History will look back on 2025 as the year that Donald Trump made a comeback to the White House, and the year the first American pope was elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church — a year full of global events that will likely have lasting ripple effects.
This year also saw the deaths of many prominent figures, including musician Ozzy Osbourne, actor Robert Redford, Pope Francis, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, anthropologist Jane Goodall, sex-symbol Brigitte Bardot, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, fashion designer Giorgio Armani and former Vice President Dick Cheney, just to name a few.
Merriam-Webster, the country’s oldest dictionary publisher which is headquartered in Springfield, landed on the word “slop” to capture the spirit of the year. The choice was inspired by the low-quality images produced by artificial intelligence that now litter social media platforms, advertising and entertainment as AI becomes increasingly integrated into day-to-day life.
Given all that’s happened, the Gazette took to the street to hear what about 2025 will stick with people, and their visions heading into a new year.
For Annabel Gould and Anthony Saunders, 2025 was the biggest year of their lives: a new apartment, a renovation, professional growth … and Saunders popped the question. The Floridian fiancés, who met on a dating app, were in the area because Gould’s dad lives in Amherst. Shopping at Wonderland in Easthampton, the couple said their wedding is on the 2026 calendar.
New Year also marks a milestone for Saunders who has been clean of drugs and alcohol since New Year’s Day, 2024. Gould, who said she has never been a drinker, never asked Saunders to sober up. But getting sober allowed the couple to do more together, they collectively said.
Now, Saunders is considering taking it one step further this year by cutting out nicotine.
“The last thing that I got still is I still vape, and I originally smoked cigarettes,” he said. “So this year, my New Year’s resolution that I haven’t fully mentally committed to, is to quit smoking, vaping, all that all together. Then I’m 100 % clean.”
To be home in the Valley for the holidays, Juli Korza returned from New York where she works as a senior tourism sales person for the New York Liberty, the professional women’s basketball team. A highlight of 2025 was receiving the team’s championship ring —which is distributed to all staff members — after they won the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association title.
Other than the ring, another highlight of the year was getting a promotion, she said while shopping at Wonderland. Korza has set her sights on further advancement within the organization for 2026.
At Santa’s Trains in Look Park on Christmas Eve, the Pueschul family was admiring the room full trees and trains and took a moment to recount their year.
Amanda Pueschul described the past year as one with highs and lows. For one, her 95-year-old grandmother was put in a nursing home. But it was also the year she got to take a two week trip to Italy.
The lesson of 2025 for her was that sometimes the thing you pray for comes in unexpected ways.
“It was a big year of change for our family, some unexpected change,” she said. “But with that unexpected change has come some positive outcomes … where you pray for something or hope for something and the outcome is not always what you thought.”
She continued describing her year, saying that, “I got to travel to Italy this summer for two weeks and we spent a lot of time, like everyday, we were in church and we were at Mass, but then we got to see all the sites as tourists. So there were some positives. And then we get back and we find out he has to switch high schools. So that was negative. So it was lots of highs and lows, but we’re ending on a high note and then just trying to manifest that energy going into 2026.”
Her son Jaxon said changing schools as a junior in high school was “a big change,” adding that eventually he was able to meet new people and make friends.
“Being active and playing sports definitely helps,” he said, explaining ways that he found effective to make new friends in a new environment. “But also being out of your comfort zone and being yourself around other people.”
As a family, the Pueschuls hope to travel more next year. They want to enjoy the full climate spectrum and plan on doing a ski trip as well as venture to a tropical destination.
Claire Lawlor, a pediatric neck and head surgeon, was taking a walk at the Hampshire Mall on Friday. After saying that 2025 was, “a rough year globally,” her highlight was seeing the oldest of her four children start kindergarten after returning to the Bay State.
“We moved from Washington, D.C. back to Boston. I grew up in Amherst, and its been really nice to return home and see more of my parents and my in laws and watch my children get settled in the state where I’m from,” said Lawlor.
Going into the new year, she said, “I’m just going to keep growing my career and enjoy my family.”
At JCPenney in Hadley, Rosario Swanson said that, “2025 was planning a lot for 2026. 2025 was full of uncertainty for me, so I spent a lot of time thinking about how to make things better for 2026 both economically and in life.”
Forging a better life for Swanson meant more time with family and grandkids, more time in nature, and less time scrolling on social media.
“You feel more alive by connecting with family. It’s the same thing outdoors: you just feel more alive and then you also learn the value of things, like the real things, not the things that seem important but they’re not,” Swanson said.
In 2026, she hopes to get her finances in order to replace her old car. Swanson also hopes to focus on projects related to her work as a professor of Latin American literature at Emerson College.
Politics
From the aisles of the Northampton Stop & Shop to the South Hadley Senior Center, many people voiced that politics has been the most prevalent memory — and for some the prevailing nightmare — of 2025.
“Politically, it was the worst year in my 78 years,” said Diane Authier as she sat knitting at the South Hadley Council on Aging last Friday. “Trump has made it a bad year, and will make the next three years bad for anybody who isn’t rich.”
Authier hopes to see drastic political change in 2026. She has her fingers crossed that Democrats take back a majority in both the House and Senate during the midterm elections so that there can be a return of checks and balances in the federal government.
Bob Cook from Leeds was at Stop & Shop on Christmas Eve. He commented that he wants to see much of what happened in 2025 rescinded, and he hope to see congress “get their act together and work together.”
Over in Hadley, Bryant Whitsett was shopping in the bakery at Atkins Farms Country Market.
“What it is and what it always will be — ending racism,” Whitsett said his goal was. “I’m not looking forward to it [racism] getting any better. We saw it escalate under Trump, so we got to keep the fight going.”
“A nightmare” is the way Michael Jennings described 2025.
“I’m just in a living nightmare. I’m 64 years old and for the first time I’m not sure if we’re great,” said Jennings after picking up a few last minute Christmas gifts at Thornes Marketplace on Christmas Eve.
He said he was taught to have a deep respect for America as a child and had grandparents serve in the Korean War. But this year, he said, his faith in the U.S. was shaken.
“My father and I always just felt like there’s this underlying goodness [to the country],” Jennings said. “I still think there is, but it’s just gotten shaken to the point where it’s left me stressed out … I always just felt we are a great, strong, diverse people.”
But in 2026, he hopes to heal as a country.
“I know, just because I read so much of American history, that we’re coming back,” he said. “The message for 2026 is things are getting better. Things are going to be better, and the best of us are going to need to shine through.”
To Cleo Roback, the goodness of the American people has shined in spite of the way politics has played out this year.
“I think the biggest thing that shook me was probably the food insecurity … I think it was really cool how the community stepped up to respond to the lack of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits,” she said. “And I hope that it’s not necessary that the community has to do that moving forward next year, but it’s encouraging that we do live in a place that that’s possible.”
Roback works at the the University of Massachusetts Amherst Equine and Livestock Research and Education Farm in Hadley. In 2026, she said she is excited to welcome a foal, or baby horse, onto the farm.
But for some, politics wasn’t the only thing to be disappointed about this year. After a workout at Planet Fitness in Hadley, 15-year-old Wayne Dowd of Shutesbury critiqued the entertainment industry, stating that 2025 failed to produce any good video games but anticipates a better showing in 2026.
“People need to start making video games and movies and just like entertainment and media of the highest quality,” he said.