Top moments of 2025

It's wild that it's already 2026. Lots of folks have already posted their recap for 2025, but I'm posting after the year officially closed. Who knows—maybe something monumental could have happened in the final minutes of 2025 and then I would have had to publish an addendum or correction.

This post highlights the big personal and professional moments that have made 2025 a huge year for me and my family. I don't really have simple data points to make a simple story because all of the big moments requires some context to highlight their significance. 2025 was a year of major shifts that marked new stability and direction as well as the restoration of some things I loved but had let slip away. It's amazing what can happen in just twelve months.

Quitting caffeinated coffee

Near the beginning of 2025, our church did the Daniel fast for three weeks, which involved eating only grains, fruits, and vegetables and abstaining from caffeine, processed sugars, and all meat and animal-based foods (butter, cheese, etc.).

My coffee intake had increased considerably in the preceding months, going from about one cup a day to three cups a day—practically drinking coffee all day—and I required my morning jolt to feel human in the morning.

The first several days of the fast were brutal and I felt like literal garbage as I detoxed from caffeine. I felt sluggish and janky and just plain terrible. During the fast, God highlighted my caffeine addiction in a very unpleasant way, so I quit caffeinated coffee and switched to tea.

I feel much less edgy. I'm less irritable and more patient with my kids when I first wake up because I don't need my "fix" to feel normal. I sleep better at night, and I don't wake up feeling foggy. My brain feels better.

There have been a few moments throughout the year when I've risked a cup of caffeinated coffee, but I don't really seek it out. In some cases, I've regretted trying it because the rush and the jitters make it not worth it.

Now I drink decaf, Teeccino, or tea. I drink caffeinated tea (Earl Grey, Chai, or green), but it doesn't deliver the same punch as coffee, and I can go without it and still feel human. I used to think I couldn't live without caffeine. Now I wonder how I lived with it. Changing my intake has been one of my best new habits of 2025.

Passing the PMP exam

On Valentine's Day I had a hot date with the grueling 180-question, 230-minute Project Management Professional exam. I had been thinking about going for the PMP for years, and the pending expiration of my CAPM—which satisfied the educational requirement for exam application—pushed me to finally make it happen.

I was very intimidated by the exam, but I also knew it was the next step for me. So after about four months of studying, I went for it. I was ecstatic and relieved that I passed with Above Target in all the performance domains: People, Process, and Business Environment

My wife sent me off to the exam with a card with strict instructions to "not open until after your test." Her opening line was "Happy Valentines and congratulations on being PMP certified!" Her support means the world to me.

The process of studying for the PMP gave me a robust set of tools and techniques that I lean heavily on in my day-to-day work, and it helped clarify the mindset required for project management. Passing the exam felt like a major level up and unlock for my career. It validated my understanding of project management principles and approaches, and it simultaneously set the tone for 2025 and equipped me for my future work.

Playing drums for the first time in five years

Music has been part of my life for a long time. I got my first set of drums in high school, played nails-on-a-chalkboard covers with some buddies, and later ended up playing guitar and bass in our college ministry and at different churches.

Prior to 2025, the last time that I had played drums was while interning at a church in Colorado from 2018–2019. At the close of that internship, I moved to North Carolina, and for various reasons I just stopped playing drums. Some of it had to do with living situations (drums are loud). But honestly, I just let a long time love sort of slip into the rear view mirror.

After my wife and I moved to Missouri, it became clear that our new church needed more folks behind the kit. After I passed the PMP, my schedule opened up and I agreed to start playing drums. I've been playing just about every other week since February, and it's been so much fun to be behind the kit again doing something I love. I didn't know if, or when, drums would come back around in my life, but playing again (and so frequently) was a huge example of restored passion in 2025.

Closing out my work at Grace Church

One of the most bittersweet moments of 2025 was wrapping up my time as Communications Director at Grace Church in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The nearly two years I worked there were definitely a kairos moment, and leaving that place signaled the close of a personal and professional highwater mark for me.

A kairos moment is a unique moment in time that fundamentally alters your life's trajectory. My time at Grace Church was one big kairos moment that was made up of a gazillion such moments. During my time there, I had the opportunity to heal from some really difficult years as well as some destructive theology that had hurt my heart and drove a wedge in my relationship with God. I met some wonderful, caring people who walked with me to wholeness and renewed faith.

