Year 2017
Lived in: Illinois, US
Laying down the roots, however temporary they may be-
The year started with us making our new house our home. Much time was spent picking furniture and art work. The house has its quirks and sometimes maintaining it can be quite exhausting, but for the most part, we are enjoying being home owners. We have moved a lot in the last 8 years, so being tethered to someplace is a welcome change.
Celebrating relationships-
As we settle in the new place we are slowly building our new social circle. We hosted our first "Holi Party" and it was wonderful. I have grown to appreciate the importance of maintaining one's culture in a foreign land.
My parents, who live in India visited us for the first time and it was lovely having them over. We celebrated mother's day, and few birthdays (papa's, husband's, and mine). We travelled to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and across Chicagoland. I and husband have been to those places before, but it was enriching to experience them from my parent's perspective. My ma has a certain Joie de vivre and she lives and experiences everything very passionately and joyfully, so travelling with her is often a wonderful experience. Then, my uncle's family, who live in Canada visited us during "Rakshabandhan".
After more than a year of not talking to my best friend, I finally made peace with her. We have started talking but I do wonder if we can ever be as close as we use to be. Only time will tell. She became a mother to wonderful twins, and I do regret missing out on their birth.
This year has been a good year for our marriage, we are close again and continue to support each other. There are minor fights and disagreements, but for the most part this area of life is peaceful and stress free. Talk about children ebbs and flows. I looked into adopting in US, but soon realized that one needs to have a green card and since we don't, this option is closed for us. We can't adopt from India without significantly affecting our lives, since as per Indian adoption rules, one of us would have to live in India for two years before bringing the child to US. These are the times when I hate government's arbitrary rules. It just doesn't make sense to deprive people from adopting a kid because they come from a foreign land or live in one.
Travel-
Apart from the travelling that we did with our parents, we also spent time at Tiscornia Park, a quaint little beach town in Illinois. It was a long weekend getaway where we swam in mild warm waters and spent the day people watching/reading at the beach.
Then during the Thanksgiving break we travelled to Clearwater Beach, Florida. Watching the sunset and dolphins swim in the Gulf of Mexico, and eating ice cream for breakfast were easily few of the top moments of this year.
Personal successes-
It has been an incredibly blessed year for the husband. He got promoted twice and is now doing what he calls his "dream job". He is extremely motivated and joyful, although I do wish he would work a little less. He is obsessively, compulsively working extended hours and sometimes over the weekend.
We both successfully managed to go to gym at least 3 times a week (since we had a personal trainer and were somehow being accountable)
I took on a new role/more responsibility at work and executed a project well for which I was given an excellence award.
I paid off my student loan and car loan, and now that I have managed to have some savings, I have actively started investing in the stock market again.
Personal failures-
I had more professional failures this year. I had 5 interviews with 3 companies, and although I did get an offer from my "dream company, where I had applied 35 times", I ended up declining it as it wasn't something I would trade my current job for. But for the most part, failures hurted and haunted me. I fell into deep spirals of self doubt and negative self image. I invested in interview coaches to highlight my areas of opportunities and guide me.
Now that sometime has passed I can more objectively look at those experiences and learn-
Starting this year I am going to divide my new year resolutions into three main areas-
(a) IQ: a goal or an activity that improves my intelligence, teaches me new things, or in general just makes me smarter
(b) EQ: a goal or an activity that makes improves my emotional wellbeing.
(c) PQ: a goal or an activity that improves my physical health
So, I have identified the following goals-
IQ challenge:
PQ challenge:
Physical activity is an area of my life where I lack the most. I have realized the only time I make any progress is when I am being accountable to a coach/trainer. In 2017, I worked with a personal trainer but didn't see any dramatic change, so this year I am going to give personal training a break and instead focus on a different physical activity, kick boxing.
Game on 2018!
Lived in: Illinois, US
Laying down the roots, however temporary they may be-
The year started with us making our new house our home. Much time was spent picking furniture and art work. The house has its quirks and sometimes maintaining it can be quite exhausting, but for the most part, we are enjoying being home owners. We have moved a lot in the last 8 years, so being tethered to someplace is a welcome change.
Celebrating relationships-
As we settle in the new place we are slowly building our new social circle. We hosted our first "Holi Party" and it was wonderful. I have grown to appreciate the importance of maintaining one's culture in a foreign land.
My parents, who live in India visited us for the first time and it was lovely having them over. We celebrated mother's day, and few birthdays (papa's, husband's, and mine). We travelled to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and across Chicagoland. I and husband have been to those places before, but it was enriching to experience them from my parent's perspective. My ma has a certain Joie de vivre and she lives and experiences everything very passionately and joyfully, so travelling with her is often a wonderful experience. Then, my uncle's family, who live in Canada visited us during "Rakshabandhan".
