Welcome to Edition 7.26 of the Rocket Report! Let's pause and reflect on how far the rocket business has come in the last 10 years. On this date in 2015, SpaceX made the first attempt to land a Falcon 9 booster on a drone ship positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. Not surprisingly, the rocket crash-landed. In less than a year and a half, though, SpaceX successfully landed reusable Falcon 9 boosters onshore and offshore, and now has done it nearly 400 times. That was remarkable enough, but we're in a new era now. Within a few days, we could see SpaceX catch its second Super Heavy booster and Blue Origin land its first New Glenn rocket on an offshore platform. Extraordinary.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Our annual ranking of the top 10 US launch companies. You can easily guess who made the top of the list: the company that launched Falcon rockets 134 times in 2024 and launched the most powerful and largest rocket ever built on four test flights, each accomplishing more than the last. The combined 138 launches is more than NASA flew the Space Shuttle over three decades. SpaceX will aim to launch even more often in 2025. These missions have far-reaching impacts, supporting Internet coverage for consumers worldwide, launching payloads for NASA and the US military, and testing technology that will take humans back to the Moon and, someday, Mars.

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• I thought Gen Z would love my company because I built a fun, inviting culture.
• However, my first Gen Z intern wanted to explore departments outside her internship.
• She "quiet quit" and then left the company four months later because I treated her poorly.

For years, I dreamed of working for a company like Google. After all, who wouldn't want to head into the office on Monday morning and be greeted by sleeping pods, VR summits, or Quidditch matches? The entire place was a millennial wonderland with a never-ending supply of cereal bars and gluten-free baked goods.

The early 2000s was the genesis of open office spaces, open-door policies, and open-mindedness. When I started my own business, I copied and pasted this format and waited for Gen Z to knock down my door, begging to work for me.

But my neon signage, proclaiming a fun and diversified environment with great company culture, only caught the interest of one Gen Z applicant.

Thankfully, she seemed like the perfect fit for our internship. Her values aligned with my company, and her education and experience fit our exact needs. But after multiple Zoom meetings, I felt like I was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

She clearly decided to "quiet quit" after a week and didn't stay after her internship. Instead of looking at myself and my own company, I blamed the new hire.

My intern had goals I didn't expect

When I set out to bring in my first intern, I presented my company as a place where everyone belongs and can bring their entire self to the table. Well, I didn't exactly honor that goal. Instead of taking the time to ask my intern questions and find out what her goals were, I saw her as a solution to my needs.

I hated creating social media campaigns. So, when my intern's résumé boasted her experience and educational background in digital communication, I leaped at the chance to bring her onto the team and use her skills.

But in one of our first meetings, she told me she wanted to explore different departments and figure out if this industry was right for her.

I panicked. I hoped she'd focus solely on my need for social media, but she was interested in branching out beyond that.

My cool office culture didn't seem to appease her or her curiosity to learn more. She lost interest in the company quickly, and I noticed her "quiet quitting." After four months, she left the company for good.

I quickly learned Gen Z is different in the workplace

As a geriatric millennial, I wasn't raised to see my degree separate from my future career plans. I picked classes that made sense for my aspirational goals and chose internships that aligned with my education and background.

But that's not what Generation Z is about. They're interested in exploring and learning — especially during internships. They want a full experience, and that includes trying on different hats to see what fits.

My intern wanted to experience what it was like to live in my shoes, to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I wish I could tell you that I adapted and was the best boss ever, but I'd be lying. I lost my intern because I couldn't figure out what to do with her. I ignored her and gave her menial tasks to fill her schedule.

I wish I had done so many things differently

Firstly, I would have broken away from my interview script and gotten to know her. I would have asked her about her five-year plan, what her hobbies were, and how I could help her reach her goals.

As much as I wish I had changed sooner, there's a huge part of me that's so grateful for this failure. It taught me to break a lot of my own biases and think in broader terms of creating a place of belonging.

Even though I wasn't able to retain my first intern, I retained all the lessons she taught me. I will forever be grateful for that.

• Drew Barrymore says her female friendships have kept her "anchored" through the years.
• Research has shown that having strong friendships is as important as exercise for longevity.
• However, it can be difficult to make and maintain friendships in adulthood.

Drew Barrymore, 49, is grateful that she has supportive female friends to rely on.

During Wednesday's episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show," which featured guest Julianne Moore, the talk show host spoke about the strong friendships she shares with the women in her life.

"I think female friendship has been the thing that probably anchored my life the most," Barrymore said.

"Most of my friends I've had for 30 and 40 years — I'm going to be 50 — so it's like my whole life I've known these people," she said. "I trust them implicitly."

The "Never Been Kissed" star had a troubled childhood: She was 13 when she entered a youth rehab center for drug use, and she was 14 when she was legally emancipated from her mother.

Barrymore said her friends are "very honest" with her and know what she's been through.

"I feel like not having had traditional family, everything is possible through my female friendships," Barrymore said, adding that they help her get through her heartbreaks "much easier."

"Every time I've ever been dumped, my first phone call is my girlfriends. They make it so much better," Barrymore said.

In particular, Barrymore has been open about her friendships with her "Charlie's Angels" costars, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

The three of them have made public appearances together over the years, including the premiere episode of Barrymore's talk show in 2020.

Barrymore revealed in a 2021 Instagram Live that she was friends with Diaz long before they shared a screen.

"We met when I was 14 and she was 16. I was working at a coffee house and she was a junior model. She's still my bestie," Barrymore said.

There are plenty of celebrity best friends in Hollywood, including Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, who became friends after a snowstorm in 1976, and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who have known each other since meeting on set in 1980.

Research has found that having good friendships could be as important as exercise and diet for living longer.

However, adult friendships can be tricky to form and maintain, Dr. Frederick Smith, a psychologist, told Business Insider previously.

"As adults, we have many obligations," Dr. Smith said. "We may have responsibilities to our job, family, children, or education. We spend a lot of time doing these things, so we may not have enough time to devote to going out and developing friendships."

However, there are ways for people to improve their friendships, he said. This includes practicing healthy boundaries, communicating clearly, and actively working to keep the relationship alive.

"Both people have to work to maintain it," he said. "Friendship should not be one-sided. If you only call me when you need something, or you only call me when you're going through some type of turmoil, and then I never hear from you, then that's a problem."

A representative for Barrymore did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.

• The Los Angeles firestorms show how quickly wildfires can turn into urban fires.
• Flying embers, not direct flames, often ignite homes first.
• Homeowners can mitigate fire risk by maintaining a clear perimeter around their properties.

