2017: At a glance

2017 is about to end. This year has been a good year for me. I didn’t really achieve anything great this year though. But I learned a lot. I have significantly learned something in all the previous years. But this year, the amount of knowledge that I gained was quite exponential than previous years. This year was fun. Be it about trips, learning new things, reading books, or meeting new people.

Talking about trips, I went on 4 trips this year. To Agra in the first week of January with college buddies. The trip was really good. Looking at the beauty of Taj Mahal always feels good. Then I spent seven days of my mid-term break in Udaipur and Mount Abu with my family. I was in love with Udaipur. The city is really beautiful. I also celebrated La Tomatina Holi in Udaipur. The best Holi celebration ever. Then post end-term exams in May, I went on another trip to Mcleodganj and Triund with college buddies. This trip was the best trip I’ve ever had to date. The Triund trek was the best part. It was my first trekking experience. I was proud of myself that I completed the trek of 8 km. After reaching the top, the view of the Himalayan Mountain range was totally worth all the tiredness. And then sitting on the rocks on a really cold night with the sky full of stars and shining icy mountains in the front was the best moment ever. Then comes the Jim Corbett National Park and Nainital trip in December. Just after end-term exams. We went on a Jeep safari at 6 in the morning. Now 6 in the morning is really early. It was too cold for an open jeep safari. We didn’t get to see any tigers, so the safari wasn’t really worth it. But still, we enjoyed a lot.

Now coming to learning about technology, finance and some history. Started with Android development this year. Soon, I felt like I can't make interesting applications with mobile development, so I switched to web development and learned backend development in Django. Then in the summers, I did learn a lot. From RHEL and CentOS administration to Hadoop, MapReduce, Docker and Ansible. In August, I started learning Data Science and Machine Learning. I found this field really interesting. I did some really good projects on Data Science. Now I am seeing forward to going deep into Machine Learning next year. Since I love building cool web apps, I was interested in learning the MERN stack. So I learned MongoDB, Express, React and Node (MERN) and created “The Cabpool App”. This app solves a real-life problem that we face at SNU. The problem with cab sharing is how to find cab pool mates that are going to/from the same places. So this app comes to the rescue. Besides technology, I got my hands dirty in other fields like Finance. I learned about balance sheets, income statements, mutual funds, stock markets, and investing. I took a history course in Spring 2017 semester. It was Bronze Age Civilizations. I learned about human evolution and civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Bronze Age. It was one of the most interesting things I have ever studied in History. I also wrote a 5000 words term paper in the course. That’s a huge milestone that I have achieved.

I also did a thing that I wanted to do last year. But I couldn’t do it last year. It’s kinda personal, so I can’t share the details. I failed, though, but I am glad I tried. At least I won’t regret throughout my life that I didn’t try.

I read 10 books this year. The target was to read at least 12 books. So it’s two books less than the target. It’s quite better than last year. Last year, I only read three books. The best book that I read this year is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. The Alchemist is another good book by Paulo Coelho. To Kill a Mockingbird, It Ends with Us, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Hopeless duology, first two books of The Shiva trilogy are the rest books that I read this year. I keep track of all the books that I have read.

I met a lot of people this year. Being kind of an introvert, I don’t go out often. I did an internship in the summers, where I met some really good and smart people.
Like good things, bad things also happen. Bad things are just things that are unfavourable. I didn’t get the UWEs(University Wide Electives) of my choice. I wanted to take Macroeconomics in Spring 2017, but I didn’t get it because of a clash with a major course. The same happened with Linear Algebra in Monsoon 2017 semester. What’s the advantage of SNU’s so-called multidisciplinary curriculum when most of the students aren’t able to get courses of their choice? Plus, I have the record of taking the worst CCCs(Core curriculum courses) and UWEs. I took a philosophy course in Spring 2017. Got a D in it. Who gets a D in CCCs? How can I forget Chester Bennington? Linkin Park has been my favourite band since high school. Losing Chester didn’t feel good.

Talking about next year, 2018. I am hoping for a lot from it. I still have to learn a lot. I am really fascinated by Blockchain and the Internet of Things. And also how Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain together can change the world. So I am thinking of going deep into these fields, and I also have to work on my writing. Isn’t very good. Is it? To improve my writing, From 2018, I will author at least one story on Medium every month.
Have a great year ahead :)