Do I dare look back?

Long post coming up...

I did not want to do the customary year-in-review, but then thoughts, they come and go and what is this blog for, if not to capture them before they run away? So I plod on, in a stream of consciousness ramble that is a function of a heavy tummy from too much food and heavy eyes from little sleep!

So I proudly celebrated a full calendar year of being vegetarian this year and I’m really proud of it. I am not counting in all those accidental meat tastings… the only half-full outlook to those incidents is that I am now super conscious when I am ordering food and make sure to mention my preference for absolutely no meat or meaty broth in my food. Technically I’ve been veggie for more than a year now, but one full calendar year makes me feel so good about myself, that I have decided to remain veggie for as long as possible. And it’s been easier than I thought!

I travelled quite a bit this year – maybe not as much as I would have liked but I did go to some really interesting places and that’s what counts, right? Right! So let’s see… Washington DC, India, Brazil, California – see it wasn’t much. But my trip to Brazil was most memorable and it’s gotten me on the track to planning another trip to the continent – more on that as it unfolds. Another serendipitously good trip was the summer in India. Weather aside – it was either incredibly hot or annoyingly wet! – I went to places that I couldn’t point on the map before the summer and all of it in the country I profess to have spent the first twenty something years of my life and profess to have travelled extensively in.

I spent a fantastically ups-and-downs filled year at business school… and since this blog has been all about business school for the most part, it would be unfair to talk more about it. It would suffice to say that I saw way too many ups and downs this year… there were times when I thought I wouldn’t survive and other times when I just wanted time to stop and hold on to the moments. I found out much more about my friends here and made a whole bunch of new ones too. Like a database keeping up with times, I purged and I added… and then some more. Over the months that passed, I saw different facets to the people I thought I already knew well, some pleasant some not so much.

One thing that I did consistently through the year was to look for a job – first the internship and then full time. I wish I could say I rounded off the year in style with a fantastic big bucks offer, but sadly I cannot. However, I have hope – green shoots and all that, so maybe in next year’s recap, I’ll be able to write all about what a fantastic journey it had been… and why not? Believe it or not, looking for a job – and the inevitable rejections that come with it – are enough to teach you a lot about yourself as it taught me this year.

Which then brings me to my things to do next year. As always, it’s to lose weight. I know I know, it comes back every year to haunt me, but this year I’m really going to do something about it – starting from January 11th (this is SO not a good way to start on a resolution!) - and since I've already begun last year, it's off to a start of sorts already! Other things I want to do are remain vegetarian, get a few more stamps on the passport, oh and get a job! Some other plans for the year are to experiment with cooking – especially baking – and to make sure that my experiments are all given away to others to eat! I also really want to get back to reading – and maybe once I graduate, I cannot cite the three-cases-a-day excuse for all the things I’ve missed out on and the people I’ve not given their due attention to last year. This year I just want to be a better, happier person... not such a tall order is it?

Oh and this year I also want to figure out what I want to do with this blog – that’s right, sweeping changes await this space. Happy new year!

Watching the ball drop on 2008

I remember the post I wrote same time last year. I remember like it was yesterday that I was sitting in my office in Bangalore as the clock struck midnight on the last night of 2007, writing that post and editing my essays for Darden while making plans to fly out to the US that same week. Looking back now, I could say I was in denial for the most part, but itching to get somewhere better than where I was at that time. Just that week, two out of the 4 business schools I had applied to had communicated their dings and I had no idea what I was going to do or where I was going. The only light was the change of scenery in the work place that I was being offered.

Coming to the US changed me so much! It seemed like I was learning something new at work every day, and then there was Darden. I’ll spare you details, but that was undoubtedly the best thing to happen to me in a long long time. I have to thank a lot of people for their faith in me, but special thanks to PV for his constant egging and nudging, for convincing me to take the plunge and apply. Summer of 2008 passed by in a whoosh, 2+ months of getting pampered at home by the family and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was time to board the flight again, to make that 24 hour journey to the place I’d begun to think of as home.

Darden. Oh what can I possible say about it that I haven’t already said before? Every day has been a new experience. I’m continuing to meet great people from different countries of the world, realizing that geographies are just lines on a flat bit of paper and that in essence we’re all the same, here to chase our dreams, ambitions and so much more. I can see that I have changed so much in the last 6 months of being here.

Without a doubt, the last year was one where I worked harder than I had ever before – first at work and then at school. I knew going in that the year was going to bring in a lot of change, but I had no idea it would be this big. Priorities, thought processes, attitudes – all changed, seemingly for the better, but only time can tell.

The coming year is going to be the big one. This time I know it and not just feel it. For starters, there are two recruitment seasons to get by at school – the internship as well as the full time in the second year. I’m going to travel to a new continent in the first quarter of the year – first person in my family to get a South American stamp on the passport, woo hoo! There’s exams, the end of first year, the start of the second year, welcoming new students, and god knows what other adventures and experiences await me and my class in this eventful year. And this is just school – which I can safely assume will be almost 100% of my world/life for this year – very welcome too! Of course, I will be blogging through it all!

Last New Year’s Eve I told myself I’d watch the ball drop from Times Square in real time - I had thought I would go to NY. This time I did watch the ball drop in real time, not from NYC but right here in NoVa. And the setting was so much better! I was surrounded by people I did not know until I met them few hours ago, yet they made me feel so welcome. New Year’s Eve couldn’t have been better, neither could new year’s day – so far away from home, yet I never felt like I was a stranger. Cheers to good friends, great people, an eventful, life-altering new year and to the rest of the blogosphere.

Note to business school applicants: Some of you may have your dreams come true this year. Some of you may not. For those in the first category, you’re going to remember this year for the rest of your lives. For those in the second, don’t worry because in the grand scheme of things, this setback will mean nothing more than a blip in a pretty blipful life! Irrespective of which bucket you fall under, good luck to all of you.