Life

Tbh, the year - 2024; was something - a lot, a few and so much more. Life moved really fast, I did enjoy a few of it - just a similar strike when one is at the back seat of a fast moving car; on a free highway, windows down, wind breezing in from one end to the other - somehow causing one's eyes to squint at some point but yet one loves the thrills - somewhere in-between, it is a long-forgotten highway road which hasn't been repaired for years so there are, ofcourse, bumps and potholes here and there, **omg, definitely not the part, I for one enjoy on a clear ride.

Well, a lot did happen and that's for sure. To start off - the 'almost' ugly. 14th of February, 2024 whilst everyone was celebrating 'LOVE', I was here thanking God for life - standing up from a knockdown road accident which I am grateful - that didn't escalate. And in no order, the rest...

Chess

Didn't really see myself improve, I've been stuck around 2k ratings on online chess platforms, well for a happy part, I did run into a 2200+ rating in chess bullet mode and for the first times in my life, I was able to finally beat two masters, an FM and a WIM - online, for more context, they are probably the 4th and 5th masters, out of the 6 masters I have played and beating them sets my record at 2 - 6 with the masters for now - although this was online but it really was a big moment for me, really really big. Also, finally won a medal (for the first time in my life) - reading this, some might relate to my experience whilst some are pretty much out of touch but it's fine: ever since I could remember, I would always want to participate in sports and overall at School, would want to represent a house at interhouse sport or something but every single time it was either one of this three outcomes - A teacher discards me for my looks (I've never bothered to change that) or I am just scrapped out at preliminaries (skill issues, I know), or I am just not so lucky to be picked for a sport or something. Well, this time I finally got one. Really played a lot of OTB (Over the board games this year) and bonded with a lot of amazing people over chess.

Code

Honestly, heavily contributed to a number of projects, spoke at a conference this year too (Pycon NG '24): craziest part of this was the fact that I had two presentations at two different locations on the same day - rain fell heavily - had to create two slides - prepare for the two and somehow both seemed important to me but I DELIVERED!, didn't do so much personal projects but in fact spent a lot of time on LC (re: the image of the post), started CF cause I joined DevSprint (a DSA contest) and I was flabbergasted by how crazy the fact of me being active on LC everyday for a very long time, understood so many concepts (even began to understand DP, two-pointers and all that) and yet I couldn't even solve so many questions, let alone in quick times. Personally, will be committing to doing more algo and CP in general and importantly, more engineering in 2025 - I took a whole break, literally, from Jan. '24 - Dec '24, although I got started a bit on that but hoping to do a lot more, also diving into OS and W³ is pretty much on my radar. I am very open to roles in: Backend Engineering, Full-Stack Engineering, Ai/ML and pretty much anything engineering and even Quant and Finance too.

Others

Read some really amazing books in '24, worthy of note is a book from Dr. Meg Jay - The Defining Decade. Thoughts? Amazing, Amazing and Eye-opening. Would have to re-read it. Music? Yoooo! have you ever listened to Alex Jean? you probably haven't but here's his latest EP Do thank me later - seriously. Then discovered: Hollow Coves, Half-Alive (this December) and fr fr, good music is underrated; by the way, I am indeed curious if there is anyone who reads, with these three or atleast two of these artistes/groups on their music listens or radar. Would be interesting to know yunno. Finally, DONE WITH SCHOOOOOOOOL (or atleast school, test and exam), still need to get past a clearance - my PS : ) let's keep it that way - and ceremoniessss.

L

Here are some lessons '24 taught me though. Time, regardless of your age or what you do or any factor, moves really fast, I mean really fast. I guess, don't let it pass you by - it's cliche make every moment count, but bffr there's only so much one can do. Yet, as a friend said: "No matter what has happened, just keep moving". In 2025, just keep moving. I just shared literally my whole year in under 5 minutes, and in some narrative a peaceful year, some - a lazy year, some - ... you feel it in. All in all - note to self and ofcourse encouragement to all, speak more, write more, engineer more, love more, interact more and importantly serve God more.

Conclusion

All that being said, I really want to express a deep appreciation to as many who read this, now or in the nearest or farthest future. "You can subscribe to my newsletter by clicking the NewsLetter button below" - JK - not implemented yet, or if you would like to send a comment, a message via LinkedIn below would be totally appreciated! Thank you so much💕💕 and I really look forward to a good year '25 , stick with me and I with you, XoXo, With 💖 & 💡 always.