After more than a year of not talking to my best friend, I finally made peace with her. We have started talking but I do wonder if we can ever be as close as we use to be. Only time will tell. She became a mother to wonderful twins, and I do regret missing out on their birth.
This year has been a good year for our marriage, we are close again and continue to support each other. There are minor fights and disagreements, but for the most part this area of life is peaceful and stress free. Talk about children ebbs and flows. I looked into adopting in US, but soon realized that one needs to have a green card and since we don't, this option is closed for us. We can't adopt from India without significantly affecting our lives, since as per Indian adoption rules, one of us would have to live in India for two years before bringing the child to US. These are the times when I hate government's arbitrary rules. It just doesn't make sense to deprive people from adopting a kid because they come from a foreign land or live in one.
Travel-
Apart from the travelling that we did with our parents, we also spent time at Tiscornia Park, a quaint little beach town in Illinois. It was a long weekend getaway where we swam in mild warm waters and spent the day people watching/reading at the beach.
Then during the Thanksgiving break we travelled to Clearwater Beach, Florida. Watching the sunset and dolphins swim in the Gulf of Mexico, and eating ice cream for breakfast were easily few of the top moments of this year.
Personal successes-
It has been an incredibly blessed year for the husband. He got promoted twice and is now doing what he calls his "dream job". He is extremely motivated and joyful, although I do wish he would work a little less. He is obsessively, compulsively working extended hours and sometimes over the weekend.
We both successfully managed to go to gym at least 3 times a week (since we had a personal trainer and were somehow being accountable)
I took on a new role/more responsibility at work and executed a project well for which I was given an excellence award.
I paid off my student loan and car loan, and now that I have managed to have some savings, I have actively started investing in the stock market again.
Personal failures-
I had more professional failures this year. I had 5 interviews with 3 companies, and although I did get an offer from my "dream company, where I had applied 35 times", I ended up declining it as it wasn't something I would trade my current job for. But for the most part, failures hurted and haunted me. I fell into deep spirals of self doubt and negative self image. I invested in interview coaches to highlight my areas of opportunities and guide me.
Now that sometime has passed I can more objectively look at those experiences and learn-
- It takes serious amount of effort and preparation to crack any job that pays over $150,000.
- Don't interview if the job is not your dream job. I did this twice. I half heartedly interviewed for roles I wasn't particularly excited about and it came across in my lack of preparation and/or experience.
- Luck matters and something will always be out of my control. For one particular position, I was the clear favorite but in the end the job went to an internal candidate who had existing business relationship.
- We watched a play "Prelude to a Kiss"- it was strictly OK.
- I managed to keep my resolution of not drinking any alcohol for one year. It was hard, especially during the social events, but I did a good job of sticking to it. I finally broke it with a kick ass drink, aptly called "Kicking Mule".
- I also kept my new year resolution of drinking 2 liters water everyday, so much so that I feel really weird if I don't keep up with it.
- Donald Trump became the president of US and there is a rise of "populism" across the world. The visa that allows me to work in US is constantly under scrutiny, raising my stress level and I frequently question the benefits of being a second class citizen in a developed world.
- I completed a certification in Analytics from MIT, and it was harder in terms of time commitment and amount of work I had to do for this certificate compared to my B-school experience.
- Leonardo Da Vinci by Isaacson Walter (yet to finish)
- The Sky Is Everywhere
- A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
- The Afghan Campaign (partially read)
- Nuts to You (partially read)
- The Heart
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- Born to Love, Cursed to Feel
- Start With Why (partially read)
- The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
- Darktown (partially read)
- Uncle Tom's Cabin (partially read)
- Seeds planted in concrete
- The Night Circus
- Everyday by David Levithan
Starting this year I am going to divide my new year resolutions into three main areas-
(a) IQ: a goal or an activity that improves my intelligence, teaches me new things, or in general just makes me smarter
(b) EQ: a goal or an activity that makes improves my emotional wellbeing.
(c) PQ: a goal or an activity that improves my physical health
So, I have identified the following goals-
IQ challenge:
- I have always been fascinated by the moon and the stars. So my goal this year is to learn more about the space and other planets.
- I have been interested in the role of logistics in humanitarian aid, so this year I am going to learn how supply chain can make a difference in the time of humanitarian crisis.
- Ray Dalio, a business leader that I admire, wrote about the benefits of transcendental meditations and I want to find this out for myself. So I am going to learn and practice TM.
PQ challenge:
Physical activity is an area of my life where I lack the most. I have realized the only time I make any progress is when I am being accountable to a coach/trainer. In 2017, I worked with a personal trainer but didn't see any dramatic change, so this year I am going to give personal training a break and instead focus on a different physical activity, kick boxing.
Game on 2018!
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