My 2025 Sober Wrapped: Travel, Dating & Growth

In this reflective and honest episode of The Sober Butterfly Podcast, host Nadine Mulvina—sober since July 5th, 2021—shares her 2025 Sober Wrapped, inspired by Spotify Wrapped but rooted in real life.

Rather than focusing on perfection or aesthetics, Nadine breaks down her year quarter by quarter, rating and reviewing her experiences across travel, dating, goals, and mental health. This episode is a candid look at how sobriety can hold you through both expansion and emotional contraction.

Nadine reflects on pivotal moments throughout the year, including speaking at Podfest in Orlando, performing her first stand-up set sober, taking a solo healing trip to Barbados, and experiencing her favorite trip of the year in Iceland during the summer solstice with her mom. She also shares the behind-the-scenes reality of burnout, overworking, and navigating major life transitions.

On the dating front, Nadine opens up about long-distance heartbreak, emotional lows, minimal dating, and the clarity that came from stepping back and practicing discernment. She explains why there wasn’t enough dating content for a full Sober Dating Wrapped episode—and what she learned instead about intuition, peace, and self-trust.

The episode also highlights career milestones and redirections, including Pilates teacher training, unexpected endings that became blessings, and lessons around time, boundaries, and alignment. Ultimately, Nadine reminds listeners that growth isn’t always glamorous—and that a “good year” doesn’t always feel good while you’re living it.

This episode is for anyone navigating sobriety, transitions, heartbreak, burnout, or a season of becoming—and learning to trust themselves through it all.

✨ In This Episode, You’ll Hear:

• Nadine’s 2025 Sober Wrapped breakdown by quarter
• How travel became a stabilizing force during emotional lows
• Lessons from solo travel, including Barbados and El Salvador
• Why this year didn’t warrant a full Sober Dating Wrapped episode
• The emotional impact of detachment and discernment in dating
• Career wins, burnout warning signs, and redirections
• Why mental health and alignment matter more than momentum
• How sobriety supports growth even when life feels messy

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• You can be sober, successful, and still grieving parts of your life
• Not every year is aesthetic—but every year can be meaningful
• Intuition is data
• Peace is a form of progress
• Growth often looks like slowing down and choosing yourself

🦋 Connect with The Sober Butterfly

Follow along for more conversations on sobriety, travel, dating, and personal growth.
 If this episode resonated, share it with a friend, leave a review, or DM Nadine your own Sober Wrapped categories.

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Transcript

the-sober-butterfly_3_12-19-2025_060933: 0:00

Hello, beautiful butterflies and welcome back to the Sober Butterfly Podcast. If you're new, here I am, Nadine Sober since July 5th, 2021. And here at TSB we talk about sobriety, travel, dating, healing, and becoming the main character of your alcohol free life. Now today's episode is something I love doing every year, and when I say every year, this is. The second year I'm doing it, but it's becoming a tradition. Here at the Sober Butterfly. We are doing my 2025 sober wrapped episode. And if you listen to my 2024 Sober Dating Wrapped episode, you already know the vibes. Okay? It's giving Spotify wrapped energy. But for real life, So that means we're talking stats here. Categories, ratings, emotional whiplash, growth arcs, and lessons learned. Now full transparency, if you did listen last year, this year. 2025. I barely dated. Okay. I barely, I barely dated. I went on dates here and there. I had a couple situation ships in the mix, but I don't have enough content for a full sober dating wrapped episode this year. Sorry to disappoint you. Really? I'm sorry to disappoint myself. So instead of doing a sober dating rap 2025. Episode, we're gonna zoom out. We're gonna zoom all the way out hence the title 2025 Sober Wrapped, and we're breaking down 2025 into three. Three-ish, like three-ish main categories. So I'll be covering my travel wrapped, dating wrapped, and my life goals wrapped, mental health wrapped. That's like the three-ish and a half, and I'll be rating each quarter of the year into those categories, just like with Spotify wrapped. Alright, let's get into it.

the-sober-butterfly_4_12-19-2025_061329: 2:16

​Category one, travel wrapped. You listen to solo healing, girl on repeat.

