Year of 2016 – Words and Photographs

Few days back I saw a friend of mine wrote at Twitter – ‘Why 2016 is officially a bad year for her?’. She wrote what went wrong with her.

I always wonder why people always focus on the bad things and never write about good things.

When I was growing up I had a lot of ups and downs like any of you. I was crying profusely when I did not get a dream job after having 4 rounds of interview. My mom said one thing – ‘Think about what you have. You’re healthy. We are fine health wise. You have a place to stay and food to eat. So cheer up and start preparing.”

That day I decided to stop complaining about life and focus on the positive things come out of a situation. By god’s grace all of my family members are healthy. We all have roofs over our heads and foods on our plates.

If I start to write, there can be thousands of things that did not go well this year. Instead, I wrote 12 things that went right this year and a photo from each month.

Do you think changing career is easy? Oh well, grass is always green on the other side. I am changing a established career at the age of 31. It must sound adventurous but trust me you don’t want to live my life. There are so many nights I wept silently and wondered if I made the right decision. But it went away when I opened my laptop and started working the projects I am passionate about. And, five years down the line, I am sure I will be happy that I took this risk in 2016.

I challenge all of you to write what went well in 2016. You will find more positive points than you realize.

January

I started contributing to Stock Photography – Picture Pantry. Like every year, January was a bit slow for me. But, slowly it started to unfold the mysteries.

February : Month of Realization

I came to realize that design is my true calling and I should do something about that. I was getting sick and tired of working at development jobs. So, I took a design class at Harvard and started thinking of transitioning into Design roles.

March – Month of Spain

We went to Spain where we ate our heart out.

April – Quitting job

I left my job at Boston Globe and started thinking about getting into Harvard.

May – Preparation

I got enrolled into Kaplan for TOEFL preparation and I studied hard to pass that. Also it was my birthday month so we celebrated silently.

June – Summer Classes

I took my TOEFL exam which I passed with flying colors. I studied and prepared my admission materials for Harvard. We also started looking for a second condo.

July – Condo work

We settled on condo right next to our current condo. Matthew and I worked for the loan application days and nights. Boy, that was a stressful month.

August – closing the deal

I sent my application to Harvard. We closed the house purchase deal. Matthew and I became the second condo owner in Cambridge. 

September – a month of happy news

I got admitted to Harvard!

Matthew started classes at Harvard for a management degree.

We bought the second condo for investment purpose. As our deal closed late it was not easy to find a tenant. But thanks to Bobbi Bishop (our renting agent), we found a tenant who was willing to rent from October. We felt a huge load off our chest.

October – relief

I started working as design assistant for a Harvard Kennedy School Professor. In order to celebrate condo purchase, finding a tenant, admission to Harvard we went to Berkshires to celebrate fall color. IT WAS NEEDED!

November – family time

We went to see my family in India. After coming back we went to NY to celebrate Thanksgiving with Matthew’s family. We both were quite sick and I had a ton of exams.
December – we are done! 
We studied and finished our finals. I got another job as a freelancer designer in downtown Boston. We are drinking hot chocolate and enjoying holidays.