The two words of the year I picked for myself at the beginning of 2025 were “Mindful” and “Fun”. I’ve been practicing reflecting on my educational activities with my students, and on how well a method works, for a long time. I especially perform daily reflection on what worked best with my current group of students. However, practicing mindfulness recently took a new approach, and jumped to a whole new level, due to applying techniques such as deep breathing, listening more to others when I would rather jump in to speak. I also wrote down my values and priorities to use them when I select future commitments or refrain from them. But FUN! Oh, FUN! I hardly ever practiced fun throughout my life. Setting up this word as one of the words for 2025 acted as a motivating goal, too. That was actually the whole point! It was a short and sweet mantra that popped up in my head much more often than it used to, reminding me to keep finding ways to make life more enjoyable, lighter, funnier. I listened to more stand-up comedy shows and I read jokes on the internet and through little books with jokes for school children. I created some jokes myself, usually a bit some that will sound a little sarcastic. How do you implement a plan for having more fun in your life?

I am thankful, grateful, and feel wonderfully blessed EVERY day of the year. As a former compulsive overeater, now in recovery, Thanksgiving is just another day for me, where I aim to practice healthy habits and avoid overindulgence with food. I will gladly focus on my people, on catching up, on encouraging and supporting each other, on quality time, on fun, jokes, and games. Some other principles I use to navigate the holiday regarding food (overeating, and the “sweet tooth”): 1. NO is a complete sentence when others push a food item. 2. I learned from last years’s holidays how just a tiny bit of indulgence raised my A1C way up. It was NOT worth it to almost undo/destroy the super hard work I did for the whole year before, the workouts, the healthier eating, and more. As a result, this year “indulgence” and “moderation” have new meanings for me, with emphasis on “very little”. I will define my moderation much differently, I will read food labels, I will calculate the calories, look up “serving sizes”, avoid salt and sugar, and others. What are some of your thoughts on this topic?

Then “Artificial Intelligence killed ______” (fill in the blanks). “Home delivery businesses killed _____”. Keep it going in the comments and have fun with it, they only have to make some sense to you.😃

What is your favorite movie so far? If just one of many is tough to pick, you can pick any movie or TV show, or even two, just as longs as you can give me an idea of what specifically made or makes that your favorite movie or TV Show. Mine is “Dawson’s Creek” TV show, first aired in 1999, with Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek. It’s the only TV show I watched more than twice. I actually watched it 6 times. I love it because those teenagers are so smart, are friends, support each other through growing pains, they love, have fun, create, cry on each other’s shoulders, and celebrate good times together. They all have proven to be incredibly talented actors from a young age, and they are all still acting, aging like fine wine.

I cherish AI, I don fear it. I use it, it helps me, and I’m not afraid it will take my job. However, being trained the old-school way, where you aim to come up with your own ideas, thoughts, formulations, or essays, I am still in the habit of carving my own thoughts and content, using my own words and writing in my own style. Fear or plagiarism, desire for originality, and taking pride in building something on my own are just a few of the reasons I feed AI my own thoughts before asking it to refine them. One other reason AI use is a concern for me has to do with isolation from family members, friends, work colleagues, or partners. It is much easier to ask AI something we want to know, then to ask any of the people around us. AI is available anytime, at our fingertips, and behaves more predictable and nicer than some people might. Many of the questions I used to ask my husband, my mom, my work colleagues, or my older sister, I am now asking AI instead. In the old times, you would be an apprentice, a mentee, or a disciple to a master, and learn everything from them. Girls used to learn how to clean, organize, bake and cook from their moms or grandmas. Boys would learn how to fix things around the house, ride horses, carve wood, or fix cars from their dads, uncles, grandpas. Now they ask AI, YouTube, or Google. The mentoring process that included a personal touch, lots of human interaction and customized guidance has helped a lot of young people heal from past traumatic experiences and built trust and character. Using AI has many advantages, but it has its “opportunity costs”, too. I think the most painful one for the older generation can be how they might feel left out and forgotten. After accumulating a wealth of knowledge, skills, experience, and wisdom over time, they hoped to pass those down to the younger generations. However, very few young people might still cherish human wisdom and reach out to others, when it is much easier for them to ask AI what they want to know.