the-sober-butterfly_5_12-19-2025_061451: 2:25

enter Q1 quarter one of the year. First three months. January through March. Okay, so in January I kicked off the year in Orlando, which, yeah, I'm gonna consider that travel. I had to get on the plane. And just so we're normed, I consider travel. Anytime I have to really get on a plane, if I have to present my real id, I don't have a real id, I still use my passport. Which by the way, guys, apparently they are changing the law.

the-sober-butterfly_6_12-19-2025_061814: 2:53

TSA is allowing folks without a real ID or a passport to travel over the course of like a 10 day period domestically. Using, I don't know. What do you use if you don't have a real Id? Like me? Oh, you use like a regular driver's license like I have, right? Like you can use that if you pay a$45 fee. So if you don't have a passport, if you don't have a real id, can use whatever you have that's not real idea compliant and pay 45 bucks. I hate the government sometimes. Like, what a scam. Why can't I use my state license? Why does it have to have the stupid little. Emblem on it. It's, it's ridiculous. Okay. Focus. I digress., I'm getting really worked up this morning clearly. Okay. So January, January I flew to Orlando. To attend Pod Fest. Now that was the. Third time. Third time I believe that I had gone to Pod Fest. This is an annual conference for podcasters, hence the name Pod Fest held every year in Orlando. January, 2023 was my very first pod and I met so many amazing people. The network is incredible. The energy is high. You just leave feeling so creative. So that was my very first experience going to Podfest as a participant. The following year I went again, so that would've been 2024 as a guest, as a participant. attending different workshops and talks and whatnot. Connecting with people that I'd already met. In fact, I fielded some guest for this show from Pod Fest. Oh, it's making me wanna go again. Anyway, this year, 2025 started on a high note because I was invited to Pod Fest as a guest speaker. So I felt very special and official, and it was just a really great experience to be a part of a panel and as usual, I made really great connections. I always feel like the bell of the ball when I go.'cause I like show up really cute. I feel like I'm in my power when I go to events like this, which is in alignment to my purpose and what I should be doing hopefully.'cause I've been working on the show for a couple years now. Aside from the fact that I was a speaker and not an attendee this year at podcast, I also did something really big, which was I did my very first standup performance sober. It was completely like a last minute entry, like I was kind of peer pressured. This is positive peer pressure here, like peer pressured into doing it, and I'm so grateful that I actually. Listen to that nudge or quite literally people telling me like, you should sign up for this. After I did my speaking gig on the panel, I met one of the headliners at the conference and he. Is a comic. And so he encouraged me to sign up for an open mic that he was promoting. And I did. And I fucking killed you guys. I, I'm not joking. I was really funny. In fact, I wanna just let you hear a little snippet because I thought it was really good.

5:51

Hello? Hello. How's everyone doing tonight? Woo. Good. Okay, so you can probably tell from my accent that I'm clearly British. No, no. Serious. It's not a joke. I'm British. I was born and raised in London, England. I know I look like I come from Barbie land, but no, I come from Pond and I spent the first 10 years of my life in London. And so when I tell people that, they're often surprised, they're like, you are British, so did you have an accent? A British accent? And I think that's an intelligent question. Often I respond, I'm like, well. I wasn't mute for 10 years of my life. Of course I had a British accent. I mean, come on here. And it just, I mean, you guys have been at poly fast. I'm like, if I were to be mute, I could market that. I'd be like, this is the place to do it. It would be like, um, from mute to professional, yapper from, could never speak to shut the fuck up now, you know? Um, so I moved to America when I was 10 years old. I moved to Miami. Quite a difference from, you know, London. And Miami, I love Is anyone from Miami here? Woo. I know. Haven't Sure. In my house. Um, and so the cool thing about Miami is it's so diverse and I went to a school where, you know, it reflected that diversity. So black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and I fit in nowhere. So I, I'm clearly a black woman, but the thing is, I was tall, I was blinky. I had this British accent and you would think that the accent would give me an edge, but it did not. Um, and the reason being is because I also had a. Lisp. Yes. I had a speech impediment, and I feel like the speech impediment cancels out the cool accent. And here's the thing, I just wanna pause for a second and talk about the word lisp because if you know anything about having a lisp, people who have a lisp have a hard time pronouncing the letter. Thank you. And so I'm like, what kind of sick fuck decided? Hmm. I'm gonna name this disorder after something that the people who suffer from it cannot pronounce. I mean, like as a 9-year-old, as a 10-year-old, I was traumatized by the letter S. It was my biggest phobia. And now I have this condition or this like speech impediment I have to explain to people, and I can't even say the word. It was very, very confusing. And I remember when I, you know, I was diagnosed with having a speech impediment. My mom came to the school after I was evaluated and they sat her down and they're like, yeah, Nadine needs, you know, speech. And the thing is my mom was like, well, why, why, why does she need speech? And so the speech pathologist explained this. You hear the speech impediment now, right? Um, she's like, well, Nadine has an enlarged tongue. Calm down. Uh, lemme finish, lemme finish. It's larger than the average, which means it's also lazy. See, I told you to calm down, right? So muscle it taller than muscle. Thumbs down, boo. Um, yeah. Sometimes the muscles, so you have to work on it. So I went to speech to work in my tongue, and so my speech pathologist, basically, she would pull me out, you know? You know how that is. Did anyone go to special services in here? It didn't really elevate my social profile, as you can imagine, so I'm getting pulled for speech and she was always on time anyway, so we do these exercises, peanut butter on the roof of your tongue. Long story short, I want to thank my speech pathologist and all the guys who have dated me and will date me should also thank her too, because I still have a large tongue, but it works and it's not lazy anymore. Thank you.

