The Year I Learned to Keep Building

Closing the year with this month’s edition of Exemplify with Elizabeth Zion.

If you’re new here, this newsletter is where I explore faith, calling, sustainability, and what it means to build work - and a life - that matters. It’s honest, it’s messy, and it’s always rooted in the question: what does it look like to actually live what we say we believe?

This month, I’m reflecting on what 2025 taught me about keeping building when voices say stop - and what happens when you let obedience matter more than approval.

If you’ve ever had to choose between pleasing people and following God, keep reading.

In January 2025, I was a different person.

Uncertain. Scared, honestly. Preparing to marry someone I loved while facing voices telling me I was making the biggest mistake of my life.

I was finishing my master’s degree, planning a wedding, stepping into a future that looked nothing like what certain people wanted for me.

Voices of doubt were loud. Not just internal ones - external ones from people I loved who genuinely believed they were protecting me by opposing my choices.

And I almost let it stop me.

When Clarity Came

Late January, something shifted.

God made it clear: some voices in my life, no matter how well-intentioned, weren’t leading me toward His calling. They were leading me away from it.

Not because they were bad people. But because fear makes people try to control what they don’t understand. And my path forward threatened expectations they’d built around my life.

So I made a choice.

I stepped toward what I knew I was called to do - personally and professionally.

And I kept building.

What Keeping Building Actually Looked Like

Here’s what this year was:

Winter

Winter began with uncertainty, and then with confirmation. My first trimester results for the MSc in Sustainable Development came back as First Class Honours. It was more than a grade. It gave me hope that I could finish what I had started, and finish it well. That result pushed me forward. It allowed me to believe that a First Class was possible.

Winter was also when the foundations of the year were laid. I began planning my wedding in earnest. I filmed an interview for The Tommy Tiernan Show, sharing the work I was building, even while much of the year still felt unfinished and unknown.

Spring

Spring brought visibility and momentum. I appeared on The Today Show and returned to my old high school, DCC, to give a talk. I began my master’s thesis and continued balancing academic work with wedding planning. It was a season of saying yes, of showing up publicly, while quietly doing the long, demanding work behind the scenes.

Summer

Summer arrived full and fast. I was flown to Strasbourg to represent Ireland as a youth delegate at the EYE 2025 Youth Conference. My second trimester results came back as First Class Honours again, affirming that the work was holding.

I pushed toward finishing my thesis well ahead of the deadline. Although it was due on August 31st, I submitted it on July 15th, the day before my 22nd birthday. I celebrated my birthday, and I got married.

Soon after, I began a three-month honeymoon journey with my husband, traveling across ten countries and three continents, through Asia, Australia, and Europe, fulfilling a childhood dream of exploration and adventure.

Autumn into Winter

As travel slowed and the year turned, I received my final results. First Class Honours on my MSc in Sustainable Development. I graduated. And during this same season, a blog introducing my Gratitude-Based Sustainability framework was published on the official SDG Academy website, the education platform of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Looking back, every single milestone, God was there.

Not only professionally, but personally. The marriage I was told would derail my life became the foundation that helped me thrive. The person I was told was not “God’s will” for me has been one of God’s greatest gifts to me this year. If someone had shown me in January everything this year would require of me, the full cost, the loss, the resistance, the warfare, I am honestly not sure I would have said yes. This post may read like a list of achievements. Living it required endurance, obedience, and faith. God did not show me the whole path at once. He showed me one step at a time. And somehow, in His mercy, that was enough.

Not just professionally, but personally. The marriage I was told would derail my life became the foundation that helped me thrive. The person I was told was not “God’s will” for me has been one of God’s greatest gifts to me this year. I am sharing this not to impress, but to testify. Growth is rarely linear. Calling is rarely comfortable. And sometimes, the grace is not knowing the whole road ahead, only the next faithful step.

What I’m Learning

This year is teaching me something I couldn’t have learned any other way:

You can’t build what God calls you to build - personally or professionally - while performing for voices that want you to stay in their version of who you should be.

I spent too much of my life seeking approval from people who could never fully see what God was showing me. Trying to fit my calling - and my life - into boxes that were too small for both.

And as long as I was performing for that approval, I couldn’t become who God was calling me to be.

This year, I had to choose.