I also had the opportunity to help build out systems and processes for project management and communications, which allowed me to do the type of work that I love best. It had been nearly a decade since I had actually loved the work I was doing.

But moving out of state meant my time had come to a close. I worked remotely from Missouri on some special projects from January to April, including rebuilding the church website, building out an HR onboarding process for new employees, and building out an editable work chart for a 30+ person team. I loved working remotely on highly technical projects, and it felt so good to close out some really big things that the church needed for the next chapter.

It's not easy leaving a place you love. I definitely ugly cried in my last staff meeting in front of 20+ people as I told them how much they meant to me. I also got pretty emotional during my exit interview because it provided the space to reflect on what the time at Grace had meant to me and how much the Lord had accomplished in my life during that season.

I am thankful that I finished well, and I occasionally hear about how those systems and processes are still holding strong and serving the staff. That's the best I could ask for: to leave things better than I found them.

Starting work at Midwest Roofing (and filming a Roof Rescue)

I stopped working at Grace Church on 4/11 and I started a new role as Marketing Project Manager at Midwest Roofing on 4/21. I wasn't looking for a job at a roofing company, but someone got a hold of my resume from a family-member, and it turned out that my skill set matched what they needed for their newly formed marketing department.

The last eight months have been a blast, and I've learned so much about marketing, advertising, roofing, and business operations in a really short period of time. In a lot of ways, my role at Midwest Roofing is a perfect continuation of my work at Grace Church. The marketing department has been around for just under two years, and we're building everything from scratch: project management processes, data pipelines, campaign structures, branding assets, marketing strategies, and the tech stack to make it all work together. I love wrangling the chaos.

It's been a great place to work because I love continuous learning, and leadership has really invested in my growth by helping me get my Part 107 drone license, sending me to Ahrefs Evolve, and equipping me with the tech and resources to help build a marketing department from the ground up. They've also appreciated my approach to project management and how a structured approach helps fuel better outcomes for our initiatives.

Right now, my boss and I comprise the small but mighty marketing team at Midwest Roofing, and when you work on a small team you end up being a jack of all trades. In a single week, my work flows across project management, web dev, making ads, video production, graphic design, SEO, data analytics, implementing new software, and recording technical trainings. I love the firehose of information and the variety of creative and technical challenges.

One of the things that sold me in the interview is the company's commitment to giving back to the community. For example, for every 100 Google reviews they receive, they install a brand new, top-tier Owens Corning roof on a home in need for absolutely free. In October, they installed a roof on a home that Love Columbia uses to help families transition out of homelessness into housing stability.

When I stopped working at Grace Church, I thought my time behind the camera was over, but after just a few months at Midwest Roofing I realized there was an opportunity (and an appetite) to in-house our content creation. I convinced leadership to drop some cash on some photo/video gear, which gave me the opportunity to document the roof rescue with Love Columbia from start to finish.

It was my biggest video project to date and involved two multicam interviews, B-roll from multiple visits, as well as drone footage. And because our department is so small and Midwest Roofing gives me the freedom to adjust my workflow as I see fit, I did all of the edits in DaVinci Resolve, which closed out a long process of wondering whether the grass was greener if I left Adobe Premiere. (Spoiler alert: it is.) Check out the final mini-doc to see the results!

The entire Roof Rescue project was one of my highlights for 2025 and it solidified why I like working for this company. I get to tell cool stories, do super technical things, and market top-tier products and services that help protect homes and businesses.

Over the last eight months we've made some massive changes to the department as a team and we're finally starting to hit our stride. I'm excited to see what 2026 holds!

Buying a house

The last time my wife and owned a home was 2017, and since then we have moved 11 times. To put it in perspective, we lived in 7 different places before my oldest son turned three. Some of the moves were economic in nature, like living with family while dealing with job instability. Some of them were unavoidable, like rental situations that seemed really good but turned out to be really horrible after moving in. Needless to say that it's been wild.

God provided the job at Midwest Roofing as well as an assortment of freelance projects that enabled us to actually purchase a home this year, which has been a tremendous blessing. It's so nice to unbox things and not dread having to pack things up in a year. For example, I finally unboxed my Synology NAS after having it packed up for a year and a half. It's also nice to let the kids do their worst to the walls knowing that I can spackle and repaint when the time comes and not have to worry about forfeiting a security deposit.