the-sober-butterfly_6_12-19-2025_061814: 9:16

So yeah, that experience was terrifying, exhilarating, but really affirming in the sense that I needed that feedback. I needed the feedback from the audience. And it's funny because I started the year with the seed that was planted from that experience at pod and somewhere throughout the year I lost track. I lost the plot, but travel-wise, that was a good first month.

the-sober-butterfly_7_12-19-2025_062427: 9:47

Okay, here comes February. Now February. Emotionally I was down bad, but travel wise I was in Barbados. I am very fortunate.. One of the perks of being a teacher is we get, you know, like these breaks off. And so in February we have mid-winter break, which if you include the weekend, it's about 10 days. So we have 10 days off in February, which is so needed in the dead of winter. And it was so needed for where I was in my. Mental emotional state at this time of the year, which I'll get to. But yeah, I took a solo trip, a very last minute trip to Barbados, and it was genuinely one of my favorite trips of the year. It felt like everything was in alignment, which is when I feel called to a place, it's usually moments like this. It doesn't require much planning. Everything just seamlessly comes together, and I felt like I was supposed to be in Barbados. I felt like Barbados healed me, truly like. I understand Rewe. I get it. Girl. Upon the replay, I would totally go back to Barbados one day. I freaking loved it. And just some quick highlights for Barbados. One of the safest islands, if not the safest islands it's also super easy to get to if you're in New York direct flight. Five, maybe six hours, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's breathtaking. In February at least, it wasn't even too humid, like my hair was cooperating. I had a ball and where I stayed was more like a timeshare situation, like I booked via Airbnb. But there was like this, timeshare where these couples go every year. And so I infiltrated their group, like it was four different apartments with their own balconies and like living quarters, and nothing was shared in that aspect. It was just like one building that had four different apartments in it basically. And each apartment was taken, I was in one of the upstairs apartments by myself. And then there was a guy below who like lives there part-time out the year. A very like surfer dude, think older, but like you can tell back in his day, like he was that very chill Woodstock kind of guy. And then. There was another guy from New York who invited his daughter midway through the trip. So I got to meet her and I started hanging out with her. She was very cool and more like age appropriate, closer to my age. And then there was this British couple that stayed above the other guy from New York. So we became a little family, like we had dinners together. It was so cute when I tell you that trip healed me, I spent every day at the beach. Which was across the street, hanging out with these people that I had just met. I got to go to the fish fry, the famous fish fry at Olsteen's on a Friday night. Riri goes there when she's in town. Unfortunately, she wasn't there when I was there. But anyway easily one of my favorite trips of the year and it really, truly healed me because I was, I was struggling, which I'll get to in a moment.