The firestorms razing Los Angeles show how quickly wildfires can turn into devastating urban conflagrations.

Two fire management experts say there's a common misunderstanding about how homes ignite under these conditions. Understanding how a brush fire becomes urban can help homeowners prepare their properties for future fires.

Take a look at the below photo. Not all the homes on this block are up in flames yet, and blazes in the distance appear to be spaced apart.

"These are scattered ignitions. It's not this wave of destruction," Jack Cohen, a former fire research scientist at the US Forest Service, told Business Insider.

Cohen isn't in Los Angeles, but he studied wildland-urban fires for more than 30 years, both in the lab and in the field. The magnitude of the LA fires is unprecedented, he said, but the process by which they burned down homes probably is not.

It's not a wall of flame or radiative heat from a wildfire that overtakes neighborhoods, he said. Often it's flying embers landing in flammable spots on and around homes.

These "spot ignitions" are like kindling. Embers accumulate on roofs or in yards. Soon ornamental plants, leaf-filled gutters, firewood piles, or deck chairs are up in flames.

If those little fires are close enough to the house, the flames can start to overtake the building.

How homeowners can reduce future fire risk

Homeowners can help prevent future fires from spreading to their homes by maintaining a five-foot perimeter of no flammable materials — no mulch, no ornamental plants, no layers of fallen pine needles, and no piles of wood.

Even better is a 30-foot perimeter that's "lean, clean and green," according to FEMA. If you have that much space around your house, keeping it clear of dead branches and keeping trees and bushes well-spaced can help.

"You are where the rubber meets the road. The things you do on your house and around your house are going to make the difference," Pat Durland, a wildfire-mitigation specialist and instructor for the National Fire Protection Association with 30 years of federal wildfire management experience, told Business Insider.

With the proper perimeter, Cohen said, even homes caught in conflagrations like the Palisades and Eaton fires could survive.

However, photos from the aftermath so far in the Palisades don't seem to show surviving houses unique amid burned blocks.

Cohen noted that trees are still standing in some of those areas, which is visible in live news coverage, showing the fires didn't move through neighborhoods like a wall of flames.

Because embers can travel far, spot ignitions can crop up in various, seemingly random locations throughout a wildfire-adjacent neighborhood. Suddenly a house is on fire here, and another one over there.

Then the houses spread the fire to each other.

Sometimes that happens when a burning house's roof collapses, Cohen said, which sends a convective column up into the wind, which can then push flames into other houses.

Alternatively, the wind can loft burning material from a house and carry it to other homes, igniting new fires.

The extreme winds that have buffeted LA this week spread those embers and bits of burning debris far and wide.

Some houses are close enough to their neighbors that, if the next house has flammable siding — made of wood, perhaps — the mounting flames can quickly overtake it.

Even when houses are close together, building with non-flammable materials can help.

Once houses are up in flames in a place like the Palisades, Cohen and Durland said, it's no longer a wildfire. It's an urban fire.

With thousands of homes ablaze and powerful winds stoking the flames, firefighters have been unable to contain the fires in Los Angeles.

To stop things from getting to that point — before fires ever start — it's crucial for cities and communities to clear dry, highly flammable grasses and brush, whether through controlled burns, livestock grazing programs, or other means.

"This is a team sport, okay? Nobody can solve this alone," Durland said. "It is going to take community planning and it's going to take leadership at the political level and the community level and the state level."

An upsized version of SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket rolled to the launch pad early Thursday in preparation for liftoff on a test flight next week.

The two-mile transfer moved the bullet-shaped spaceship one step closer to launch Monday from SpaceX's Starbase test site in South Texas. The launch window opens at 5 pm EST (4 pm CST; 2200 UTC). This will be the seventh full-scale test flight of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft and the first of 2025.

In the coming days, SpaceX technicians will lift the ship on top of the Super Heavy booster already emplaced on the launch mount. Teams will then complete the final tests and preparations for the countdown on Monday.

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Baby boomers, they're just like us. Or, rather, we're just like them. And by "we," I mean millennials. The inevitable march of time often means turning into your parents, no matter how much you swore you wouldn't. Millennials (and, to be fair, many Gen Xers) are no exception — now that the electricity bill is on you, you get why your dad was always admonishing you to turn the lights off.

Millennials — people born from 1981 to 1996 — have long had a "forever young" air to them. Obviously, they're not going to be young forever, and plenty of them are pushing 40 or already there, but the generation has been marked by a sense of arrested development. The stereotypical millennial is a 33-year-old still living in his parent's basement, lamenting he'll be a forever renter with no hope of retiring.

But the reality of many millennials is starting to more closely mirror their parents'. They're catching up on earnings and wealth, and while they're still behind on homeownership, they're not screwed. It may have taken them awhile to settle down, but they're getting around to it and heading to the suburbs. In short, millennials are looking increasingly boomer-esque, and in some areas, they're doing better than their parents.

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Since his father died in 2022, William has spent a lot of time reflecting on how much he's turned into his old man. He followed his career path and became a lawyer. At 31, he's married, like his dad was when he was his age. He doesn't own a home yet, but he plans to buy a place someday soon in his hometown of Philadelphia. And while he's catching up to his dad in many ways, William, who asked for his last name to be withheld to protect his privacy, recognizes he's surpassed him in other areas. For one thing, he's more financially literate than his parents were, thanks to the "whole democratization of finance thing," he said. Not that he's doing anything weird on the stock market, but he knows how to buy an exchange-traded fund. Qualitatively, he's noticed similarities, too, in how he talks, his sense of humor, and how he sees the world.

It's like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, to be cliché.

"You realize that they are much more in you than you were maybe comfortable with, and you see some of the same strengths and flaws that your parents had," he said. "Everyone wants to be their own person, but statistically, I'm doing a version of the same job as both of my parents. It's like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, to be cliché."

Plenty of millennial apples are looking pretty treelike nowadays. While many weren't dealt the best hand at the start of their independent economic lives, they've done quite a bit of catching up.

The median weekly earnings of full-time workers ages 25 to 34 were $1,045 ($54,340 annually) in 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up 4% from $1,004 in 1979 ($52,208), adjusted for inflation. For the 35-to-44 crowd, wages are up by 13%, to $1,250 ($65,000) from $1,102 ($57,304).

The oldest baby boomers reached 30 in 1976, while the youngest reached that mark in 1994. They hit 40 between 1986 and 2004. Elder millennials hit 30 in 2001, and the last batch will get there in 2026. Their 40th birthdays started coming in 2021 and will stop in 2036.

