As we find ourselves at the gateway of yet another year, a stocktake of the last twelve months is in order.

2025 started well for this long-term (if newly-qualified: CIOL DipTrans 2023) translator.

2024 had enabled me to build on my language and translation skills through CIEP courses, Bristol Translates, the BCLT Summer School, increased networking via ITI groups, LinkedIn and the Meet the Translator Monday interviews on my blog. Professional relationships had been forged, more regular work was forthcoming, and the consolidation of my previous experience, interests and strengths into the more specific field of medical translation was complete. Despite having translated on and off for over twenty years, I finally felt able to introduce myself as a translator.

Early 2025 also brought me an ADHD diagnosis, followed by an AuDHD diagnosis: finally providing answers to a lifetime of frustrated, angry, anguished and self-recriminatory questions screamed into the abyss. An explanation for a previously incomprehensible inability to just get on and do, as others seem to be able to do so easily, was the first step along the path to transforming self-hatred into something a little more forgiving. Finding a wonderful ADHD coach who helped me begin to wield the necessary tools to work around around the neurodivergent road blocks, as opposed to crashing loudly into them, was another very important step. Thank you, Hiba.

So yes, 2025 appeared to be following a hopeful trajectory.

Until Life got in the way, as is its wont. This Spring I developed acute pain on the right side of my face. Neither doctor nor dentist could shed any light. Despite previous bouts of Trigeminal Neuralgia, I’d been in remission for 20 years, and anyway, this felt different. Medication that had previously knocked TN1 on the head within a week of the first symptoms made no difference at all, other than sending me to A&E with hyponatraemia. Debilitating pain left me often unable to talk, let alone function in any other meaningful way. Months, blood tests and an MRI passed, before a neurologist finally diagnosed TN2 (Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia) and SUNCT syndrome (Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing). I was given medication options, and told nothing further could be done for me if they didn’t work. Luckily, after another few months and a relapse, a combination of pills got me back on my feet, albeit shakily.

So, what then? Well, I can only hope that I have filled the last few months of my convalescence wisely. The wonderful ITI MedNet group facilitated medical translation mentorships, enabling skills to be practised and knowledge to be honed. I have produced translations, from Romanian, Italian, French and Spanish into English, that have been meticulously dissected and critiqued by more experienced colleagues to ensure I can continue to feel able to introduce myself as a medical translator. A trickle of work, various online medical translation courses and Mosby’s Anatomy and Physiology Colouring Book have also done their part in keeping me (and my crayons) sane.

Managing my husband’s Handyman business, shepherding our nearly 12-year-old towards the terrible teens, and helping to keep four dogs, an ever-changing number of fish, six freshwater shrimp, one hamster, a plethora of house plants, and my mother, on the straight and narrow has adequately occupied the rest of my time.  

As a reward for not throwing all my toys out of the pram during the last 8 or 9 months, my family is allowing me to escape to Romania for a month in Spring 2026: an opportunity to further improve my spoken Romanian without an unkind daughter shuddering at my accent, four weeks to gorge, unrestrained, on sarmale and kürtőskalács, and a period of solitary reflection during which I hope to re-connect with the fiercely independent Modern-Day Nomad I once was.

A trusty laptop will be along for the ride, so I will be very much open for matters of translation! kirstylowe@lovelanguages.uk

As I wave goodbye to 2025 (with an added middle-fingered salute for those months of pain), I have a number of wishes for 2026:

• I wish for Humanity to rediscover its humanity before it is too late.

• I wish for an end to the unimaginable suffering wreaked by weak men at the altar of their repulsive egos.

• I wish for an end to the accumulation of the world’s wealth in the hands of an avaricious few.

• I wish for a world-wide awakening to an inescapable truth: if we don’t make protecting and nurturing the planet we live on a priority, wishing for anything else will soon be a moot point.

• (sneaking one in for the industry) I wish for Tech Bros to work towards the betterment of humanity, as opposed to the interest of their monumental egos and over-stuffed wallets. If AI must exist, then make it a force for good, not a common thief: stealing the hard work of talented humans in order to recreate it cheaply and badly, decimating the only industries offering an outlet for human creativity in the process. History may remember you more kindly if you do…

Wishing you all, all the very best for 2026. I hope it brings you peace, love, health and contentment.