the-sober-butterfly_8_12-19-2025_062903: 13:00

Okay now, so come March. March is my birthday month, and honestly, birthday blues just march actually really sucked for me. I am not afraid of getting older. I think turning 34 wasn't the problem. I think I was just in a slump and in fact, I'll plug in the show notes for you. My birthday Blues episode 34, lessons Learned in 34 years like that will just explain in detail where I was at in life. I did do some travel though. I went to South Florida to stay with my cousin and hang out, and that part was beautiful. I got to get out of the cold New York weather and change the location, so that always helps. Celebrating my birthday somewhere warm. Was great, but emotionally I was very fragile. I was crying almost daily and I'm not a big crier. I'll just recommend once again to listen to the, my birthday episode because, you know, that was a very tender. Grief adjacent season in my life. So overall Q1 travel rating. I'm gonna give a three out of No, you know what, I'll take that back. I'll give it a four outta five. Travel really did carry me when my heart couldn't, or it felt like my heart couldn't. So yeah, I loved Barbados. I loved. All the trips. Even going to Florida twice in Q1, Florida always feels like my second home. So yeah, I would give it a solid four out of five.

the-sober-butterfly_9_12-19-2025_063130: 14:32

Category two dating wrapped. You've skipped this track repeatedly.

the-sober-butterfly_10_12-19-2025_063156: 14:41

Okay. Q1 dating recap. Gosh, can you tell I'm just not excited to talk about dating this year. Okay. I'll make this quick because. Otherwise we'll be here all day and there's not that much to say. So much happened, yet nothing happened. But Q1 actually more stuff happened. So January, the guy I was dating, so like, actually let's quickly throw it back to my 2024 dating wrapped episode because he is. Mr. Best Sex of My Life. I gave all of the guys I dated, like I think I dated like 12 different people back in 2024. Wow. What a difference a year makes. Okay. So yeah, I went on lot to dates in 2024, but anyway, the guy that I dated under the Aliens, Mr. Best Sex of My Life. Also, happens to be the last person I had sex with anyway, that guy and I were still dating come 20, 25 at the beginning of it. So it was a long distance situation. He lived in California, so like completely different coast over here. But we were trying to make it work. In fact, around the holiday season, he gave me hope that this is something that he felt like he was really ready for or trying to be ready for me. He had a lot of family stuff going on, which he was very open about that. Like the candor was there around Having to figure out the complexities and nuances of everything going on in his life, but he felt like I was like the person worth it or he was willing to work with, to figure it out. How can we be together? Two star cross lovers and opposite coasts. We're faded to be together, but we can't, like, it felt like that. But in January I definitely sensed a big pullback from a guy and my intuition turned out to be correct. Yeah. So come February now, he officially ended things with me. Which really did trigger the Great Depression. My great depression. Okay. So February, it felt like it came out of nowhere, even though I sensed a pullback, I was just like, maybe it's a season for him. Like I knew he was going through some things and I was trying to be there for him and like still believing that we could make it work somehow. Now, in retrospect, it was pretty obvious it was not gonna work. If any of my girlfriends had shared with me the red signs that I was noticing. I would've told them loud and clear, like, girl, move on. It's not gonna work. Or whatever. It's so obvious when you're on the outside. But for me, living through it, I was somewhat blindsided by the breakup or it wasn't a real breakup because we weren't technically together, but genuinely, I believe that when. You have the unrequited love, or it's a situationship, like, sometimes it hurts even more because you're, you're so attached to like the possibility of how great you two could be, that it hurts more when it actually ends, as opposed to like when you actually break out with someone that you were in a relationship with. Usually, that enchantment is gone, at least for me, and I'm like, yeah, been there, done that over it. So for me, I think it was so hard and I, I really struggled with that. Break up. I'll just say, for lack of a better word. Word. So yeah, February being the month of love meant nothing for me. Like he broke up with me. And in fact, that is why I went to Barbados. That is why I took that solo trip to Barbados because I was licking my wounds. Now, March, I was unfortunately still in my feelings, like Barbados helped, but it didn't heal everything. And I was just kind of like, you know what? Like let me focus on me. I'm not gonna date. I'm just gonna like survive. Like I went into full on survival mode. I was not interested in being on the apps or like trying to go out. So yeah, March was just. A blur, honestly, like I didn't do anything aside from take that trip for my birthday and I was struggling. So my Q1 raw dating score is gonna be an A zero. No, it's gonna be a negative one outta five. It was that bad. Negative. One out of five. Final answer.

