Before I begin with 2024. Time to reflect on the year that passed by, 2023. At a macroscopic level 2023 has been kind personally as well as professionally. I am grateful that it turned out that way. When, seen at microscopic level, I have had fare share of days where I struggled to navigate my way forward.
Below is a high level view of everything I was involved into. Throughout the year.
Adventure Sports:
1. Scuba Diving. Freaked out, Hence, no pics. HA HA ... 😆
2. Kayaking [Twice], May and June. Was terrified here too. 😅
Activities I started and managed to stay consistent with:
1. Enrolled in online group yoga classes. Consistently showed up for practice. Towards the second half of the year started self practice too. (Jan to November)
2. Joined driving school. Attended classes for about 1.5 months. Theory lessons, simulator followed by hands-on practice. (Feb-March)
3. Enrolled in a dedicated push up program. By December end, unlocked full body full range push up. Where my chest can touch the floor and then back up. (Sep to Dec)
4. Enrolled in a full body strength training program. (Dec)
5. Resumed swimming. By mid December managed to swim 50m freestyle in one go. In a swimming pool having constant depth of 10ft. (Oct-Dec)
Places I travelled to:
Solo travel comes with its own set of limitations when you are a 'women'. Some trips solo, some with family.
1. Pondicherry (twice)
2. Rishikesh (twice)
3. Delhi
4. Hyderabad (twice)
5. Udaipur (twice)
6. Pune
7. Gwalior
8. Mumbai
New Concepts learnt in tech
All new concepts that you learn in tech. I feel are always work in progress. Or rather the things are so vast that you are always learning.
- Did some small projects using HTML, CSS, JS.
- Completed the HTML, CSS certification exercises from FreeCodeCamp.
- Started learning HTML, CSS, JS and Bootstrap from Traversy Media courses.
- Watched some videos on networking OSI model, how the internet works.
- Implemented some data structures concepts binary search tress, linked list, double linked lists, stacks, queues.
- Did fullstack development for a adventure website (soon to be live). Tech stack - HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, PHP.
- At work got the opportunity to implement celery queue in the micro-service that I develop, maintain and own. Wrote couple of dig-dag jobs. Made some high impact features live.
Eating Habits that changed for the good
1. Apple Oats Smoothie became the go-to breakfast meal. No honey, no sugar. Only a date for sweetness.
2. Stopped bringing and consuming refined oil. Now, it is either olive oil or filtered groundnut oil.
3. Stopped bringing and consuming biscuits, rusks, namkeen. Switched to healthier alternatives foxnut, puffed rice, sweet potato, nuts, channa.
4. Finally, took the leap of faith and started consuming protein powder by the whole truth foods. Started having protein bars when travelling.
5. Bread is now something that is rarely bought at home. It's a NO. As, long as we have the alternatives.
6. Started using Unsweetened Nut Butter in smoothies.
7. Started consuming veggies, green veggies with every meal.
8. Almost regular consumption of curd and buttermilk.
9. Rarely ordered from Swiggy, Zomato or rather any food delivery service. Unless an until there was no other choice left.
Things I struggled with
1. Handful of friends that I have live in a different city. Made no attempt to make new friends. Close to no socialisation. And, maybe this is the reason for peak level of consistency.
2. Avoided meeting known ones be it peers or relatives. Because of the same discussion about marriage. I have no answers yet. Don't want to discuss either. Got anxious, left room...discussions. Disagreements. It is chaotic to say the least.
3. Wanted to travel more. Due to personal limitations and responsibilities couldn't.
4. Couldn't prioritise book reading. No regrets either.
5. Couldn't find time to write either.
Things I am grateful for 🙏
1. All near and dear ones loved ones are keeping fine.
2. No health crisis.
3. Found the best coaches I could have asked for. Meghna and Srushti couldn't thank you both enough. Journey probably needs a separate blog post of its own.
4. My mother, who was brave enough to accompany me for the drives. When, I myself wasn't confident about my driving skills.
5. 2 trainers who gave me driving lessons. One of them on their own car. And, the other one taught on my car.
6. Team at work has been kind and supportive.
7. Everyone who has been there on the journey. In whatever way possible.
Did I have fun?
A resounding YES!!
Word Of Caution
Everything said and done. Don't be inspired by reading this. It isn't worth it. :)
Maybe deciding partner is the most important decision. Everything else could have been done later. Maybe a day's job, partner, kids is all that matters.
Nonetheless. I am happy with what I did. You do you.
Only problem is there is limited free will. And, you cannot fight everything.