Keep seeking permission to build the life I already knew I was supposed to build, or just… build it.

I chose building.

And here’s what’s happening:

I got married. And instead of ruining my life like I was told it would, my marriage is becoming the safe foundation from which I can do my best work.

I completed my master’s degree with First Class Honours. I got published by the UN SDG Academy. I traveled the world and gained insights that shaped my framework in ways a classroom never could.

I’m doing things I genuinely didn’t believe I could do. I’m building a life that people said was impossible.

I’m sharing the gospel. I’m staying true to the work God is doing. I’m loving my husband well. I’m holding onto my faith when voices say to let go.

And I’m discovering something profound: God’s calling - for your work AND your life - doesn’t require unanimous approval to be valid.

Not everyone will understand what you’re building. Some people won’t celebrate it. Some will actively oppose it.

And you have to build anyway.

I’m still learning this. Some days I still want that approval more than I want to admit. But I’m learning.

The Nehemiah Principle

I keep thinking about Nehemiah.

Called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Surrounded by voices mocking him, questioning him, trying to distract him from the work.

And every time they called him down from the wall - every time they tried to pull him into arguments, explanations, justifications - he gave the same answer:

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

Here’s what strikes me most about that story: Nehemiah’s enemies weren’t humbled by his words. They were humbled by the completed wall.

As long as the wall remained unbuilt, they could claim they were right to oppose him. They could say the work was impossible, foolish, doomed to fail.

But when the wall stood finished? Their opposition was shown to be exactly what it was - fear masquerading as wisdom.

That’s what this year has been for me.

Learning that some people will never be convinced by your explanations. They’ll only be convinced by your obedience.

If I had stopped building every time I faced voices saying “this marriage will ruin you” or “you’re not ready” or “this isn’t God’s will for you” - those voices would have been “proven right” in their own eyes.

But I kept building. And now the wall stands.

My marriage is strong and life-giving. The framework is published by the UN SDG Academy. The thesis earned First Class Honours. The research is sound. Young people will have access to a different approach to sustainability education.

The life I was told would fall apart? It’s flourishing.

None of this exists if I come down from the wall to justify myself to every voice of doubt.

The completed work is the answer. The life that’s actually unfolding is the answer. Not my explanations. Not my justifications. The reality itself.

God gets the glory when you do what people said was impossible - and the finished work speaks louder than the voices that opposed it.

I’m not saying this to be vindictive toward people who opposed my choices. I’m saying it because I’m learning that sometimes the most loving thing you can do is obey God and let the fruit of that obedience be its own testimony.

The people who said the choices I made would destroy my calling are watching me grow in both my marriage and my work. That’s not about proving them wrong - it’s about God proving Himself faithful.

What I’m Carrying Into 2026

I’m not the same person I was in January. But I’m also not finished becoming who God is calling me to be.

I’m learning who I am. Not because of what I’ve achieved, but because I’m learning whose voice matters most - and that’s a lesson I’ll probably be learning for the rest of my life.

I’m learning what I’m called to build. And I’m learning that calling doesn’t require permission from voices that can’t see it yet.

So here’s what I’m taking into 2026:

I’m going to keep building. GBS in Irish schools. Work that helps young people engage with sustainability from hope instead of fear. A marriage that honors God and supports both of our callings.

I’m going to keep learning from the family I’ve gained in faith - the people who showed up, who celebrated my wedding, who believed in this work.

And I’m going to keep remembering that the best response to opposition is to quietly keep building what God called you to build - and let the finished work speak for itself.

There’s still so much I don’t know. So much I’m still figuring out. But I’m learning to be okay with that.

For Anyone Who Needs to Hear This

If you’re reading this and you’re facing opposition about something you know God called you to - whether it’s a relationship, a career move, a calling:

Keep building.

If you’re being told to wait for approval that may never come:

Keep building.

If you’re navigating choices that feel right but face resistance from people you love:

Keep building.

The work matters more than the approval.

Your calling - and your life - are bigger than their fear.

And God gets the glory when you do what He showed you to do, even when people said it would destroy you.

What about you? What are you building in 2026 that requires you to trust God’s voice over other voices - even voices you love?

I’d love to hear what you’re being called to that requires courage.

Here’s to 2026, and to the great work we cannot come down from!

Until next time,

Elizabeth