Wealthwise, millennials are also doing decently, if not even better than their parents. The Survey of Consumer Finances found that people ages 35 to 44 had a median net worth of $130,380 in 1989, adjusted for inflation. In 2022, that number was slightly higher, at $135,300. Those under 35 are doing better, too, with a net worth of $39,040 in 2022, compared with $18,740 in 1989.

Like William, other millennials are more invested in the stock market than their parents. This may be in part out of necessity — the shift from pensions to 401(k)s means retirement saving requires them to play the markets on their own. The Survey of Consumer Finances found that 63.6% of Americans ages 35 to 44 had stock holdings in 2022, compared with 39.2% in 1989. That number jumped to 54.4% from 22.7% for those under 35.

Even beyond the more passive investing of 401(k)s, 20.6% of people ages 35 to 44 invested in stocks directly as of 2022, compared with 16.5% in 1989. Direct stock ownership for people under 35 hit a record 23.1% in the latest reading, well above the 10.9% of young people who owned shares in 1989. This data seems to back up the sense among some millennials that investing was one area where their parents fell short.

That's the case for Faith Bergman, a 28-year-old who works in fintech and lives in New York. She's got plenty of similarities with her mother — she uses some of the same phrases (they're both particularly fond of "six in one, half a dozen in the other"), is overly enthusiastic about keeping her apartment clean, and attributes some of her outgoing personality traits to her upbringing. But she and her sister are more focused on investing and their financial well-being in the long term than their mom was.

"Investing, especially investing as a woman, has not always been a common theme or practice," Bergman said. "I think it's more of just a lack of awareness."

Rob Williams, a managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab, said millennials have more access to information and ways to invest than their baby boomer counterparts. A recent survey from Schwab found that millennials started investing at 25 on average, compared with 35 for boomers. (Gen Z is getting into the game even sooner, at 19.) Despite the head start, millennials still bear the scars of their early years. They're slightly less confident than baby boomers in their investing strategies, and they're less assured about reaching their financial goals compared with older generations.

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Sure, millennials may have built up a decent nest egg for themselves, but if there's one trope that defines the avocado-toast generation, it's that they will never, ever own a home. It's certainly true that the 2008 crash and the pandemic-era frenzy put many members of the generation behind the eight ball: The homeownership rate for people under 35 is lower for millennials than it was for boomers and Gen Xers at the same age, noted Jessica Lautz, the deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors, citing Census Bureau data. But the situation is also more complicated. The tough early road put millennials behind baby boomers in terms of homeownership, but some are getting to where they want to be. Millennials aren't so much nonmovers as they are slow movers.

Millennials aren't locked out of the housing market forever; they're just not getting there until middle age.

As of 2022, over half of millennials were homeowners. Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, told me millennials are pretty close to where Gen X was at their age, and they're closing the gap with boomers, too, even if they're still behind by five to 10 years.

"The baby boomer homeownership rate started to plateau when baby boomers reached the age of late 40s, early 50s. So I think that by the time the oldest millennials are in their late 40s, early 50s, that's probably when they're going to be much closer to baby boomers," Fairweather said. Boomers have been slow to downsize and give up their homes, but that will shift, too, she added, meaning more inventory on the market for younger generations.

It's not necessarily a question of no buying — it's a question of postponed buying. The median age of first-time homebuyers has reached a record high of 38 years old, the NAR says. Back in the '80s, people were buying their first homes in their late 20s. Millennials aren't locked out of the housing market forever; they're just not getting there until middle age.

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I know what you might be thinking, or, at least, what I was thinking while going through a lot of this data: Not all millennials are floating through life hunky-dory, on track to catch up with their parents. As with many things in American society, the experiences of millennials are profoundly unequal, said Rob Gruijters, a sociologist at the University of Bristol who has studied the wealth gap among US millennials. Looking at medians and averages can paper over significant divisions within the generation. While wealthy millennials are doing better than their boomer parents, poorer millennials are doing worse.

"There's huge variation in wealth within generations, far more than there is between generations," he said. "Overall distribution of wealth has become more unequal within generations and also across the board."

Much like our quirks and go-to phrases, a lot of the disparity between millennials is influenced by how our boomer parents did, wealth- and incomewise. There's a high correlation between your wealth and occupation and those of your parents, Gruijters said, and in the case of wealth, it's often a matter of direct transmission in the forms of gifts and inheritance. "If your parents are wealthy, he said, "then you're also quite likely to be wealthy." Aging into your parents may be good, in that Mom and Dad have a house and inheritance to pass on to you, or bad, in that they basically tell you, "You're on your own, good luck."

On housing, Redfin's Fairweather told me that where your parents live and who they are have a big effect on millennials' experiences. Housing prices in coastal cities are a lot higher than they are in the middle of the country, thanks to differences in land costs, population density, and availability. So millennials attempting to keep up with their parents who tried their hands in larger urban areas may have a harder time keeping pace. If you're a 30-something making $150,000 a year, buying a home in San Francisco probably feels a lot more out of reach than it does in, say, Janesville, Wisconsin.

"There is a big trade-off millennials have to face," Fairweather said. "Can they really make it in the city or go somewhere more affordable and not have that city lifestyle?"

In other words, it may not be that all the millennials headed to the suburbs want to be there, but in some cases, they feel like they have no choice but to exit urban centers and swallow a longer commute in the process.

"The plurality are moving to the suburbs, but that's where the housing stock is," Lautz said. Some of it has to do with having school-age kids, for example, but a lot has to do with affordability and availability.

Redfin says Black millennials are half as likely to own a home as white millennials, which tracks with the experience of their boomer parents. But while the older generation has since caught up somewhat, it's not clear whether millennials will make the same (still short) strides. It's a case of one generation's wealth seeding the next generation in a country where a significant racial wealth gap exists.

"With homeownership becoming so unaffordable, it's widening that inequality gap by race and, obviously, by wealth as well," Fairweather said.

People buying their first homes have "substantially higher" incomes nowadays than in the past, Lautz said. "We also know that they're more likely to use stocks, they're more likely to use 401(k)s or cryptocurrency for their down payments," she said. "So that would indicate not only a higher income but a wealthier first-time homebuyer who can get into the market."

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There are a lot of awkward parts to aging. You lose your cool factor. Your body starts to show more wear and tear. You realize the adult in the room is supposed to be you. It also means you start to think about your parents differently — what they achieved, what they didn't, what they were right (and wrong) about all along.

