It’s that time of the year again when people start asking, ‘Hey, how was your 2025?’
Let’s be honest.
The person asking this question has no clear idea how their own year was either.
They’ve just prepared a highlights package. That’s all.
One promotion. One trip they already posted on Instagram. A few likes. No comments asking how they actually got there. Now they ask you this question expecting you to answer before your second sip, so they can jump in and unload their autobiography about how they ‘did well’ for a couple of days this year.
Which brings me to the real question: why are we even trying to make sense of a full year?
You are a human being. Not a company. You don’t need an annual report.
But apps will still try to convince you otherwise. Spotify tells you how many minutes you listened to music. Swiggy tells you how many kilos of biryani you ate. The real truth is told by your bank account, but there is no HDFC Wrapped because they know you’ll lose your mind after seeing it.
All these year-end data summaries feel like ideas created by some employee just so their year-end leaves don’t get rejected.
Think about it logically.
A year has 365 days. To honestly answer ‘How was your year?’ you would need to remember all 365 days, decide which were good, which were bad, prepare an emotional balance sheet, and then declare whether 2025 was a profit or a loss.
Also notice something else.
This question matters only for the last one week of the year, mostly at parties.
From January to November, nobody is sitting and thinking, ‘How is my year shaping up?’ But from December 15 onwards, everyone suddenly becomes a life auditor.
And once January 1 arrives, nobody cares. You have resolutions, plans, and fresh pressure. That reflection is over.
The truth is simple. We don’t live in years. We live in memories.
Nobody remembers all 365 days. You remember moments. One really good day. One really bad day. And a lot of days where nothing happened.
When people say, ‘My year was great’, notice what they mention. ‘I got promoted’. ‘I made good money’. ‘I got married’.
That’s not a year. That’s a result.
They won’t talk about the sixteen-hour workdays, how they hyped their manager like a stand-up act, or how many profiles got rejected before one finally worked out. And somehow, the entire year gets judged only by money, marriage, and promotions. As if health, friends, food, love, and sleep don’t count.
Online, a lot of people are saying 2025 was bad. That’s normal.
The human brain remembers negative things more clearly. Sadness lasts longer than happiness. We still cry about losing the World Cup final on November 19, 2023, even though we won tournaments after that. That’s just how memory works. Sadness has better storage.
So if you feel like your year was bad, it doesn’t mean every day was bad. It just means your brain is doing what it does best.
Personally, my answer to ‘How was your year?’ is simple: ‘I don’t remember’.
Not because nothing happened.
But because I’m not built to remember 365 things at once.
So this year, instead of asking people for a full-year report, ask better questions. What was your best day? What was your worst day? How many hugs did you get?
Or don’t ask anything at all. Just give one.
That already makes the year better.
Happy New Year!
Sandesh
@msgfromsandesh
(This comedian is here to tell funny stories about Hyderabad)
(The writer’s views are his own)