the-sober-butterfly_11_12-19-2025_063730: 18:54

category three, life goals wrapped. So before I get into like my Q1 goals, and I'm just gonna use this as like a running list because to be honest, I started the year unclear I didn't do any real vision setting. I've always been into manifestations and affirmations and whatnot, but I didn't have a true outline, if I'm being honest. And I really see that play out in how the year turned out for me. I'm part of the problem as way 2025. Is wrapped this way, and I'm so excited that the year is wrapping. Okay, even though I didn't have like a very clear vision, I relied a lot on my drive. Like I have a lot of personal drive I think that's the issue sometimes as someone who like me who has a DHD. So I'm very high energy. I'm a great task initiator. That has never been my issue. Like I am a self-starter, I am inspirational. I inspire myself and other people. It's the follow through. That's the issue for me, as an Aries woman, for me as an A DHD girly, like I have a hard time following through. And so I think that's what happened this year. Like I didn't follow through, but Unlike me, I didn't even really have a plan. So here were my Q1. I won't call'em life goals per se, but these are the things that I accomplished because I am a highly driven, motivated person. And I shared this year, you know how my high functioning depression really. Took over this year, which I've never really had high functioning depression. Anytime I've suffered from any sort of depressive episode in the past, it has more so resembled. From Winnie la Pooh, like, I'm slow and sad and that's how I know that there's something wrong with me because that's not how I am by default this year. It wasn't that it was what you're getting right now, like I'm up, I'm all the way up here. I'm doing 1,000,001 things, but I'm on the brink of burnout because I don't know. Where I'm going. I'm very directionless and I also don't have a plan. So what I accomplished, I'll say for Q1, I was a speaker at podcast, which I mentioned I did my first standup set sober. Oh, you know what? I'll add to the mix. I also was like, still consistently podcasted. I didn't miss a beat or an episode, and at this time I started 2025 off really strong with my newsletter. January through March. I didn't skip a beat when it came to my weekly newsletter. And if you're like, what weekly newsletter, Nadine? Yeah. Spoiler alert, I fell off. So yeah, those are the three, like, I think I'll call them goals, but like those are more like accomplishments from Q1.

the-sober-butterfly_12_12-19-2025_064155: 21:44

Okay, quarter two, April through June, your most played emotion burnout, early version.