It can be uncomfortable to admit that you see more of your parents in yourself than you'd like. As much as millennials were supposed to be minimalists, they're loading up on stuff just as much as their stuff-loving predecessors. Politically, just like generations past, many are moving to the right as they age. They may have been reluctant to get married and have kids, but they're still hitting those milestones eventually.

Victoria Lamson, a 37-year-old who works in public relations and lives in San Francisco, acknowledges she was set up for success, generationally — her parents own a business, and they've instilled in her a lot of their traditional values around getting married and buying a home. Like many millennials, she wants to parent her children differently. She and her husband are also trying to travel more now instead of saving all their money for when they retire. Still, she knows her lifestyle isn't really a departure. When her children ask questions, she tries not to give the "because I said so" her parents gave her, but sometimes, she just can't stop herself. "There are definitely the moments that I have said that," she said.

While a lot of millennials may be turning into their boomer parents — just look at those Progressive commercials about it — it is, perhaps, hitting different. In modern history, younger generations have outdone their predecessors, the proverbial idea that you'd end up better off than your parents. But if they bought a home young, went to college, and had solid careers, it's hard to outdo that. Even matching it may feel like falling short.

Millennials are also weighed down by a pervasive sense of precarity. They remember 9/11, and they saw the economic bottom fall out during the Great Recession. They're also facing an uncertain future for government programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and the real winners in the economy are increasingly concentrated at the top.

For many people, there is something at least a bit charming in recognizing their parents in themselves.

"Even if they were in some ways keeping up with where they should have been had nothing changed in the economy, the massive fiscal gap that the country's facing is going to land on their heads as they reach retirement," Laurence Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University, said.

Maybe it will get figured out. Maybe it won't. Millennials' experience tells them to have some concerns.

The good news for millennials, on average, is that they are generally turning out OK, despite the headlines a decade ago proclaiming that lattes would doom them to eternal squalor. The bad news is that OK does not always feel great, especially in a culture where the expectation is you're constantly striving to do more and better.

For many people, there is something at least a bit charming in recognizing their parents in themselves. Millennials' kids are now rolling their eyes when songs from the 2000s come on in the car, just as millennials did when the boomers played their '70s hits. They understand why Mom was always turning the heat down, or why Dad insisted it was very important they know how to change a tire. As much as they complain about boomers being hoarders, they're now staring down their own stack of two-decade-old high school yearbooks.

Millennials aren't the lost generation after all. They're boomers 2.0, with a side of avocado toast.

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Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Scott Disick, 41, says he doesn't plan to introduce his kids to a new partner unless it's "the right person."
• He has been co-parenting his three kids with his ex, Kourtney Kardashian, since their 2015 split.
• Dating as a single parent can be difficult since it can bring up complex emotions for your child.

Scott Disick, 41, says he has no plans to get into a serious relationship until his children get older.

Khloé Kardashian interviewed Disick on the first episode of "Khloé in Wonder Land," her new podcast, which premiered Wednesday on X. Disick spoke about navigating the dating landscape as a single dad.

Disick has three kids — Mason, 15, Penelope, 12, and Reign, 10 — with his ex, Kourtney Kardashian. The former couple called it quits in 2015 but continue to co-parent.

"They'd like me to be with somebody, I think. And they do voice to me that they'd like me to be with someone," Disick told Khloé, referring to his kids. "And I kind of say, until I find the right person, I don't really want to bring another person around unless it's like the end all, be all person."

The reality star said he didn't want his kids to "get attached" to somebody else in the meantime.

"But they're all starting to get older and it's not that much longer until they're of age, all of them," Disick said. "So for the next 5, 6, 7, years — if my attention is on them, I have the rest of my life to be a single guy."

He added that he likes that his focus is on his kids right now.

"And if I was with somebody else, I'd still be a good dad but I would have somebody that I'd be putting on a pedestal near them," Disick said.

Since his separation from Kourtney, Disick has been romantically linked to several other celebrities over the years — most notably Sofia Richie, whom he dated between 2017 and 2020.

Dating as a single parent can be difficult, especially since it can bring up complex emotions for your child.

"Children always respond with some confusion about their parent's new partner and what's different," Ron L. Deal, a licensed marriage and family therapist told Business Insider previously. "Confusion means 'I'm not sure what to do with you, where to put you in my heart, or what role you're going to play in my life.'"

A good way to manage the transition would be to talk your kids through the decisions you're making in the relationship and listen to their concerns, Deal said.

It can also be beneficial to reach out to professionals for support, such as through family therapy.

A representative for Disick did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular office hours.

Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to the way that Meta moderates its social media sites.

• Meta is moving its safety and content moderation teams from California to Texas and other states.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the shifts would help address concerns of bias and over-censorship.
• Zuckerberg's Meta appears to be following the lead of Elon Musk's X in prioritizing free speech.

Mark Zuckerberg is moving Meta's platform security and content oversight teams out of California and shifting staff who review posts to Texas in a bid to combat concerns about liberal bias and over-censorship at his social-media empire.

The CEO of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads' parent company said on Tuesday that the moves would help return Meta to its "roots around free expression and giving people voice on our platforms."

Zuckerberg wrote that Meta would "move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US content review to Texas. This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content."

California is widely recognized as a progressive state while Texas is traditionally conservative. Zuckerberg likely hopes that shifting oversight of his social networks to red states like Texas will help assuage claims that blue-state liberals are silencing conservative voices.

Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, confirmed the changes in a blog post, writing that the company will relocate the teams "that write our content policies and review content out of California to Texas and other US locations."

He told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that Meta was seeking to "rebalance" and "rebuild trust" among users who felt their perspectives were not wanted on its networks.

"We want to make sure that they understand that their views are welcome and that we're providing a space for them to come onto our platforms, engage, express themselves, engage in the important issues of the day or not in the important issues of the day and just whatever it is they want to talk about and share," Kaplan said.

Zuckerberg, Meta's billionaire cofounder and largest shareholder, also laid out plans to replace fact-checkers with Community Notes. He will also lift restrictions on topics like immigration and gender, ease overall censorship and instead focus on stopping illegal and severe policy violations, return civic content to users' feeds, and work with President-elect Trump to resist pressure from foreign governments to make US companies censor more.

Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in late 2022 and rebranded it X, has made free expression a priority on his platform and spearheaded the use of Community Notes as a substitute for fact-checking and censorship.

Musk also shut X's headquarters in San Francisco last fall in favor of operating the company out of Bastrop, Texas.

