Year Review 2024

25/12/2024 Work

This year, I think I did well. On Sneak Peek, we wrapped up two seasons. Season 2 has been the biggest and heaviest so far. I did a teaching assistantship at Genwise in May. Then, in July, I completed a field immersion for my minor course in Telangana.

College

Semester 4 and 5 are done and dusted. Grades are decent. I dropped out of honors. The decision to leave was tough, but I was at a junction where I had to do something about it. It felt like dropping out would be better. I feel bad about it. My supervisor and I had invested a lot of time in it.

Personal

In my life, I had never imagined I would be able to run a 10k. But guess what? I did! In this APU winter, I participated in a 10k and completed it in 1 hour and some minutes. I am proud of it.

Working at Genwise gave me new friends. Spending time with them during that period was a cheerful experience. I attended the 10k Designers' annual grad party and participated in the design hackathon. Our team didn’t win, and we didn’t make the top 10, but building with my teammates all night was fun.

I upgraded to a MacBook, which is sort of a dream come true. I still can’t believe I use a MacBook now. It’s unbelievable. I also got Sony headphones. Using earphones for long hours used to hurt, especially when I had to edit for long stretches. I think the headphones will make life easier.

In the summer, I made a trip back home. I met my grandparents and others. It was very hot back in Lucknow. I wonder how I will survive there now when I have to go back after this semester in May. It’s going to be tough. I’m praying.

Vivek and I released my website on my birthday. It’s the best birthday gift I’ve received so far. The website is still not functional. In December, I made some more changes to its design. The other major drawback was the lack of content for the website. Because of this, the pages were a little hazy. Now I have a good amount of content. So, it should look good when we give it an update this January.

Some of the Major Learnings of the Year
Stupid or Smart

The people close to me and whom I admire a lot are not special. I’m not tagging them as they are or aren’t—it feels like luck. You can’t count it in any form of success. So, it’s better to discount it and see the reality.

I realized they are normal individuals who are just hard-working, with set priorities and goals, and a daily schedule (decision-making).

Document Everything

I feel if I had known this from the start, it would have been so beneficial. No worries—I’ll try to work on it now and double down on documentation at work and in life.

Things Change

I observed and felt closely that people change. I knew that before, but the interesting part was that I didn’t take it into account in my judgments.

Having this thought—that “humans are transient”—is humbling. You become very relaxed once you start thinking about people in this way.

It Will Be Boring

During the Telangana immersion, I learned that most of the work, especially at the start of my career, will be boring. Our aim should be to reduce it as much as possible while moving forward—and to move fast. There will always be boring and repetitive work; there’s no running from it. Make peace with it.

Omnipresence of Uncertainty

Life is uncertain. It’s much better to be okay with uncertainty rather than fighting it. It’s more peaceful when you stop battling things you can’t beat. Uncertainty is one of those things. My professor said to me, “Dealing with uncertainties is vital, Rishabh. The sooner you do that, the better your well-being will be.”

Overall it was a good year. Next year I would like to be little more aggressive on the work and learning front. I think I can do it. Let’s see. I hope you do to, whatever you are aiming for.

Bye, See you in 2025.

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