Continuity

If you had asked me at the start of 2025 what the year would hold, I would have answered with plans, milestones, and intentions.

What I received instead was interruption.

An injury that threw me completely off course. A life-threatening hospital stay that moved me between CCUs and ICUs. An outpatient procedure that was meant to be routine — and instead became a ten-day hospital nightmare.

In those moments, nothing about productivity, leadership, or ambition mattered. The only thing that did was continuity of breath, of presence, of being held together when everything felt fragile.

2025 was the year that taught me — unmistakably — that continuity is not about consistency of circumstances. It’s about continuity of self.

Injury, stillness, and an unexpected return

Injury forced me into stillness — a state I had resisted for years.

And in that stillness, something returned to me that I had missed deeply: books.

Reading became both refuge and recovery. What started as a way to pass the time while healing turned into one of the most grounding, joyful achievements of my year. I read 57 books — and counting.

This time, I didn’t confine myself to a single genre or purpose.

I read:

• Self-help and personal growth
• Romantic novels and mysteries
• I re-read Harry Potter and returned — yet again — to Jane Austen
• I sat with Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg Jeffrey Archer and Khalid Hosseini!
• I absorbed Atomic Habits, rejoiced Chitra Banerjee
• I discovered Indigenous authors and histories
• I explored investing, leadership, healing, and identity

Reading reminded me that continuity can live in curiosity. That learning does not require momentum — only openness. Each book stitched something back together.

Attention. Patience. Imagination. Perspective.

Healing, slowly — and watching life move forward.

Recovery did not come from willpower alone. It came from watching my little one — not so little anymore — walk into kindergarten with a backpack that felt almost as big as his body, but with confidence that made my heart swell.

Healing came from being reminded, daily, that life keeps unfolding even when you are forced to slow down. That growth does not pause for pain — it simply changes pace.

Continuity, I learned, can look like sitting still while everything meaningful continues to move.

Eight months of searching — and finding what I didn’t know I needed

Professionally, the end of 2024 and 2025 stretched me in ways I hadn’t anticipated. An eight-month job search tested patience, identity, and faith!

And then, quietly, something aligned.

I stepped into a role I didn’t know I needed — one that brought me back into the #lab, back into the very core of #scientificinnovation. It became a segue into the pharmaceutical industry, into well-known startup grind territory — but with something different this time.

More balance. More stewardship. More collaboration. Less urgency and more intention around how work fits into a life.

Learning support, asking uncomfortable questions

This year, I also chose to invest in coaching — and in myself.

I found a coach who became a support system of sorts. Someone who asked me uncomfortable questions, challenged my defaults, and helped me reconnect with agency rather than reaction.

Continuity sometimes means allowing someone to walk alongside you — not to fix, but to reflect.

Leadership that evolved — not escalated

Even in a year marked by recovery and recalibration, leadership did not disappear. It simply shifted shape.

I hosted Lotus STEMM first-ever panel in British Columbia at Vancouver Startup Week — a milestone that reminded me how much space there is still to create.

I led Tech2Step Canada community walks until the end of spring. I later transitioned into an editorial role, supporting the platform in a way that felt sustainable and aligned with the season I am in.

I was honoured to serve as a guest speaker at Women In Tech Regatta , lending my voice while continuing to learn from others navigating similar paths - Thank you WAKE Collective for trusting my fellow panellists - Rochelle Grayson Mayumi Rollings Stephanie Chan Jaiya Varshney and me.

And I watched Lotus STEMM — an organization that has been part of my everyday life for more than half a decade — continue to grow. Knowing when to step back, when continuity means letting others lead, has been one of my most meaningful leadership lessons.

Holding responsibility — together

This year, I was also asked to return to fundamentals — including learning finance again, this time as a single-income family. It meant supporting my partner through his own job search, something that is recent and still feels tender. Watching him fully step into the role of a stay-at-home dad — and claim it with pride — has been unexpectedly healing, in ways I didn’t know I needed.

Seeing talented, capable people navigate similar seasons reminded me that these moments are not about inadequacy. They are about systems, timing, and the quiet resilience required to keep going.

Continuity here meant staying steady for one another.

The unseen logistics of resilience

Continuity also looked like:

• Three-hour daily commutes
• Finding new friendships
• Keeping the ones who understand
• Letting go — without guilt — of those who expect more than I can give

It looked like tutoring and giving back to the community — work that exhausts me and grounds me at the same time.

And, very practically, it looked like surviving the earliest days post-surgery with Priya Tronsgard ’s wedge pillow — a small act of care that made a massive difference.

Sometimes continuity is held together by people who show up quietly. KHRISTINE CARIÑO, DMD, PHD Mayasari Lim Samar (Abou-Atta) Horning Anitha Thomas Ph.D, PMP Shriya Pamukuntla Sania Reddy Pamukuntla Dr. Vivek Savkur Jatinder Dhir Sam Thiara MA Anna Gradie Yazhini Baskaran, PMP® Beatriz Rodriguez

The greatest blessing of the year

Of everything 2025 gave me, nothing compares to this:

151 days of waking up to my mother’s face — not through a screen, but in person. 150 nights of kissing her good night.

When you go down, God seems to know exactly what you need.

That kind of continuity — of presence, of shared time, of ordinary sacred moments — is something I will carry with me forever.

Still learning? "After all this time ?? — Always!"

Despite everything, I completed two certifications — one through Project Management Institute and another through  Simon Fraser University .

A reminder I hold close: once a learner, always a learner.

Continuity, for me, means never disconnecting from curiosity — even when life feels heavy.

Choosing continuity for 2026

As I step into 2026, Continuity is the word I choose to abide by.

Not because life will be predictable — but because I now know what I want to preserve:

Integrity over intensity.

Stewardship over speed.

Collaboration over control.

Presence over performance.

Continuity is how I want to lead. How I want to parent. How I wish to serve the community. How I want to live.

After a year that broke and is rebuilding me in equal measure, I know this to be true:

"We are not defined by how seamlessly our lives unfold — but by how faithfully we carry what matters forward."

Continuity is my anchor.

#Continuity

#WomenInSTEM

#ImmigrantVoices

#LifeInTransition

#PurposeDriven

#Stewardship

#LearningNeverStops

#CareerReflection

#PharmaLife

#BooksAndLeadership

#VidyaWrites