• Former director at PwC and British Airways Michael Doolin has 36 years of experience in HR.
• He shares his advice for job-seekers who have been laid off and are interviewing for new roles.
• Doolin said it's important to frame the lay off as an opportunity and shared suggested scripts.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Michael Doolin, CEO of Clover HR and former human resources director at PwC, British Airways, and DPD in Ireland. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

A redundancy, also known as being laid off, is a forced exit and a permanent loss of employment that occurs when employers need to reduce their workforce.

I've been telling people bad news for nearly 40 years. It doesn't get any easier. I'm impacting the lives of the people in front of me, as well as their partners and family. It has a tremendous knock-on effect.

30 years ago, one of my previous bosses told me that I must never lose that sense of responsibility. Redundancies need to be handled very sensitively. It's important to me that the individual leaves the room with their head held high, knowing that they've been treated fairly and transparently.

It's not unusual to be made redundant. Most of the time, the employee has done nothing wrong. The average person will have 12 jobs throughout their career, and redundancies can happen in that time. Between July and September 2024, 90,000 people were made redundant in the UK.

In future job interviews, hiring managers will usually ask, "Why did you leave your last role?" Here's how to navigate having been laid off in an interview for a new job.

Be transparent

Don't avoid the question. Be upfront and say: "I left my previous company due to redundancy. There were a number of positions lost, and, unfortunately, I was one of those affected." Provide a clear and concise explanation of the circumstances, and give specifics about the scale of the redundancy if you know them.

Do not lie about layoffs. A skilled interviewer can see when people aren't being open. When you can see someone being dishonest as an interviewer, it gives negative signals about the candidate's character and resilience.

Be honest about your disappointment, but stress that you've moved on

It's fair to tell your interviewers that losing your job was a shock. You can say that it's a huge change, and that it's been disappointing or depressing. Expressing your feelings demonstrates emotional intelligence, showing that you can process challenges and learning from them.

Being open about the emotional impact of redundancy requires a balance. Ultimately, you should remain professional and focus on growth. Tell your interviewers that, after a period of reflection, you've moved forward. Interviewers typically respond positively to candidates who acknowledge their challenges while emphasizing how they've used the experience to grow and realign their career goals, not those who continue to be downhearted about their previous lives.

Focus on the positives

It's very possible to draw positives from your redundancy situation. It can be viewed through the lens of change: new skill opportunities, new ways of working, and new horizons.

For example, you can say: "I was sad to leave my employer of X years. I've reflected on that and realized that it gave me the opportunity to be in a room with you, talking about my vision for the future and the skills and experiences that I can bring to this team. I'm very excited about that.

"In a way, my redundancy has done me a favor because I'm enthused, energetic, and looking forward to the future. Possibly, it's a change I wouldn't have undertaken had I not been forced to, but I'm embracing it as an opportunity."

Remain professional

If you're feeling resentment or anger about your redundancy, you need to handle this outside the interview. Candidates should see the interview room as a shop window to facilitate their potential entry into a new career. You have to go into that opportunity with your best efforts. It is not the time to express anger or recrimination.

Don't criticize your previous employer. You can use adverbs like "sadly," "disappointingly," or "regrettably" when talking about your last job. The interviewer may pick up the subtle hints you weren't happy with how layoffs was handled.

Highlight your achievements

It's still important to discuss your achievements in your previous employment, even if you were made redundant. They don't go away. Share specific examples of how you met or exceeded expectations to reinforce your value and forward-thinking attitude.

Just because the business failed, it doesn't mean you failed. Be sure to share any details that give more context to the scale of the redundancy with interviewers.

Remember that redundancies are usually not the employee's fault

Most layoffs are due to changing market outlooks, foreign exchange movements, or world events outside one's control. Either way, redundancy is not something to be ashamed of.

Approaching an interview without shame around being laid off will allow you to present yourself positively, emphasizing your achievements and skills. By framing redundancy as an opportunity for growth, you demonstrate resilience and adaptability.

This mindset shows you can turn challenges into stepping stones, which can be appealing to prospective employers.

As early as this Friday, SpaceX will test its megarocket with several upgrades and attempt to deploy Starlink mockups.

• After five years of marriage, my husband and I got stuck going on the same boring dates.
• We needed a change, so I proposed "adrenaline dates" to get our hearts racing and bond us together.
• Each adventurous date has been more exciting than the last, and they've brought us closer.

After five years of marriage, my husband and I were in danger of calcifying into the "dining dead" — couples who have nothing to say to each other over meals, dutifully chewing their food in dreary silence.

Like many long-term couples, we'd gotten stuck in a cycle of boring dates: always a movie and dinner, where we'd talk about our kid or finances.

We adore each other, but at some point, it became easier to go to hit up the same theater and local diner or taco truck than to look for an exciting new spot or activity.

However, familiar routines should be for the daily grind of work and parenting. For the one I vowed to spend my life with, I wanted more.

Determined to add more excitement to our date nights, I found myself reading up on adrenaline — and how high levels of it have been linked to increased attraction and arousal.

It seemed worth a shot to try to harness the rush and use it feel closer and more attracted to one another. So, I started planning "adrenaline dates" that might do just that.

We've had a blast prioritizing adrenaline rushes on our date nights

To start, we booked an escape room. Neither of us had ever done one, and my heart raced in fear of the unknown as we stepped into the dark, enclosed space.

Although my brain knew we weren't actually trapped in a crisis situation, my body was rushing with adrenaline as we escaped from chains and deciphered clues as the clock counted down.

For our next dates, we raced around in laser tag, punched side-by-side in virtual-reality boxing, and hit the climbing gym to out-boulder one another.

The dates were fun and brought us closer, which only inspired us to push the envelope further. Later, we tried axe-throwing and had a blast hurling the tools at a wood marker, splintering it as we went.

We visited a rage room, where we donned helmets and protective suits, grabbed baseball bats and crowbars, and started to shatter bottles and dismantle furniture.

I was timid at first, hitting just one item at a time. By the end, I was smashing a dozen bottles to smithereens at once with the swoop of a baseball bat.

After all the time we spend being careful, tiptoeing around coworkers, friends, neighbors and parents, I love that we got to connect by feeling animalistic and reckless together.

As I flung heavy axes and smashed bottles, I could feel stress flowing out of my body and dissipating into the air. After these intense dates, I've never felt so relieved to fall into my partner's arms.

Our dates continue to bring us closer together

Throughout these experiences, we felt joy and connection while creating special memories, which felt hard to do during basic dinner dates.

Plus, "adrenaline dates" can range in activity level and cost, from playing suspenseful video games to riding rollercoasters.

