2026: The Year of the Return

saying YES to a life that feels right!

This is my plea and petition for creatives to return to their calling… to start building the life they want and exit the life they *think* they should be living. I guess I should work backwards, though, and explain how we got here.

This week, I started watching a TV show called Found, which is about a vigilante PR firm that finds missing people. The show excavated memories I had buried. No, I wasn’t kidnapped, thank God. But I used to write chapter books with very similar plots.

The first chapter book I ever wrote was about a little boy named Josey whose parents were going through a divorce. One summer weekend, while the family was visiting a public playground, Josey’s parents were too distracted by their arguing to notice him getting taken. People at the park reported seeing Josey slide down the red, hot, plastic slide… and that was it. He was gone. The story follows the hunting of Josey’s kidnapper, the shocking reveal of her identity, and the redemption of the family unit as his parents work together to solve the case.

I wrote the story when I was 8 years old. eight.

Now, at 30, I keep returning to that story... I return to all the stories my parents kept over the years… holiday romcoms that I wrote in second grade, historical fiction I wrote in 4th grade, and Harry Potter fanfic that I wrote in 5th grade, decades before I knew what fanfic even was.

I get a little sad when I think about how I rejected my dreams. I was convinced that writers were “starving artists” struggling to make ends meet. Even though I was surrounded by books myself, proof that writing was possible, I still took the safest and easiest option: premed. I started college as a double biology and chemistry major, and going into my senior year, I changed my major to education. And after one year of teaching, I went full-time into entrepreneurship, and along the way, I lost myself.

I don’t want to rehash the past, though. I’m grateful that I went off course, because finding my way back feels much sweeter. Instead, I want to talk about how 2026 feels like what I’m deeming The Year of the Return.

This is the year I’m returning to myself. I’m writing my wild stories and sharing my work with the world. I’m pitching my short stories to literary publications and no longer being afraid of rejection! And though I’ve made a living off of selling my nonfiction writing, this is the year that I declare that I will build a career from selling my novels! It sounds silly to say out loud, and yet I believe every word of it.

I don’t think, actually… I know I’m not the only one feeling like the time is NOW to say YES to our dreams! I’m not alone in my desire to build a creative, aligned life! I know because of the conversations happening online. Hundreds of thousands of people are getting the courage to get off social media, to go analog, to return to the dreams they once had: applying to film schools, becoming dentists, writing sketch comedy, and becoming hairdressers. Heck, I have a friend who quit her career in medicine and has become a successful, happy, well-paid professional pickleball player!

And so, I invite you to join me in The Year of the Return! To stop burying your childhood dreams and current creative desires. To return to the YOU you’ve always wanted to be!

If you’re in, “sign” my petition by commenting! Tell us…

what are you returning to this year?