the-sober-butterfly_13_12-19-2025_064238: 21:55

travel, wrapped for Q2, okay. April. Spring break in Puerto Rico with my best tk. I recapped that episode on this show, so I'll link that episode in the show notes in case you want to hear how that trip went. It was a lot of fun. It was my first girls trip of the year. And that trip was so needed because March was so terrible for me. Like I needed to get out of my city, out of my head, and. Have some fun. Puerto Rico's not like my favorite place to frequent, but my girlfriend hadn't been before and it was her birthday, so I'm glad I went. We had fun. It was a vibe. May, I went back to Florida for Mother's day I surprised my mom with a little staycation at this. Resort in Orlando and we spent the day doing what we love to do, which is hang out and they had a steam room sauna massage situation. So it was a cute, like staycation. I'll say like sidebar this year. I got to see my mom a lot and I just had the best time with her. She's truly one of my best friends. I love her. I feel like I can tell her anything without fear of judgment or scrutiny, my mom just gets me guys, like she just understands me and yeah, I really loved. Hanging out with her, and we got to do that quite a bit this year. So that was my May trip. And then June, speaking of hanging out with my mom, my favorite trip of the year by far was my summer solstice trip with my mom to Iceland. It was so incredible. I actually think it was one of my favorite trips ever. That was also kind of last minute guys. I was just last minute girly over here. Like I said, you gotta start the year with a plan. I think we booked everything like two weeks before, I booked my flight'cause I found a cheap flight to Iceland and Iceland's been on my bucket list forever and I have all of this content I'm sitting on. So I will be releasing a log over break, this upcoming break we have for the holidays. That's my plan this break to give you guys this Iceland vlog as well as my recent trip to El Salvador anyway, so Iceland has been on my bucket list forever. I wanted to see the Northern Lights, but I always keep Google alerts on low flight fairs to places that I just know I want to visit. And so I think I found the flight under. Six or 700 bucks and I was like, oh, that's not bad. Back in the day, it was so cheap to fly to Iceland. Like I used to see deals for like two 50 round trip from New York to Nik and yeah, I should have pounced on that, but it's harder today to get like such a cheap flight to Iceland. Anyway, I found a cheap deal and I booked it and I invited my mom. Half thinking she wasn't going to actually take me up on it because like I said, it was kind of last minute. But what sold her was they have many hot springs in Iceland. I mean, it's the country of fire and ice and you can get both. You can literally be in a beautiful hot spring surrounded by icebergs if you want to. It's incredible. And that was a selling point for my mom. My mom was like, oh, natural hot springs. Sign me up. And so, yeah, she met me in Iceland and it was such, first of all, a beautiful place. Like other worldly, I'm actually really glad that we went for the summer solstice, so they have the daylight hours or summer hours. So like the sun never sets. I tested this out. I stayed up as late as possible. I think the latest I stayed up was like 2:00 AM and it was still. Bright outside, like the sun doesn't set in the summer. The same is true for winter, so the inverse, that's why you can see the northern lights in winter because it barely ever gets light, which is so depressing. I also learned fun fact that Iceland is one of the happiest countries in the world, but did you also know they have the highest rates of people on antidepressants? Makes sense, right? Just dealing with how dark it gets here. I think it, getting dark here at 4:30 PM is highly depressing. I cannot imagine going in entire winter without seeing the sun. I think I would like literally not be okay. So anyway. Back to this. It was bright, it was still cold in June, um, because it's Iceland, but not frigid. And so we did all of these tours together. We did the golden circle. We saw geysers and glaciers and waterfalls and just everything. We like beaches. It was incredible. Like just the terrain there, the topography is. Literally another planet. It feels like you're on Mars. And that's why they shoot so many like sci-fi movies there. It was the most magical, grounding, ancestral healing trip of my life, and I'm so glad my mom was there. Like there was no better person. I can think of that should have accompanied me on that trip and we had the best time. So I'll be sharing that vlog hopefully before the end of 2025 with you guys. So make sure you're following the sober butterfly on YouTube to catch that. I also went to Keystone Colorado in June for a professional development opportunity, and that was also really fun.

the-sober-butterfly_14_12-19-2025_065232: 27:29

so travel wrapped Q2 five outta five. Yeah, easy. I got to go to Puerto Rico. I got to spend time with my mom in Florida for Mother's Day and then Iceland by far, one of the best trips of my life. Easily five out of five stars now dating. On the other hand, enter dating Rap Cube two in April. I went on two random hinge dates in April. Both were major flops. So yeah, they're not even noteworthy. I'm not gonna mention them. Now may, in fact, mother's Day weekend, but I was in Florida. I reconnected with best sex of my life. Callie guy. I reached out to him my first mistake and we started talking again. I think it was like from that point, so like I hadn't spoken to him since February, so from February to May now. I missed him and I wanted to check in, and I did. And he was open to that. And then we just started to, we kind of picked up where we left off, but also things just weren't the same. I can't explain it like we spent May and June reconnecting or like me believing or falsely believing that we could try to make it work again. But truly it was just disappointment on repeat. So. He pulled back his energy again, and then in June officially sent me some cryptic message, like telling me basically that he doesn't wanna talk to me.. And that was the end. So honestly, I'm gonna say Q2 dating rating is a one, one star, so not negative. It was one out of five. Now in terms of my goals, I'm gonna lump goals with mental health because I did have a goal in mind. It just wasn't on my 2025 vision board because I didn't make a 2025 vision board. However, from my 2024 vision board, one of the goals that I've had was to. Become a Pilates instructor, and that did come true partly for me this quarter. Back in April, I auditioned at a local Pilates studio here in New York, and right when I was in. Puerto Rico I received an email with an offer letter, so that was cool. In May I started to take class because I wasn't a member at that studio, I started to take class more often with that particular. Pilate studio. And then come June, I officially began my training. So yeah, that was like a goal I had that was coming to life, but it was also during a very chaotic period of the year and. Another thing I wanted was more visibility when it comes to my brand and the sober butterfly. And so I started to do more collaborations and I collaborated with this gym called New York Sports Club and that ended up being a great lesson for me which is number one, exposure does not pay bills. This was something that I agreed to do not as a monetary exchange, like not for money, but for time. They gave me a, a free membership for a couple months, but the amount of emails I was getting from their team was overwhelming and they had all of these different stipulations around what I could post and when I could post. And I was always behind my deadlines and I like to work out, but I'm not so much of a gym girly. I take classes, this is why I love ClassPass, who is a partner of this podcast.

