A teenager's dreams for 2025

Happy new year! Time flies and waits for no one doesn't it? It's insane how quickly we just jumped into the new year, and it's already 2025...

So here I am in another new, but not so different year, standing closer to a mental breakdown rather than any resolutions.

Or should I say there are so many things I want to achieve and do in 2025 that I don't even know where to start. Although if you read my latest article, you probably know that there is no better motivation for one than to set goals. In most cases it's not even about the goals, but the journey leading to them.

As a creative person I've done a lot of part–time projects over the years, but I stuck to only these few written below. And this is exactly enough to fill the free time I have. But let's look into what a teenager like me can hope to accomplish in the next few months.

First of all I really want to stay on my feet and not let my exams eat me... if you know what I mean. I think that's what most of the students under the pressure of school are trying to do... we just wish not to drown in the ocean of our studies and impatiently wait for the next school break to catch our breath before the following term. Pretty simple, huh? Nah, it just sounds like it...

As I'm getting closer to the finals I'm also planning on taking an English language exam. Hopefully it'll help me in my future studies.

Some of us expect to end the academic year with an excellent school certificate, while others would be happy with just not failing. But it's everyone's personal business, isn't it?

Speaking of business last year I started knitting just out of curiosity and fun. It's a pretty long process until I finish a bracelet or a bookmark — depending on how difficult the pattern is —, but I've knotted around twenty bracelets and two bookmarks since November.

A few weeks ago the idea of starting a creative business crossed my mind, but soon I realized I'm still far from turning it into a reality. So I just uploaded the products to a local selling app and guess what! Sold out within a day! Just kidding, not a single sale at all... Maybe this year...

And let's stay on topic, because I also made up my mind to sell my old, outgrown clothes and dust-covered decorations. I knew it was time to do a sort-out when I opened my cabinet and couldn't find a gap for my newest book. That's when I decided to select the books I've read and clothes I no longer wear and upload them online. And honestly, I think I'm making great progress! (If we don't count the clothes I buy to replace my wardrobe.)

I feel like the next one is a very common — and probably boring — resolution, but this year somehow I would like to get myself to read more. In October there was a huge book sale in our town, and I stocked up a lot of books that are still waiting for me to open them. I love to read, and when I was younger I used to finish a book in under a week. I'll be quite happy if I manage to read all my books in 2025. It depends on how much I'll have to study, I guess...

Then, of course, there's writing as well, because these two practically go hand in hand, don't they?

To tell the truth, I've thought about taking a break from writing this year. Now that I'm halfway through the school year I realized that the older I get, the harder it is to manage and balance studying and part-time activities like writing. And we all know that being on Vocal doesn't just mean writing, but engaging with other creators too, and that takes even more extra time.

Luckily, membership isn't set in stone and I can renew it whenever I want to. The only problem is that Vocal has been such a great side hustle for me, it'd be a little hard to say goodbye even for just a few months. Still these are only thoughts and assumptions.

On the other hand, I would love to continue my writing journey on Vocal. In October I ran out of poems and story ideas. I guess my brain was just overwhelmed and I got tired of my Vocal project. That's when I started experimenting with different types of articles to explore new possibilities.

I mostly wrote articles about recent Hollywood news. At first I didn't expect much from these writings, but my jaw dropped when I opened the website the next day and saw my article gaining over 200 views in just one night. By the second day it reached 1,000. I felt like it wasn't even real. This number just kept growing day by day. Later another article of mine found its way to the top and took second place on my dashboard.

Seeing this renewed my energy and gave me a fresh motivation and determination to keep on writing. By the way these these articles are still getting views daily which makes me really happy and I'll surely continue engaging and contributing to the growth of this wonderful community. Who knows, maybe I might even get a challenge placement someday. That'd be another — and perhaps the biggest — one of my Vocal milestones.

Overall I'm grateful for Vocal — and for the algorithm of course —, because I'd never have imagined that just a bit of my language skills would bring me this far. Soon I'll be celebrating my 20,000 reads and the $100 they've earned me. I guess that's what my future holds — and I believe great things are yet to come.

I really hope to share my positive experiences of the website with my relatives, although sadly not many of them speak English and could use Vocal for their advantage.

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