The annual leave I had been waiting for finally arrived. After a 12-hour high-speed train ride, I made it home.

I stayed for a few days, carrying too many thoughts at once, but had no idea where to begin writing. Later I realized it was not a lack of words. Some feelings are simply too real, and that makes them harder to put down.

A Reunion With Too Many Unspoken Words

Before the holiday, a childhood friend from my hometown added me on WeChat through my cousin. We had not seen each other for many years. The last time I heard about him was through scattered updates from my mother.

He grew up as a left-behind child and was raised by his grandmother. After she passed away, things got even harder. His parents had divorced years ago. His mother remarried and no longer stayed involved. His father worked away from home and never really returned.

He had been in college and was always an excellent student. But there is still a younger brother in elementary school back home. To keep the family going, he had to pause his studies, return to the village, take tutoring jobs, and handle daily care at home, including cooking and supporting an uncle with an intellectual disability.

I still do not understand why someone so hardworking had to be placed in such a heavy life script.

After we reconnected, I thought we would finally sit down for a long drink and talk through everything we had never said. In the end, we met, exchanged an awkward smile, asked about each other’s current life, and then missed the chance again because of other commitments.

A lot remained unsaid.

I only hope his life becomes easier, steadier, and kinder in the years ahead. I say the same to myself.

The New Year Feels Different Now

This time, fireworks were suddenly banned again in my hometown. Villages still had some signs of the holiday, but the county town felt unusually quiet. The memory of packed streets, lantern shows, and loud festive nights from childhood feels very far away now.

Some memories belong to a specific era and do not return.

Maybe the core meaning of the New Year has changed. For many of us who work away from home, it is now mostly a precious window to return and stay with family.

Even when the atmosphere gets quieter, reunion still matters. No fireworks can replace a peaceful meal with family.

Hard Rules For My New Year

For 2026, I set a few practical rules for myself:

• Build strict money management habits and stop paying for impulsive consumption.
• Save consistently and create more options for my future.
• Keep turning inward emotionally and stop making other people my only emotional anchor.
• Hope to have a healthy, mutual relationship that can hold both sweetness and hardship.

These are not slogans. They are constraints I want to execute in real life.

Final Note

For you, and for myself, in 2026:

May work go smoothly, may health stay steady, and may what we truly seek become what we truly gain.