Ins, Outs, and Keeps

Ins & Outs of 2025. Keeps from 2024.

Happy Holidays! I’m trying to write more consistently on Substack … which means starting out easy with some lists :)

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Ins of 2025:

• being gentle, kind, and warm

• telling people i appreciate them on a whim

• uncontrollable laughter

• drinking tea with un-shameful amounts of honey

• going to the library during non-dire times

• creating enough time to immerse myself in class readings like they are new books from the scholastic fair in fourth grade instead of PDFs on notability with a deadline

• visiting long distance friends

• playing card games in the suite [no one is ever too old for cards]

• dancing in the living room / running barefoot in the grass / singing in the shower

  • recently watched a instagram reel of someone explaining how their hobby is to interpretive dance in the living room (no experience, no awards, nothing except a love for dance and pure vibes)

  • the 15 second reel is a must-watch but this comment captures the spirit quite well:

    

• taking walks in new haven with no destination in mind

• watching performances at Yale and elsewhere

• documenting my life again (i used to do a picture/day of my senior year as a countdown to high school graduation)

• arts and crafts

• reaching out to meals with weak acquaintances like i’m a first-semester first-year

• writing weekly on substack (lets ignore the 6 month hiatus…..)

arts and craft – recently decorated this notebook!

don’t think i have laughed as uncontrollably as i did when trying the do-re-mi singing challenge with my friend Su Ah

Outs of 2025:

• recruiting for a 2027 summer analyst position … when its not even 2026.

• falling victim to purchasing a trendy water bottle without needing a new water bottle

• treating sleep as a negotiable

• opening my laptop at breakfast

• going to a frat … on nights when you don’t want to go to a frat

• not calling home

• treating exercise as a negotiable

• wearing a sweater from a school club and calling it an outfit

  • this one’s gonna be difficult given many of my outfits are exactly this

• delaying visits to the doctor’s and dentist’s office

• spending more than 15 minutes on a instagram post

turning dresses into tank tops have added many more tops to my limited wardrobe this year :)

Keeps of 2024:

these are “ins” that i tried and loved in 2024; non exhaustive of course.

• free will; sounds crazy but not doing things we simply do not want to do

• white linen pants in the summer

• hosting a 19 and 5/8th dinosaur themed birthday party

• a bulldog bed

• finding immense joy in consuming, sharing, and bonding over food [300+ beli reviews and counting]

• slipping away without letting go (of things and spaces that are not super inviting but also not not supportive)

• finding balance in the seasonal macro level than the daily micro level

• attending live sporting games [i recently went to a collegiate rugby game in tokyo… the energy of a common fan base is electric]

• a big fluffy white rug in a dorm room

• trench coats in the winter

• hot boba … probably the best thing i tried in December

  

  i <3 the bulldog bed, windows, and albums

Q: What are your ins, keeps, and outs of 2024-2025?

Love,

Hiroko

P.S: decided to re-brand my substack for the new year :) let me know what u think!