Many of our favorites have felt especially wild and destructive. Lately, we've been rock climbing challenging routes in Joshua Tree, bonding over the rush of fear and adrenaline while enjoying beautiful views.

We even try to schedule these dates every month on the full moon, so we can later kiss under the moonlight — it feels like magic and keeps us out even longer.

• I met a blind date at the Atlanta airport, and we flew to Alaska together.
• Though we didn't end up having a romantic connect, we spent a week together with our friends.
• It was an amazing time, and I'm glad I was brave enough to say yes.

I never thought a blind date would include flying thousands of miles with someone to see if we were compatible, but when mutual friends set me up, I couldn't resist. My date was in the Air Force and on his way home to Alaska for a two-week leave.

We decided to spend his first week off together. It would be a crash-and-burn scenario or a story to tell my grandkids one day. Whatever the result, I was all in.

We met at the airport and flew to Alaska together

Our first meeting was in the airport moments before an eight-hour flight from Atlanta to Anchorage. It wasn't my ideal way to start the date, especially since we'd spoken on the phone exactly once before, but it turned out better than I expected. He was thoughtful and made things less awkward. We made small talk for the first couple hours of the flight but mutually decided not to overdo the conversation.

The mutual friends who'd set us up greeted us in Anchorage. My date had known them most of his life, and I'd met them a year before on a work trip when they'd plotted this set-up, thinking the two of us might hit it off. Connecting with them helped ease any lingering awkwardness and settled my nerves.

We didn't have a romantic connection, but we still had an amazing time

Our friends planned an incredible week for us, and our first real date was at his favorite restaurant after we arrived. We quickly figured out neither of us felt a romantic connection but enjoyed hanging out together. Thankfully, our friends pivoted, and we ended up doing everything as a group for the rest of the week, taking the pressure off both of us and still allowing us to enjoy the week they had planned.

We visited an old mining community and picked wild raspberries on the side of the road. Traffic stopped on our way to Portage, but instead of worrying about what we'd miss, we played cards while waiting for the roads to reopen. It was a joy to discover glaciers work as well as trees for hammock-hanging. Soaking up the sun felt incredible after white water rafting down a freezing cold river to this Georgia girl.

Capping off our trip, I climbed Bear Mountain and nearly kept up with the Airman and my native Alaskan Friends. I only had to stop and take pictures every few feet to catch my breath. Thankfully, they pretended not to notice. The midnight sunset view from the top was worth every minute of the struggle. I've never felt so accomplished, especially as we raced down the mountain to beat complete darkness.

While our days were jammed with the best Alaskan adventures, when the sun finally set, our nights were filled with endless rounds of Settlers of Catan. Those cozy nights around a fire fueled my love for games and experiences, even if it didn't ultimately bring me the love of my life (or much sleep!).

Even though I never saw or talked to my date again after that trip, it was still one of the best vacations of my life. I learned you should always take a chance when you have an opportunity in front of you. You never know what the end result will be until you try — you could meet the love of your life or just go on the best vacation ever. I'm thankful for my friends, who took a shot at setting us up, and for the courage to live in a moment of spontaneous possibility.

As for all the landmarks I missed last time, I plan to return in March. Who knows what will happen this time?

SpaceX is significantly upping the ante of its Starship test flight program, with the next rocket launch expected to demonstrate payload deployment for the first time.  The payload in question will be 10 Starlink “simulators” that will be similar in size and weight to the next-gen satellites SpaceX plans to use Starship to deploy in […]

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Capabilities used in or justified by extreme circumstances often become commonplace and are used for much more mundane things in the future. And so the remote investigative actions taken by Elon Musk in Wednesday’s Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas are a warning and a reminder that Tesla owners do not actually own their Teslas, and that cars, broadly speaking, are increasingly spying on their owners and the people around them.

After the Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Vegas on Wednesday, Elon Musk remotely unlocked the Cybertruck for law enforcement and provided video from charging stations that the truck had visited to track the vehicle’s location, according to information released by law enforcement. 

“We have to thank Elon Musk specifically, he gave us quite a bit of additional information in regards to—the vehicle was locked due to the nature of the force from the explosion, as well as being able to capture all of the video from Tesla charging stations across the country, he sent that directly to us, so I appreciate his help on that,” Clark County Police sheriff Kevin McKahill said in a press conference.  

The fact that the CEO of a car company or someone working on his behalf can—and did—remotely unlock a specific vehicle and has the means of tracking its location as well as what Musk described as the vehicle’s “telemetry” is not surprising given everything we have learned about newer vehicles and Teslas in particular. But it is a stark reminder that while you may be able to drive your car, you increasingly do not own it, that the company that manufactured it can inject themselves into the experience whenever it wants, and that information from your private vehicle can be provided to law enforcement. Though Musk is being thanked directly by law enforcement, it is not clear whether Musk himself is performing these actions or whether he’s directing Tesla employees to  do so, but Tesla having and using these powers is concerning regardless of who is doing it.

• MrBeast — real name Jimmy Donaldson — has announced his engagement to his girlfriend.
• He proposed to gaming streamer Thea Booysen, 27, on Christmas Day.
• The pair have been dating since 2022. Booysen has defended Donaldson during recent controversies.

MrBeast has found his MrsBeast.

The world's most popular YouTuber — real name Jimmy Donaldson — has announced his engagement to his girlfriend Thea Booysen.

In an Instagram post on New Year's Day, the 26-year-old shared images of his proposal, writing: "Ya boy did a thing."

A carousel of photos shows Donaldson, dressed in a Christmas sweater, down on one knee, as well as a close-up of Booysen with her new ring.

With over 341 million YouTube subscribers, MrBeast has become a household name in recent years.

But Booysen — a fellow YouTuber with almost 40,000 subscribers on her channel TheaBeasty — may be less familiar. Here's what we know about her and the proposal.

Donaldson and Booysen first met in 2022

According to People, the pair crossed paths for the first time in 2022 while Donaldson was visiting Booysen's home country of South Africa.

A mutual friend had invited Booysen along to dinner with Donaldson, and it seems the pair quickly hit it off, with Donaldson saying they "vibed instantly."

"When I met him, I was quite surprised how down-to-earth he was, and also how intelligent he was," Booysen told People, adding that she was "surprised to see that he's actually a nice guy."

Donaldson added: "I knew within the first few minutes of meeting that I wanted the chance to date her. Thankfully, she also felt a strong connection."

Booysen is a gamer and internet personality, as well as a published author

Like Donaldson, Booysen, 27, is also a content creator.

She typically posts gaming playthrough videos of action role-playing games like "The Witcher" and "League of Legends," going by the online moniker "TheaBeasty."