Nadine Mulvina: 31:22

And now a quick word from our partners.

the-sober-butterfly_25_12-24-2024_142305: 31:24

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the-sober-butterfly_14_12-19-2025_065232: 32:39

Why I like class passes because I like to take classes and NYCS did offer classes. However, they don't have a good like system in place for creators like me who come in, who are expected to take video content. I would go to these classes and instructors would tell me I'm not allowed to record, and I would be showing them emails from their corporate team. Like, oh, I'm supposed to be in recording. And then the instructor would be like, well, nobody told me that, so I was just over it. So I learned exposure, doesn't pay the bills. I was so stressed out. And also time is currency. Like I spent way too much time for something that I feel like wasn't a great enough return for me. So in short, like it was just too demanding for a free membership, and I clocked that fast also. So winding down Q2, I think on paper things looked good. Travel Pilates training, collaborations, momentum. But internally I was truly exhausted and dysregulated and emotionally depleted. So I'm gonna give Q2 overall a rating. Hmm. I'm gonna give the two outta five. And the two is honestly just coming from. The trip I took with my mom to Iceland, like that trip carried the entire quarter for me.

the-sober-butterfly_15_12-19-2025_070142: 34:09

Quarter three August through October, you unlocked detachment and discernment. Okay, so my travel wrapped Q3, enter August, Peru. I went to Cusco. Did the Salkantay Trek with one of my good travel girlfriends, Kim. It was physically demanding, spiritually clarifying, and yeah, it, it was a lot. I talked extensively about my time in Peru, um, the highs and lows from that experience, the altitude sickness I experienced and everything in between. And my episode, return of the sober butterfly. So I'll also link it up below. This whole episode is like me plugging other episodes because I tell you guys a lot, and that was after a period of me ghosting you guys. So I had a lot to say. So make sure you listen to the episode. It's one of my favorites from this year. Anyway, Peru was a lot. That was my big trip, my big summer trip. September. I went to Arizona. I went to Sedona and to Phoenix for the Chris Brown concert with my cousin, which was a lot of fun. I like the desert. I like it a lot. And then come October, I went to DC to visit a friend that didn't even require a plane. I just took the bus. I think I learned something on that trip is like, it's not that I don't like to go out, like I, I actually like going out. Like I like to get dressed up and look cute, but I think for me it's more of an event. Like I need to know that There's going to either be a good opportunity for me to network and meet people, or I'm seeing something like a show, I just don't like the idea of like, let me go and like see what this potential party could be about. Like if this is gonna be a good party. I don't think I like to party anymore. I'm getting older guys. And then I also went to Chicago to see. This guy I reconnected with, don't worry, it's not the Cali guy. It's not the best sex I ever had guy. It was a guy I dated actually before the pandemic, and he and I reconnected when he came to New York for work Before COVID Life took us on separate journeys. He had left New York. I left New York, but when I returned to New York, he didn't,, he moved to California and now he was living in Chicago for a new role. He accepted and so I'd never been to Chicago. So when I saw him in New York, I was like, oh, he's cute. And we started talking. I was like, he's still cute. He was always cute, but like, I'm like, oh, you know, it's been like five years and you're still attractive. Great. And single. Great. So he and I, yeah, had some good energy and then ultimately ended up inviting me to Chicago and I went and that was a cute little trip. So yeah, that was my October travel, and, so I'll give my Q3 travel a four outta five stars. Peru was beautiful, but also like one of the hardest things I've ever done was the Salkantay Trek and. I poop my pants guys in, in short, like I'll, I'll just share that piece. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to listen to the episode, the return of the sober but butterfly. But yeah, I, I can't give it five stars. Like I, I poop, I poop my, my pants. I also got to do some other cool things like go to, you know, places in the country that I have never visited before, like Chicago and Phoenix and Sedona. So like, that was cool too. Now let's talk about my dating wrapped Q3. It was actually less chaotic, a lot more clarity and a lot more of observing instead of participating. As mentioned, I reconnected with pandemic guy, pre pandemic guy. And things were pretty calm, like pretty tame. He's a good communicator. I'm decent. We're working on my communication and we're more mature, and so yeah, it just feels very adult right now, which I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but he's the only person I've been dating this quarter. Well, now we're in quarter four, but starting quarter three and yeah, I'm gonna say three out of five. Neutral, peaceful, informative.

