25 things I'm thinking about as 2025 draws to a close: 1. I realized I could stop trying to explain myself as a writer. For example: “I write health and parenting articles for a living, but I’m also a poet with a few books and I sometimes write personal essays and memoir.” Instead, I’m trying to just call myself a writer, because as different as some of the things I write are, they are all coming from me, require many of the same skills, and also, why do I need to explain? I’