I was feeling inspired by Rebecca’s End of year review, so here is mine :) –
As the year comes to an end, I think it’s important to reflect on the wins, losses, and moments in between. Given the state of the world, and my own recent battle with seasonal apathy, ending this year feels somewhat grim, but I am determined to push myself to pursue new thought cycles of optimism in the new year. Now that I’m turning 20 in March, I want to dive into the ice water of uncertainty headfirst, because as the buffalo know, the quickest way through the storm, is to run towards it. In this spirit, here are my wins, losses, and moments in between of this year:
Wins:
- I learned and arranged a choreography based on these two dances (1 and 2) to perform at Sushim’s Barthabanda! Practiced for a month and did well at the performance, yay!
- Finally finished Atomic Habits, They both Die at the end, and read Kaikeyi, enjoyed the books.
- Finished my first and second co-op with Excellent ratings!
- Was a Socratica session host, and got to host with some of the most insane and cracked people I know, love you all sm <3 (@brayden, @jake, @Binal, @Chris)
- Was a Co-Chair for Socratica Symposium, and ran that pretty smoothly!
- Helped run Hack the North as a Volunteer Lead!!
- Tried a boxing class this year!
- Tried Kendo and won 3rd place at the end of term beginners tournament!
- Got to read a bunch of cool papers about Participatory Design in Older Adult studies and conduct a systematic review on a paper!
- Made a full product prototype for Intellijoint Surgical at the end of my co-op term!
- Continued working on Navcare, and got in contact with Aman from Gotcare!!
- Running again for the first time outside in forever!! + making a Strava account
Losses:
- Did not prioritize fitness and health
- Burnt out beginning of Fall term, and kind of messed up a lot of progress I could have made during my co-op term that I wanted to make
- Did not meal prep once this past fall term 😬
- Did not leetcode
- Got rejected from Hack the North Organizer (but got to join the team later on and had an amazing experience… so half loss 😌)
- Had to stop working on Navcare 😣
- Did not Journal at all and kind of forgot to be super reflective on a week to week basis
- Was not proactive with job searching
- Stopped reading consistently after April
- Did not feel wholly intentional about a lot of my decisions and was acting mostly on instinct on what I thought I should be doing.
- Was not able to establish a living a day to day living at home routine
- Was not proactively learning about new things or working on new things
- Was not actively applying for financial scholarships to improve my living condition
- Sorta forgot how to meditate? Was not able to experience the same peaceful feeling I got in past years and sessions
- Did not start my personal website
Moments In Between:
- Went on a Hack the North retreat trip and had soooo much fun!!!
- Went to the Casino for the first time, and came out positive!! (Thank you Lam 🙏)
- Made 700 momos with my mom and dad when they came up to waterloo. They wanted to make sure I was eating good food and not eating out a lot <3.
- Living in a full apartment with roommates, while having to cook for myself… quite a blur with lots of dancing in the living room at obscene hours…
- Facetime calls with my friends in the evening as I made dinner or cleaned the kitchen
- Late night walks from parties enjoying the silence of Columbia Street
- Impromptu study dates with my friends on study term
- Momo nights, leading to late night conversations with old and new friends
- Feeling uncomfortable in my skin and being ok with that
- Spending so much money at Oh Hime, and Gong cha, they have my soul and wallet ☠️
- Running Thanksgiving with my Nepali family friends living in Kitchener, Waterloo, and Guelph. Loved to reunite with them all, and gave me a warm fuzzy feeling 😌
Looking back, here are some of the major lessons I want to remember from this year:
With these in mind, going forward
Last but not least, I want to make a list of people I’m grateful for that brought me to my highs and helped me through my lows. A strong antidote to dissatisfaction is gratitude, so to wash away any disappointments of the year, and to remind myself of the amazing and wonderful forces out there, I’d like to say thank you to
- Prayash Dada - you are so supportive and have always been when I was starting my university journey, especially for my co-op searches. Absolutely goated mentor 😤
- Diana Lin - the fucking best roomate a person could ask for, i love you so much babes
- Ivy - for reminding me to stay curious and do things
- Fernando - You really helped me enjoy the learning process, and way less scared of asking questions at Ecobee, thank you for your time and expertise, and tv show recommendations!
- KRISTOPHER - best supervisor ever, thank you for your patience, and guidance this past term
- Anson and Joss - yall keep pushing me to do shit I literally didn’t think I could or should do, and I somehow make it out, thanks for continuously pushing me out of my nests and inspiring me to grow!
- Brayden - creative inspiration through and through fr, ur a real homie
- JAKE RUDOLPH - literally my ride or die for anything I have to organize. Has been my partner in crime since day one of uni as a fellow social rep and has been with me through Socratica, Symposium, and my hack the north 5 am fever dreams.
- BINAL - Thank you for letting me brain dump my updates, and humoring my rants. Literally the best volunteer organizer we could have asked for. You gave us the agency and freedom to run the volunteer events how we wanted to, and gave us so much room to grow. You made my Hack the North Experience worth every second!
- Athithya - You have in many ways been my rock in my living alone in the waterloo arc. Thank you for calling and visiting me and reminding me to just live life sometimes
- Vivian Cai - Thank you for listening and guiding me through my intrusive thoughts and being a thicc gym baddie that’s inspiring me to hit the gym
- Simi - u single handedly carry my mental state year after year, and this year was no different. Thank you for picking up my calls, and telling me about your day, and listening to mine, and just making me feel grounded. <3
Thank you to everyone that shared a laugh with me or made me laugh when I was crying. This has been a wild year for me, and hoping to make the next just as exciting 😤.
Happy New Year 🥂!!
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