TaraT

Last year I wrote a review of my life in 2023 and today when I looked back at it, I realised how much I have grown in the past year. For context Last year was a solid 8/10 for me and I was very happy with how things turned out. But this year... this year was something else.

And this time again I am gonna follow the same wheel of life format to review my year. So here we go...

Career and Finances

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of my career is that it was an amazing year in terms of career growth for me. And no to set things straight here, I did not get promoted this year. But I did get a lot of recognition for my work and that's what matters to me the most right now.

We shipped Spectrum Web Components V1.0 this year and I was one of the driving forces towards this release. I drove most of the work around the migration of our design system, shipping new icon set, and making sure that our components were backward compatible with the older version of Spectrum. I also did a few presentations on the work we did and I got a lot of appreciation for that.

In terms of finances, I am finally for the first time in my life ending a year with a positive bank balance!!

For most of you that might not seem like a big deal but lmfaoooo I have been living paycheck to paycheck for most of my life and this year I finally managed to save some money. I also invested in a few stocks and I am planning to invest in some more in the coming year.

The only downside to my finances this year was that I have still not been able to pay off my education loan. I have been paying the EMI for the past 1.5 years now and now I am thinking of paying off the remaining amount in one go. Let's see how that goes.

Overall I would rate my career and finances this year as a...

9/10

Took off a point because the loan is still on my head and I did waste some money where it was not needed.

PS: It was a 7/10 last year.

Health and Fitness

This year was a mixed bag for me in terms of health and fitness. I started the year with a lot of motivation to get fit and I did manage to gain some weight in the first half of the year. But then I kept adding on the stuff that I was doing and didn't add the additional calories that I needed to consume to maintain that weight.

As a result, I lost all the weight that I gained in the first half of the year and now I am back to where I started (61Kgs).

Not super happy with how I managed my weight this year but I did manage to stay consistent with my workout routine. I have been working out 5 days a week for most of this year and I am planning to continue that in the coming year too.

Going forward I will slowly start adding more good calories to my diet and hopefully I'll be able to gain some weight in the coming year. On the bright side btw...

I ran a fucking full marathon this year!!!

I learned how to swim this year!!!

I rode my bike for 60kms in one go multiple times this year!!!

Considering all this I would rate my health and fitness this year as a...

8/10

PS: It was a 8/10 last year too lol.

Hobbies and Interests

So wanna do another one of those classic Tarun self-brag paragraphs?

I ran a marathon, cycled 60kms, managed to swim for 30 seconds, played bohemian rhapsody on my piano, became a dj, did inktober, deadlifted 120Kgs, learnt basketball and a few other things.

I did a snow treak, shipped spectrum 2, managed to keep my plants alive, tutored my sister every morning, read a lot of books and wrote a lot of blogs, way more than last year.

I found love, still managed to stay in touch with my friends, visited kerala, invested in stocks, stayed sober and away from stuff, drove a car for the first time, revamped my digital garden, did presentations, uploaded reels, cooked a lot of good food and overall had the best time of my life.

10/10

Relationships

Are you ready for some good news?

I found love this year!!!

I did. I met Monisha early this year and started dating her in May. And since then it's been a roller coaster of emotions and love. She's been the best thing that happened to me this year and I am so grateful to have her in my life.

Don't worry I am not gonna go all cheesy on you but I just wanted to share this with you all. I am very happy with how things are going on the relationship front and I am looking forward to spending more time with her in the coming year.

I started living with my parents again this year and that went smoother than I expected. I am very happy to be around them especially my little sister Pari. She's growing up so fast and I am so happy to be around her.

I even got the chance to meet my college friends this year and that was a lot of fun.

So you can say this year for me in relationships was filled with a lot of love and happiness and yes there were some struggles in all of those relationships but the end result was always positive and that's what matters to me the most.

10/10

PS: Last year this was a 7/10 lol.

Conclusion

So that was my year in a nutshell. I am very happy with how things turned out this year and I am looking forward to the coming year with a lot of excitement and hope.

And with that its time to reveal the final score for this year...

9/10

Last year was an 8/10 and this year was a 9/10. What more can I ask for? Super happy and super grateful for everything that happened this year.

Hope you all had a great year too. And if not then don't worry there's always a next year to make things right. See you all in 2025.