Introduction
This is not necessarily a blog post like I have been doing normally. In this blog post I will be doing some looking back into 2025 and some looking forward to 2026. I decided to change the dynamic this time as it is my final blog post of 2025.
Looking Back
I completed quite a bit this year with three new IT certifications and four new sports coaching certifications. This was also a productive year where I extended my streak on Udemy to 188 weeks of learning. In addition, on TryHackMe I completed a 119-day streak and became a Guardian with my point total.
Looking back, I also completed some more things on HacktheBox and finished in the top 3% of learners on Udemy. Also, on LinkedIn I finished the year in the top 5% of active users. There are other things that I have done including having a sole proprietorship, Aaron W. DeJong, and being the owner for 3 years and 8 months since April of 2022.
I started working out with some Tai Chi, stretching, and some pushups and sit-ups this year which I hope to continue with in 2026. I am also working on some other things like studying Coaching, Sports Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Docker, and Prompt Engineering. These will be things that I continue to work on in 2026.
Looking Forward
As I am looking at the next year, 2026, I will be focusing more on Cloud Networking. As I specialize more in this subject, I will extend my lifelong learning into 2026. There are some certifications that I am planning on doing that are for IT and Sports Coaching certifications.
The IT certifications that I am looking at doing next year are the AZ-104, AZ-700, MCT, Network+, CCNP ENCC and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - Foundational. For the Network+, I will be re-certifying for my A+ and the ENCC will be re-certifying for the CCNA.
The Sports Coaching certifications that I want to do include the USA Football Youth Certification 2026 - Tackle certification and the Copper Certification from USA Wrestling. There will be more things to work on my four other certifications like these, and it is only every 3 months.
Conclusion
The main reason for this blog post is to show what I am thinking about doing for this next year. This is to also look back at some of the things that happened this year like the four Sports Coaching certifications, and the AZ-900, SC-900, and Linux Essentials certifications.
Going into next year with the intention of getting a job, being more independent and with my anxiety not being that much of an issue. I am thinking about getting the Network Administrator role again and might be able to use Sports Coaching to allow for a backup career if needed. I want to work on my anxiety more and then work on my resume to get another job.