Why I decided to pause cosplaying for 2025.

Cosplaying is expensive, that's a known fact. Last year, I manage to blow more than enough to actually buy the things I want. So for 2025...

I decided to quit (just kidding).

I decided to pause and take a year-long hiatus from cosplaying. As some of you may now, especially to my closest moots and friends, that I simply have a lot of hobbies and side-quests that even my girlfriend calls my life "Persona"-fied.

I wanted to explore more stuffs, I decided to have a "resurgence" of some sort, because to be frank, if it wasn't for cosplaying, I wouldn't be this as excited to finally do the things I couldn't do before.

I focused on my academics, considering that I'm currently an Aviation student at a state college, you know the workload is going to be tough, and unsurprisingly, it was. Paired that with becoming a Secretary for our organization, there really is a time that I really need to step back from cosplaying. I also honed my editing skills, both on photos and videos, as well as my music skills! I really love playing the bass and having a hiatus definitely gave me the opportunity to focus on it more.

Speaking of expensive, due to me pausing cosplaying activities, I got to save up and buy myself a Gaming PC! For 4 years, I had a PC that was running on hopes and dreams (talking to you Intel Pentium and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series GPU). I still can't believe how I clocked 1.2k hours on CS:GO on that PC, but now that I got myself a proper PC, rocking an Intel i7 12th Gen and RTX 4060, I could finally play the games I wanted for so long! I was also dreaming to become a streamer back then so I was really happy that I have the setup to begin doing that.

All in all, this hiatus was really, badly even, needed by myself. It's hard going through in and out of burnout due to me constantly juggling a lot of tasks, and I knew right then and there I had to drop something. Hence, that's why I paused cosplaying for a whole year.

For those keen on witnessing me once more, don't worry! I already have plans for 2026, and yes this means I'll be coming back, new cosplays and all! (I am NOT letting go of Bocchi The Rock so also expect more cosplays from them hehe)

I wish you enjoyed the holidays! Looking forward to celebrating 2026 with all of you!

With love,

Machi Ishii