Booysen also has another YouTube account titled More Than Human, where she posts videos on psychology. She announced in November that she had graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master's degree in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Booysen also launched her debut young adult fiction novel, "The Marked Children," in August 2022.

Donaldson and Booysen's relationship began online

After Donaldson's trip to South Africa ended, he reportedly began speaking to Booysen online.

What began with an inquiry about the book she was writing turned into a three-hour phone call, People reported.

Following that, Donaldson returned to South Africa, and the two "started dating the moment he arrived," per Booysen.

"I fell in love with his brain. To me [that's] everything — your brain, your drive, your discipline, your character, that's everything to me," she said.

Speaking on the "Wide Awake Podcast" in 2022, Booysen said that she eventually decided to apply for a US visa to visit Donaldson in Greenville, North Carolina, where the YouTuber is based.

The couple made their first public appearance at the Kids' Choice Awards in 2022, where Donaldson was awarded a prize for "Favorite Male Creator."

Booysen later shared a picture of herself with Donaldson at the event on Instagram, calling it an "amazing night."

Booysen defended Donaldson during recent controversies

Donaldson became embroiled in a string of controversies last year.

In August 2024, The New York Times reported on safety concerns surrounding the production of his Prime Video show, "Beast Games."

Clips of Donaldson using insensitive language also resurfaced online, and he separately cut ties with an employee who was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor.

Booysen stood by Donaldson's side amid the uproar.

Indy100 reported that Booysen responded to a comment on one of her YouTube videos that told her to "get away from the Beast as soon as you can," writing: "I appreciate the message. There is so much that is not being said, I wish I could talk more about the situation. Half the things that are said are not true. I wouldn't be with him if they were. It is so important to me to be a good person."

The pair are planning on a destination wedding

Speaking to People, Donaldson said that he planned a "really private and intimate" proposal.

"My friends thought I would want to propose in a very public way, like some sort of spectacle at the Super Bowl or somewhere else really big like that, but I knew that I wanted it to be the opposite," he said.

Donaldson proposed to Booysen on Christmas Day while the pair were at home surrounded by family.

"My family flew out from South Africa for Christmas and we were going to do Christmas in our house so both families were here. We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise," Booysen said.

The couple are now considering an island wedding "far away from just about everybody," she continued. "We're not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. It's going to be nice, but it's certainly going to be intimate [with] close family and friends."

• My best friend invited me to join her family on vacation to an all-inclusive resort.
• There were multiple themed dinner nights, and we loved spending time in the pool.
• We were the only single people at the couple's resort, and we had a great time.

This past August, I went on a family vacation with my best friend's family for five days. It was organized by her cousin, David, and his wife, Ashley, for their wedding anniversary.

They had invited members of their family to celebrate with them: David's, Dave and Char; two of their adult kids, Peyton and Ashton, and their plus ones; his sister, Shannon, and her husband, Jeff; a couple that was friends of the family, Danielle and Bryan; and his niece, Ashley, my best friend, along with her plus one. It was at Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, Bahamas — an all-inclusive couple's resort.

I was invited when Ashley's original date couldn't go

I wasn't Ashley's original date, but her boyfriend had important business to tend to in the States, so she chose the next best option.

Being outside the family was a nonissue. They added me to a 13-person group chat two months before the trip. I also started to get to know the folks I would be spending time with on an island in the Caribbean while we enjoyed the amenities of an all-inclusive resort.

Just from the group chat, I learned that David read the description of every single drink on the resort's menu long before the trip. Ashley informed me that Char did not like the sun, water, the sea, or alcohol, so it would be our job to make sure she had fun with us. I also learned I'd have some competition for "best outfit" on the Flamingo-themed dress-up night.

On any given day, I'd receive anywhere between 5 and 49 messages a day in the group chat leading up to the trip. Ultimately, we landed on three theme nights: Jimmy Buffet on day one, plain white outfits on day two, and flamingos on day three.

Ashley and I became known as 'the girls of 1208'

I took charge of booking excursions for Ashley and myself. When I'd call, they'd refer to me by my first name, and Ashley's last name. I wasn't about to correct them and blow our cover. We were about to be two single girls at a couple's resort.

Everyone averaged between 5 and 10 drinks a day and miraculously didn't suffer any blurred memories or a hangover the following days. Most of the drinks were frozen, so we rationalized that we were indulging and hydrating simultaneously. We didn't care if it was top or bottom-shelf liquor as long as we were served in the pool and among good company.

Everyone came to know us as "the girls of 1208." Aside from both of us being approximately 5'2"and blonde, we were leading volleyball games in the pool or on the sand courts, cracking jokes with the bartenders, and "buying" shots for people (remember, it was all-inclusive).

Wherever the family — plus me — was at the resort, we were easy to spot. We'd be gathered at a floating table in the pool, eating a meal together between activities, convincing fully clothed people walking to their room to jump into the pool with us for a night swim, or drinking late at night with our favorite bartender. Even Char got in on the fun. She and a bartender had an understanding, so while the group would be doing shots, he'd make her a shot of water with a lime. To fool the crowd, she'd make a tequila face when she threw it back.

One of our theme nights was a highlight of the trip

The theme nights made us all the more cohesive. We'd all dress up in our themed outfits for dinner. David and Ashley made reservations at a different dinner spot within the resort each night — a table for 13. We'd show up and admire each other's outfits and then eat hibachi, chow down on seafood, or slurp up some Italian pasta together.

When the flamingo theme night came, I couldn't wait to show off my customized dress. Except for David and Ashley's adult son, Ashton, whose roommate bailed just before the trip, everyone was with their significant other besides Ashley and me. I leaned into the resort assigning me her last name on our reservation, and I ordered a dress with flamingos and Ashley's face printed all over it.

Each one of Ashley's family members loves her untamed humor and life-of-the-party personality, so when they saw that she was the prominent feature of my attire, they roared with laughter and resounding approval. There was no trophy involved, but it's safe to say I took the "best outfit" title that night.

I needed a family trip — even if it was with someone else's family

I moved away from my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, 12 years ago, and since then, so have all of my immediate family members. We're scattered across the US, so the likelihood of getting together for a trip, much less agreeing on where to go, is low.

Being invited by my best friend and made to feel like family on this trip was an adventure I never knew I needed. We took matchy sunset photos; we stuck together; we all took care of each other. If you ever get the chance, don't let being solo or being worried about feeling left out stop you from tagging along on someone else's group or family trip. Dive in. I promise you it'll be better than you could've imagined. Mine was.

