Hey, I’m really glad you’re here.
I’m Ryan, and Present & Progressing is a newsletter for anyone navigating the in-between seasons of life, that quiet, often uncomfortable space where growth actually happens.
Each week, I share personal essays on mindset, money, identity, and what it means to keep showing up when things aren’t shiny or certain. It’s honest, reflective writing from someone in their 20s, figuring it out in real time.
Here are some of my favorite pieces to get you started:
25 Things I’m Starting to Understand (From a 25-Year-Old Figuring It Out)
I turned 25 this year. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what matters. I’m not claiming to have all the answers, or even most of them, but I’ve been paying close attention to how I think, how I work, how I show up, and how I feel when I don’t. These aren’t rules or secrets. They’re just things I’ve noticed. Lessons I’ve learned the hard way, or from people much wiser than I. Some are about work, some about money, some about life in general. I hope that at least one of them resonates with you.
The Hollow Echo of the Finish Line
But I’ve learned not to hang my identity, or my happiness, on the moment of arrival. Because the truth is: you never really arrive. You evolve.
And if you’re always chasing a finish line to feel “enough,” you’ll keep running past the life you’re already living.
Not Every Journey Needs a Map
A few weeks before I moved to Germany for a six-month work assignment, I was fixated on all the things I’d do.
The places I’d travel. The stories I’d collect. The version of myself I’d become. More experienced, more cultured, more impressive. I viewed it as a chance to level up, to differentiate myself from the people I left behind. I framed it like a sprint: maximize every weekend, fill every journal page, come home transformed.
Money, Meaning, and the Moving Goalpost
After signing my first lease out of college with my girlfriend, I found myself doing the math, wondering if my first paycheck would land in time to cover rent.
About me
My name is Ryan, mid 20s, currently living in a Midwestern city in the United States.
I started writing Present & Progressing because I was tired of pretending, I had answers when what I really needed was space to ask better questions. This newsletter is my attempt to slow down and notice what’s happening beneath the surface, in myself, in others, and in the spaces in between.
I write about money, mindset, identity, and the uncomfortable gap between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming. The version of growth that’s less about reinvention and more about returning to your values, your voice, and your own pace.
Most of the time, I write because I need to hear it too.
Sometimes it’s something I’ve lived.
Sometimes it’s something I’ve wrestled with.
Sometimes it’s just a thought I can’t shake.
My hope is that, in reading these reflections, you feel a little less alone in your own.
Thanks again for being here
I don’t take it lightly that you’ve chosen to share a little corner of your inbox with me. I hope this space feels like something you can return to when you’re stuck, when you’re searching, or when you just want to feel seen.