There are lots of things I actually like about renting such as not being responsible for general maintenance or repairing the AC, or toilets, or hot water heater. I've also appreciated living in places where lawn care was included.

But nothing is better than seeing the kids finally settle and recognize this is my room, this is our house, this is home. Stability is so important for kids. (Most of) the rental situations we were in during their early years were great, but it's a different feeling for us as parents and for them to know that we're here for the long-haul. I've seen their behavior improve tremendously as they lean into the peace that comes with settling down.

I'm honestly kind of astonished that we were able to buy a home—I thought it was something that was at least two years out of reach, but a combination of unforeseen blessings including the job at Midwest Roofing, moving to a lower cost of living area, a great first-time homebuyer program in Missouri, and a top-notch mortgage broker made it all come together.

Going trout fishing for the first time

I grew up fishing with my dad, and I love spending time casting a line, but I haven't gone out much in the past decade except on invitation by my brother-in-law. He's done a great job over the years of planning camping trips that also happen to be fishing trips, and he's basically single-handedly kept that spark for spending time out on the water alive. This is another passion that could have slipped into the rear view mirror if not for some help.

Since moving to Missouri, he's gotten me to go trout fishing three times, and every time it's been amazing. Standing in the water just waiting for a bite takes me back to fishing for flounder in Holly Beach, Louisiana as a young boy, and it just feels right.

It's been fun learning how a trout strikes and spending time tucked away in a beautiful creek. Even if I don't catch anything, it's refreshing. Fortunately, we've always caught plenty to clean and cook, and trout is definitely a good eating fish.

On one of our trips, we took my older two kids camping for the first time. My five-year-old daughter caught her very first fish on that trip, a really nice trout that she pulled in all by herself with a pink Zebco kiddie rod. She just needed a little assist in setting the hook, but she knew a fish was biting her line—just incredible for her first time fishing.

For Christmas, my brother-in-law surprised me with a fishing pole and a tackle box. It touched a nerve in the best way possible and I got a little choked up. He said, "I tried to think of something that Josh needed but wouldn't ask for." He was absolutely right. Historically, I've requested books or really practical things like tools, and I can neglect things that are just fun. The kindness of a friend knows what you need even when you don't know it or can't say it.

Going to Ahrefs Evolve 2025

I am so thankful that Midwest Roofing sent me to Ahrefs Evolve 2025 for two days of learning about the state of search, artificial intelligence, and marketing. They did the right thing before approving my request and had me write up an ROI analysis for attending the conference, which really helped me hone in on which sessions had the greatest potential to address our current pain points and inform our strategy.

It turns out that the entire conference was just absolutely jam packed with insights that we needed as a team. It feels like something from Ahrefs Evolve comes up in just about every meeting we have, and it's clear that conference was pivotal for helping our team get in alignment and for me to get clarity on where I need to focus my efforts personally.

The vibe of the conference was absolutely electrifying, and in following months I've realized how special it is to be in a room with 500+ people who care about the same nerdy, technical, and obscure things that you care about like page speed, metadata, technical SEO, and how AI is affecting search (and marketing in general). I met tons of cool, gracious, and generous people who were willing to share their insights and expertise, and I got to visit San Diego, California, which marked my very first time on the West Coast. It was a huge moment professionally and personally.

First steps of faith for my older two kids

Our faith is very important to me and my wife, and and motivates everything we do. Our faith in God is what has brought us together and sustained our marriage through some very challenging times. Our kids hear us talk about the Bible, sing worship songs, and pray before meals, before bed, and throughout the day. They see us volunteering at church when I play drums and when my wife and I teach in children’s church.

This year, our two oldest kids decided on their own accord to follow Jesus, and I had the privilege to lead them in a salvation prayer. Plus, our daughter wanted to get baptized. All of this was of their own volition, and it’s so beautiful to see small seeds of faith start to grow. They know that their mom and dad love them, but that Jesus loves them most of all.

Final reflections

2025 was a year of massive shifts and work, living situation, and family. The close of this year also marks a year since we moved to Missouri, and I’m finally starting to feel at home after having lived in North Carolina for five years.

In many ways, it was a disruptive year, but in the midst of the disruption, we discovered new stability and focus, and I’m excited to carry that to 2026. I’m thankful for all the good things that happened this year, and that God is the one who is writing my story. He put so many good plot twists and surprises into 2025 that I can wait to see what's in store in 2026.