2020 has been a wild year, to say the least. The pandemic hasn’t been an easy thing for everyone and I have been extremely blessed to have a loving family and supportive friends without whom it would have been extremely hard. Every year, sometime in December I look back at my life and think about the things that went well for me and things that I wish I could have done and also plan for the following year. I truely believe in,

"If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there."
– Lewis Carroll

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it"
― Sara Shepard

How did I do?

I want to start off my reflection process by looking back at some of the key things I have accomplished in the past year - small & large. There are things in there that may seem small but they did make a difference to my sanity or improved me in some ways.

Consistently learnt Spanish from instructor from Guatemala (on Preply).

Here are some stats

Month Classes
April 5
May 4
June 3
July 4
August 4
September 3
October 2
November 4
December 6

Meal prepped every week for 4 months straight

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Balanced work/life during a pandemic

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Got my green card

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Binge watched Dexter on Netflix

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Finished XCOM2 (strategy game) on Steam

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Ran consistently on treadmill everyday for 3 months straight

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Supported family through some tough times

  • Helped with reconstruction of part of our home in India

Took guitar lessons with BlueBear music (online)

  • Oh yes! Invested in some nice guitar

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Automated many aspects of my life through SmartHome projects

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Locked interest rate at 2.875% for mortgage

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Consistently invested every month in S&P500

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Built and stuck to routine,

  • Make bed
  • Make coffee
  • Make breakfast (cereal)
  • Eat breakfast & Drink coffee while watching news on Haystack
  • Call out “good night” to google home and have it automatically perform series of automation

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Grew Lavender from seeds and mint from cuttings

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Transitioned from being a manager at Lyft to a Senior SDE at Amazon

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Successfully delivered a key project at Amazon

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Flossed every day and significantly improved my gum health

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Started a family tradition to make date cake 2 years in a row

Here is the recipe

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and most importantly, SURVIVED A FREAKIN’ GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

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Overall

I think I did pretty well this year given the circumstances. I enjoyed the year and the challenges it posed to me. Yes, there were moments where I felt anxious but for the most part I was able to move past them and once again, thanks to my strong group of family and friends.