As the year 2022 comes to an end, I sit back and think if I have met at least half of my goals that I promised myself at the end of last year. I realised that this year I exceeded my expectations and did things that I did not even think of doing even in the beginning of the year. As a stressed and anxious high school senior, I remember putting on my wishlist for 2022 that no matter what happens I should at least get admitted to at least one college and like any other Indian 12th-grade student, I wished to get over 90 percentile in my ISC board examinations.
However, more than anything I wanted to be a person- who was content with herself and if not all goals that were on my agenda for this year, I feel that I have definitely achieved this one. One mistake that I made last year was not documenting my resolutions, so here I am not repeating the same mistake.
- Writing down my to-do list every day: One thing that I am constantly trying to improve is not procrastinating on something. There have been instances where my five minutes have turned into five hours and in order to avoid that I have decided to make a to-do list for each day so that I have an agenda to follow every day. Even though there will be days when I will have to alter my to-do list, I am confident that it will help me be on track for the maximum number of days.
- Not giving in to my insecurities: It has taken me quite some time to accept that having insecurities is perfectly normal and a huge chunk of time in coping with my own set of them. I have decided to try my best not to give in to them in the upcoming year and stop trying for challenging things.
I embraced the challenge of changing continents just after eight days I turned eighteen and adapted to an entirely new lifestyle and whenever I feel unhappy, I remind myself how brave I was not to back out and give in to my insecurities.
- Accepting Rejections: Over the years it has been difficult for me to accept rejections, even though I know that it is vital to get rejected in order to learn from mistakes, at times I do not just want to accept it. And that has proved to be unhealthy for me as it leads to a trail of overthinking. It would be much easier if I accepted the situation and tried to be better next time and that is what I intend to try to do in the coming year.
Overall, 2022 was definitely a challenging year and it tested my willpower and consistency in many ways. Nonetheless, I find it important to reflect back on the valuable lessons and growth that shaped me into a person that my younger self would be proud of.
Three highlights of the year 2022 were:
- Learning To Live Independently: My greatest achievement this year has been learning to survive in a new country and stepping out of my comfort zone. I moved from India to the US this year and so far it has been a great journey even though I had to adapt to a lot of new things here. These four months taught me to be responsible and trust myself more than ever. Other than that it taught me to appreciate other people more and I realised that the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” was indeed true. Even though I enjoy my own company and I met some really lovely people in town but sometimes all the heart wants is home.
- I got the opportunity to return to Theatre and Dance in the winter: Since my childhood, I have had a keen interest in performing arts. I was cast by the Theatre and Dance department of Union College in its Annual Winter Dance Concert and Staged Reading of Pride and Prejudice. I owe a lot of my self-confidence and boldness to both dance and theatre. I last performed on stage almost two years ago and I cannot wait to relive the experience again!
- Did a commendable job as a staff writer for Concordensis-Student Newspaper of Union College: Writing has always been my forte, and before I start as a Co-editor for the newspaper in the coming winter term, I really enjoyed being involved as a writer in the Concordensis. Concordy, as it is informally called on campus was the first club that I joined in Union and as a staff writer, I covered events on campus, interviewed students, professors and guests and got the opportunity to meet and network with a lot of people around campus. Other than that, I feel that being a member of a small group of really talented and insightful writers improved my writing and ideas to a great extent.
