Vitae

(“vitae” means “life” in Latin)

What I said “Bye!” to in 2016

• God/Religion: I became an atheist in 2016.
• The fear of awkward conversations: One consequence of wearing your heart on your sleeve and always wanting to be open and honest with the people in your life is that it can lead to awkward, scary conversations. I used to be a bit afraid of them. However, I had so many of these talks (for better or for worse) over the course of 2016 that I can now have these conversations WITHOUT avoiding eye contact with the person I’m talking to.
• My old job: I left LinkedIn in 2016.
• ~3 inches on my waistline: I went from 30-31 inches at the beginning of 2016 to 28 inches as of December 2016. I’m still a bit amazed by this, because I wasn’t explicitly trying to lose weight.
•  One of my best friends: One of my best friends moved back to India after being in the Bay Area for ~3 years. It was really sad to see him go, because I was so used to him being a part of my life here, and being able to hang out with him easily. In this digital day and age distance is a not a barrier between friends and we still message each other almost everyday, but I’ll miss all the adventures we had together when he was physically here.
• Expectations: (still trying to decide how I feel about this) Towards the end of 2016 I realized that life is better when you have no expectations from anything or anyone. That way you’re always surprised when good things happen to you, because they’re always unexpected.

What I said “Hello!” to in 2016

• A new most favorite person: 247cae00bedc4032b015212c1c72e800cf7b6dc2e4a41886d77bdceed4de6ee6
• A new job: I joined Uber in 2016.
• More respect, admiration, and love for my family and friends.
• Running: 2016 was the year I started running seriously. While I’m not quite ready to say I love running just yet, I will say that I do enjoy it quite a bit.
• Incredible books, albums, concerts, and research papers.
• Emotions and Feelings: I experienced a wide array of emotions and feelings over 2016, some of which I never felt before. Looking back I think 2016 was the year I grew the most at an emotional level. I learned things about myself that I did not know.
• A sense of style: I put in effort (and money) into dressing well and generally improving my stylistic sensibilities. I think on average I look better now than I did in pervious years. What do you think?
• Improved writing skills: Apart from writing a lot (or trying to do so) on this blog, I also wrote a small book (~10000 words) in 2016, and a speech for my best friend’s engagement ceremony.
• A Kindle: I bought a Kindle Voyage towards the end of 2016 and I adore it! While I still love physical books, my Kindle is now firmly entrenched in my life.
• A nose piercing!