2025 Wrap-up, and Happy New Year

2025 was a plague-rat avalanche.

Truly, I’m highly suspicious at anyone who claims that 2025 was an “overall good year.” Yes, good things happened during it, but on average? Not so great.

Let’s review:

Major Accomplishments!

1) I finished my PhD!- 6 years later, I finally did it! I survived! It only took living through a pandemic and an autoimmune disease to complete!

2) I published my first first-author research paper!- This feels like an odd accomplishment, as you usually write more than one of these during a PhD, but this was a MASSIVE paper, and it got published in blood! Link here (though email me if you want access to the paper! I don’t know if it’s free to the public!)- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40829161/

3) I started my freelance scicomm business!- No clients yet, but with the current state of the job market, might as well go for it while I’m job searching! Besides, if I can get this freelancing to work, it will be a dream job of mine. I’m even offering art and animation beyond science writing, which has been difficult but fulfilling to figure out!

4) I started my own website!- check it out here: https://www.rebeccamellema.com/

5) I started my own YouTube Channel!- I snuck that in at the end of 2025. After a whole year of saying I’d do it, I finally posted! It only took Adobe premier deleting 2 days worth of work thrice to finally finish (screw you, Adobe). I have a ton of video ideas to come, now that I’m getting the hang of video editing. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/nXv7SLWGv_U?si=OkwKtyx-JFd7a6PI. This series is going to be an ongoing one where I slowly walk through papers. I want to do a whole science writing series, science presentation series, and an science art series (where I make art while having a voice over discussing science topics. Trust me, it’ll be great).

I have SO MANY IDEAS for this channel, we’re just getting started!

6) Blog is still alive!- I had to take a break from my blog this year due to my thesis work, but I managed to squeeze in a few posts before the end of the year. Check it out here: https://gettingthesciencewrite.com/

7) I moved!- I’m out of SLC, and loving it. No offense to SLC, but the inversions there set off my asthma ever. Single. Year. To have a winter where I can breath has been amazing.

8) I was a science consultant for two authors!- Can’t say much beyond that, but one of my consultations involved me sending the author a wild video that involved me writing on my ipad describing how immunology worked. I want to do more of this; this was a highlight of my year.

Major Setbacks!

1) Our country is being run by horrible people- Like many people entering the workforce this year, my life has been upended by the highly-illegal actions of this current administration. See #2.

2) I don’t have a real job- I’ve been looking since March 2025. I had to take November off to avoid “job application burnout,” but year. We’re putting out a ridiculous number of applications. Even for jobs I’m over qualified for (especially with a PhD; lab tech 1 is not ). And before people throw job ideas at me, please know that I can only burn so many candles at once. It does take a good while to change my resume and , so I usually try to do a huge chunk of similar applications at once, then alter my resume, and then go again. Also, I’m on at least 5 different “find jobs” websites that give me daily alerts for job openings: I may not have tried a job type because I’m shifting through so many jobs. If you ask me, “Have you thought about x?” I probably haven’t because I’m thinking of all of the rest of the alphabet before “x”. If you see a possible job app, you can just send it to me. That’s more appreciated than suggesting jobs to me, to be honest. The latter approach kinda overwhelms me, because it feels like a quiz when people ask “have you tried [insert job].”

(Before people ask, I am making money, but it’s tutoring and dog walking. It’s not consistent pay, and the hours aren’t great. But I am paying the bills. THANK YOU PARENTS for financially supporting me during this time.)

3) I’m no longer living near my best friend- I miss you, DD! WHEN ARE YOU COMING TO THE PNW!?!?

4) I had a broken rib- This set me back months. I didn’t feel good enough to really be my normal level of active until October. And the fact that it happened right after I defended my thesis felt like a middle-finger from the universe.

5) I didn’t get the science journalism fellowship- This one stung. A lot. Granted, I didn’t see the application until 2 days before the deadline, so I rushed the application, but still, I wanted it more than I realized. I was bummed for three days after I got the rejection. Maybe I’ll find a journalism class to teach me the basics, but with my job schedule right now, it’s not looking like I’ll be attending one soon.

Favorite Blog Post of 2025!

Oh, no contest:

This post was just a blast to write. The paper I read for it was unlike any I’ve ever read before, the post is based off of my favorite anime “The Apothecary Diaries,” and the intro scene made me laugh while writing it.

Favorite/Least Favorite Book of 2025!

Er… I only read one book all the way through, “All the Light Fantastic” by Terry Pratchet. Sooooooo, by default, that wins both categories!

I read a lot of papers, and I read a lot of “parts of books,” but I think Terry Pratchet’s book is the only one I actually reached the end on. Some of it’s because I’m not taking the time to listen to my books while I’m doing menial tasks right now, and some of it’s because I couldn’t focus on reading for a month after I finished my thesis. But we’re going to be finishing many more books in 2026!

Favorite Art of 2025!

Again, no contest. The sketch/painting I made from this photo was okay (it was a fun practice for drawing and painting), but I’m so proud of this photo. It was in the worst lighting possible, it was on my iphone, and still I managed to catch all those colors. And the composition ain’t bad either!

Goals for 2026!

1) Get a solid, consistently paying job- Enough said. If I get my freelancing off the ground, fantastic, but in the meantime, we’re still going to be aiming for a secure job.

2) Finish my book- I’m on Chapter 31. We’re so close. Then I have the whole editing process, but first we have to write “the end."

3) Join a cycling team- now that I’m back to working out without pain in the ribs, I really want to join a cycling community again. I went on a few group rides before it became dark all the time (Yay winter), and it was very healing.

4) Finish “how to science write” videos- I’m getting better at editing, and I think this is going to be a fun series once I get the courage to write out the scripts!

5) Work for some scicomm charities- this one’s cheating; I’m already in the works to work with at least one group in 2026 😉 But we can always work for more!

6) Update my newsletter for Scientists!- There’s going to be some changes come 2026 that will be useful for scientists if they read my newsletter. I’m starting to get more audience members, and I think I need to start using my newsletter for the “science” part of “scicomm.” It’ll probably take a while for me to figure out what exactly that will look like, but you’ll see the changes in the next newsletter.

That’s All! Onward to 2026!