - while I was upset because she was someone I looked up to, what made me more distraught was learning that she was laid off, and the inner workings behind her experiences with her manager and on the team. I didn’t know I would feel such a strong sense of injustice, but it made me feel so upset for her, and it also had me connecting the dots. While I didn’t experience this level of injustice on my team, I can’t help but admit that learning the truth about her experiences had affected my view of my team and I can’t see things the same way anymore. To be frank it wasn’t like her experiences changed my view by 360, I had already felt some yellow flag experiences myself, and her experiences just validated it. Because of that, I was determined to start looking for opportunities internally and be proactive about it. It’s funny because just as I was taking this more seriously, I end up receiving news from my manager that I’m being considered to swap products to market for. I was and am still extremely intimidated, nervous, anxious - because of multiple factors, but I will try to see this in a positive light that I will be learning a lot regardless. Even if it will be more challenging and busy, I will forsure be learning and perhaps it might even be better than expected and not as scary as I am making it to be. This also isn’t to say that I can’t keep exploring internally.  What really put things in perspective is that at the end of this month, my sister unfortunately got let go of. It made me feel even more thankful to have a job and to be considered to be the person to market for our newest products, and that being busy at work is better than losing my job. While I feel scared about our house now that my sister is currently searching for a new job, surprisingly I’m at ease that we will get through this together. My biggest fear isn’t the finances itself, but the mental health of my sister and parents during this time period. It’s crazy now looking back at the number of career related lows this month, when it rains it truly pours, but all in all - I’m still seeing things in perspective that things could be way worse and that I’m thankful for my current job and position, and that my sister is willing to work through this together.

As for my romantic relationships, I am still seeing the person that I’ve been seeing the past months. This month especially, after sharing the news with him that I was stressed about work - I truly felt supported and cared for. He has taken the initiative to help me out with errands of the house, he had gone out of his way to cook, plan, and do fun activities to cheer me up. In particular there was this one date where we walked out of dimsum with a bag full of leftovers, this older lady stopped the guy I’m seeing and asked if she could have any of the leftovers because she was so hungry. He ended up giving her all of our leftovers, and in that moment I Felt super lucky - that there was kind man in front of me. He doesn't just do things for me, but is also kind to strangers off the street.   I truly feel thankful to have met him, while we are still figuring things out, regardless of how things turn out in the future I will always be thankful for this current moment together. 

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My pick of the month: My first Labubu - Zizi 

Zizi is extra special because she was a gift from my sister, my sister isn’t the type to give gifts and that she put in so much effort monitoring the popmart app to get a labubu when they dropped. What’s more - by sheer coincidence of timing, I got Zizi the same week I got the stressful news about moving to a different product at work. Zizi and my sisters kindness was truly the highlight of that darker week. I always think of my sister when I see my Labubu hehe.

All in all, this was another eventful month - one full of emotions, catch ups. Reunions, and people relationships. I feel very thankful to be in the position I am in for each of these aspects, and while I am intimidated by the future ahead, especially with a jampacked November - for now I will focus on things in the present, one day at a time. 

Thank you for your time and chat with you in November, 

Stephanie