• Alma Rex-Ezonfade spent over a year saving up $51,300 to take an "adult gap year."
• She initially found it difficult to do nothing but learned to enjoy herself and explore new hobbies.
• She launched her own clothing brand, is applying to 9-to-5 jobs, and plans to take more sabbaticals.

Editor's note: This list was first published in May 2024 and most recently updated on January 2, 2025.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 31-year-old Alma Rex-Ezonfade based in Toronto, Canada. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

On my 29th birthday, I opened a savings account and put $500 in it. I had told myself that for my 30th birthday, I would gift myself a one-year sabbatical, and this was my first step in making that dream of taking an "adult gap year" a reality.

I was tired of working and always being on top of things. I immigrated to Canada from Nigeria when I was 22 for my master's degree and started working right after graduating. It felt like I had been running on a hamster wheel, and I was just going, going, going, going.

I calculated my budget for the year

Before taking my gap year, I was a customer success manager at Astreya making around 110,000 CAD ($80,500) and a content creator. Between my 9-to-5 salary and my income from working with brands and doing campaigns, I was making nearly 200,000 CAD ($146,600) a year.

I calculated how much I actually needed to save based on my spending at the time.

For necessities like rent, car payments, groceries, gas, my phone bill, and utilities, I estimated around 4,200 CAD ($3,100) a month. I also decided I wanted to travel, which I knew would be a bit pricey because I'm not a budget traveler. I planned for 18,000 CAD ($13,200) for two big trips and a number of smaller ones.

Altogether, I calculated that I would need to save around 70,000 CAD ($51,300) for my sabbatical, which I did by putting most of my content creator income into my sabbatical fund. If I didn't have my job as a content creator, I would've picked up a part-time job to generate that supplemental income.

I also cut back on expenses. I was never too shy to say "I can't afford that" or "I can't do that activity," because I was planning for something that had way higher priority than going out and spending $200 in one night.

I left my job but struggled to not do anything

Saving up took me a little longer than I had planned, but I quit my job in April 2023.

The day I quit, I just spent the whole day at home, watching the TV blankly. I didn't do anything else; I just needed my brain to shut off.

On Monday, I woke up at 8 a.m. as usual because I forgot that I didn't have a job. Then I remembered I could sleep in, but I was already awake, so I tried to figure out my new routine.

I started to put together a plan, and then I realized that would just defeat the whole purpose. The plan was to let go.

Still, I didn't feel like I could just not do anything. I found myself planning for my upcoming trips, brainstorming content ideas for my YouTube channel, and posting more regularly on my Instagram page. I had thought about starting my own clothing brand for years, so I started working on ideas for that too.

One of my friends said to me, "The whole point was for you to not work. Why can't you not work?"

The week after I quit, I checked myself into a hotel for a couple of days, ordered room service, and cried the entire time. My tears were tears of gratitude, tears of exhaustion, tears of relief. I was letting myself feel like, "Okay, I did it and I'm here."

I was used to being a high performer, managing a team, having deliverables, and doing all these things. I had to get used to the idea of not working and get over feeling like I wasn't useful because I wasn't being productive. I had to shift to having my validation come from my own happiness and seeing my value beyond my work output.

Three weeks into my sabbatical, one of my former bosses reached out to me to tell me about a contract role at Google that she wanted me to interview for. Honestly, I almost took it, because I wasn't used to the idea of not having work.

It took some getting used to, but eventually, I was able to go a whole week without doing any work.

Did I make the right decision?

The first few months when I was on sabbatical, I was so sad.

I looked at all the money that I had put in my sabbatical account and thought of everything else that I could have done with that money rather than lounge for a whole year.

Maybe I should just take it out and buy a house, I thought. I even asked my real-estate agent friend to look up properties for me, but I knew that if I bought the house instead, I'd be miserable, always wondering what I could've achieved if I just took the year off.

I remember talking to my therapist and trying to validate the decision time after time. At the end of the day, I realized that I was at the best point of my life to give this gift to myself. A few months in, once I settled on that, I started to have fun with the idea that I was on a sabbatical.

I learned to enjoy myself

I enjoyed having the luxury of time to do whatever I wanted.

I fell in love with working out again. I started coloring, drawing, and doing ceramics. I started reading again and got back into writing. I spent more time with myself and with my family. I picked up childhood hobbies again, like building Legos and taking Polaroid photos. I also cooked more and tried new coffee spots in Toronto.

Some of my favorite memories from my sabbatical are the many days I spent just sitting on my couch watching TV and only getting up to eat. I finished all six seasons of "Downton Abbey" in one week. I also watched all of "Schitt's Creek" and a lot of Korean shows.

Working on my clothing brand became a passion project. I learned about fabrics and the fashion industry — I enjoyed just learning things for the sake of learning.

I visited friends and family in other countries, did some birthday trips with friends, went on a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean, and spent four weeks traveling Europe.

I launched my own clothing brand and am looking at full-time roles

In May, after a full year of my sabbatical, my sabbatical funds were almost fully drained, and my income as a content creator was keeping me afloat. I thought I'd be panicking about my finances, but taking the time off helped me develop a mindset shift; I knew I'd figure it out one way or another. I was the most broke I'd ever been, but I'd never been happier.

That month, I launched my fashion brand, which has been doing well. I've been focused on running and growing it full-time, and in the near future, I hope to hire a team to take over the day-to-day tasks. In the meantime, I've been financially relying on savings and my content creator income, including several brand deals.

I've always been open to returning to a 9-5 workplace after my gap year, and I've been applying to roles that allow me to leverage my skills as a customer success manager, an entrepreneur, and a creative. I plan to continue running my clothing brand full-time as well.

I plan to take many more sabbaticals

I'm very happy with my path. I just feel kind of sad that I had to take a whole year off of work to find joy in my life.

One of the biggest things I'm taking away from this sabbatical is realizing that a lot of things are not that serious. When you're an immigrant, a lot of things are that serious; I had to start life over again in Canada and I had to excel at this life. But I just kept going and going and going, and I realized that I needed to enjoy life.

I'd absolutely do a sabbatical again. My loved ones have pointed out that I'm less grumpy, I shout less, and I'm less controlling. My plan is to work in a corporate job for another three years to get more experience and knowledge, take another year off at 35, and repeat that cycle until I retire.

My sabbatical was really about redefining what happiness looks like at different points in my life. I needed time away to de-stress and prioritize the things I thought were important, and now, I'm going back with a fresher outlook on my professional career and personal life goals.

If you took a sabbatical and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at [email protected].