In my last post, I posed some questions to ponder at the end of this year. Here is the story of a couple who faced these questions together.

It was the evening of December 30th when Jack lit the last candle on the dining table. Emily laughed softly—only Jack would try to make a year-end reflection feel like a romantic holiday. They sat together with their journals open, pens resting on blank pages.

They were supposed to be planning 2026: new goals, money decisions, house repairs. But instead, Emily had surprised him with a question that lingered between them like the flame flickering in the candlelight.

“Who have we become this year?”

Jack had raised an eyebrow. “I thought the question was what we’re going to do next year.”

Emily shrugged. “Maybe we need to know who we are before we plan what’s next.”

The room felt suddenly quieter. Jack nodded slowly. “Alright then… who have we become?”

They began separately, writing silently. Then, after a few minutes, Emily said, “Let’s answer some questions together. You first.”

Jack groaned, half playful, half nervous. “Okay… what’s true for us now that wasn’t true a year ago?”

Emily smiled. “We finally learned how to talk about money without shutting down.”

Jack laughed. “And without pretending everything is fine when it isn’t.”

Emily raised her hand for a high-five. He met it.

Emily turned another page in her journal.

“What moments shaped us the most?”

She spoke softly now. “Your surgery in May.”

Jack nodded, remembering her sleeping in a hospital chair, bringing him water every hour, helping him shower when he could barely stand.

“That changed us,” he replied. “I realized how much you take care of me. And how much I need to let myself be cared for.”

Emily blinked back tears. “And I learned how much I love being there for you. How strong we actually are.”

“Did we live our values?”

Jack asked, reading aloud from her page.

Emily tilted her head. “Sometimes. Sometimes we avoided hard things. But we also listened better. We showed up honestly more often.”

Jack scribbled something, then shared it: “We didn’t do everything right, but we did some things real.”

Emily smiled as if he had written her a love letter.

“What patterns did we repeat?” she asked.

Jack winced. “I still shut down when I’m stressed.”

Emily laughed gently. “And I still get too controlling when I’m afraid.”
They didn’t accuse each other. The words stayed kind, curious—even humorous.

Emily added, “But we also did some new things this year.”

Jack nodded. “We took breaks in arguments instead of fighting to the end.”

“And we apologized faster,” Emily said. “We recovered sooner.”

They turned to the next question together:

“What are we proud of?”

Jack’s answer was immediate. “We kept choosing each other even when things were messy.”

Emily’s voice softened. “We kept learning instead of blaming. That’s big.”

They wrote slowly, letting that truth sink in.

Finally, Emily whispered the hardest question.

“What regrets do we have?”

Jack looked at her carefully. “I regret not asking how you were doing when I was recovering. I assumed you were okay because I needed you.”

Emily’s eyes grew warm, not wounded. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “And I regret criticizing you when I was scared. You needed support, not pressure.”

They sat together in silence, not with shame, but with tenderness. There were apologies in their eyes, forgiveness in their hands as they reached for each other.

Jack closed his journal. “We can’t redo anything,” he said, “but we can do better because of it.”

Emily leaned her head on his shoulder. “That’s what growth is, isn’t it? Not perfection. Just awareness.”

Jack blew out the candle and squeezed her hand. “Before we plan 2026, I’m glad we looked at 2025. Not to judge ourselves… but to know ourselves.”

Emily smiled. “Next year won’t be perfect.”

Jack grinned. “But with us being this honest? It could be a really good year.”