the-sober-butterfly_17_12-19-2025_070840: 38:29

As far as my goals wrapped, Q3, I've always wanted to go to Machu Picchu, so that was a major life goal of mine and I got to do that. But the Salkantay Trek, that was not. On my Bingo card, so that felt like a major personal win because I accomplished something so difficult. I also mentioned in my return of the sober Butterfly episode that I was fired from my Pilates job. So yeah, losing Pilates. Actually was a major goal. I didn't even know I had, it offered so much redirection because I share in that episode like how I'm not good at quitting things, and I never would've quit or thrown in the towel. So yeah, I was very grateful when they told me that. You know, it wasn't a good fit. Agreed and then the last dating piece, like it felt intentional this year, like it, or this quarter I should say. Like not dating, being away from a dating apps, and talking to this guy in Chicago felt manageable and felt good. So Q3, I would give it actually a four out of five, as a whole. It was one of the best quarters of my life. No. Whoa. Walk that back. Definitely not of my life. One of the best quarters of the year. Okay.

the-sober-butterfly_19_12-19-2025_071154: 39:55

Quarter four, November through December. Your most replayed lesson, trust yourself. and that brings us to quarter four. Welcome to the present. November. I took a solo trip to El Salvador vg coming soon, I promise. That was one of my favorite trips this year. It was so grounding, soul affirming. It gave me the quiet confidence that I needed, that I was missing.'cause I think that's a big part of it. When you're so down and low and directionless like you, you tend to lose faith in your abilities to show up and be your authentic self or be, you know, confident in who you are. And so that trip really allowed me to like quiet my surroundings. Highly, highly, highly recommend going to El Salvador. It is super safe. Don't worry. One of the safest countries in the freaking world. Now, December, more recently, I went to Miami for Art Basel. My. Very first Art Basel and I love art so much so like it was right at my alley. I love the creative energy. I felt super inspired. That was a girls' trip. I shared that, you know, girls trip aren't always my jam, but I had a great time in spite of a little. Drama in the friend group. It was a beautiful reminder that I do love stimulation, just not chaos. Now, my Q4 dating, like I said, I am still talking to Chicago guy, but at the same time, I would rather not date Samone long distance again, even if he's just in Chicago, he doesn't plan on staying in Chicago. He really doesn't have many plans on moving back to New York. Um, so yeah, I don't know. We'll see. And so my Q4 wrapped goals, I think this quarter was all about like integration and slowing down and learning to listen to my body more, and then just trusting any like redirections from the universe. So I'm gonna actually going to give this quarter, give full four out of five rating because I feel like I'm finally ending the year with more alignment and intention, and that's because I'm getting more clear around what I should and should not be doing.

the-sober-butterfly_20_12-19-2025_071656: 42:16

Okay, so my final wrapped scores, I think travel for me this year has been a solid four outta five stars. Dating has been, I would say, if we average everything. Probably like a A 1.5 outta five, but I will say it was emotionally necessary and goals I would give a three outta five because even though I didn't have much clear direction, I was still able to do a lot of big milestones for myself that. I'm proud of. So if in closing, if 2025 has taught me anything, it's the fact that I can be sober, I can be successful, I can travel the world and still be grieving versions of myself, my relationships, and the timelines I thought would happen by now. And so my reminder to you is that growth is not linear. Healing is not always like aesthetic. I've complained a lot about 2025 I have. And I will say, even though this certainly was not my best gear and I didn't feel good a lot of the year. I would say this year has changed me forever. And so for that, I am grateful to you 2025. So in closing, so thank you. If this episode resonated, please share it. Please rate the podcast pop stars only and if you wanna share something that you've loved from this episode or a question you may have, feel free to DM me at the period Soba Butterfly on Instagram. Until next time, butterflies, I will see you next week. Until next time, butterflies, remember to choose yourself every time. Love you. Bye.