Happy new year!

 Finally, the day has arrived and surprisingly, I've actually made it to this day. For the last two years, my life had been a box full of mysteries to most people. In fact, most of my friends don't even know where I have disappeared all of a sudden. I stopped using almost all the social media platforms and completely cut out my way from social life. I stopped communicating and meeting almost everyone and kind of isolated myself from the world. I faced a lot of ups and downs in this time and concluded a lot of things. These were the goals that I wrote on a page of my pocket diary exactly a year before. Many of them seemed really challenging, a few of them seemed impossible as well, but with all the courage in my heart that I always talk about, I just wrote them. And somehow I actually made them happen.

1. Launch the blog

So, I can say that I made it to this goal on the very first day of the year. But, posting one article and then never showing up again would have been something meaningless and so I showed up every day and somehow reached this 365th blog.  To be honest, the idea to write a blog post every day came all of a sudden. I used to enjoy writing and expressing my thoughts and so I just felt why not share them publicly via a blog. And so, this is where it all started. 

2. Physical Transformation

In the last months of 2019, I stopped indulging in any form of physical exercise. It was my drop year and so I reached a point in time where I felt that these intense workouts are just becoming a burden on me. Moreover, cracking that exam was the only thing I had in my mind. So, I made a deal with myself. I decided that I would only study and won't make any unnecessary efforts in any kind of physical workouts. But, after cracking the exam, I would hit the gym like never before. As a result, I got fat and a little ugly as well. The exam kept on postponing and so my fitness kept on declining and I became unhealthy. Also, in this way, 2020 also passed. So, getting back again in shape was really necessary and so I just transformed myself a little and made it to this goal.

3. Start a journal

Well, I have been fond of journals for a very long time. I liked those YouTube videos in which they showed people maintaining their journals in a very beautiful manner. I also wanted to maintain such a journal. And so, I just brought one on 31st December 2020. Well, I couldn't maintain it in that beautiful manner that they show in the videos but still, I've managed to maintain it consistently. 

4. Finish the books: Zero to one| Who will cry when you die | Ikigai

Reading books is something I like very much. In fact, I have a long list of books that I want to read. But, I have other things to do too. So, I decided to finish these three books this year. Now, the interesting part is, I didn't pick any of them until November when I started reading zero to one after a lot of confusion between ordering a hard copy or simply downloading it on my tablet. I chose the latter. Anyways, it took me a month to finish this one because I didn't maintain consistency. Then I picked Who will cry when you die and actually finished it in 15 days. I guess it took me less than 15.  And finally, the last one is Ikigai which took even less time. 

5. Get into one of the best colleges.

I think this is the biggest reason behind everything that happened in these two years. Moreover, I guess this is something that most of you had been wondering about. You all must have had a question in your mind, and that is which college am I studying in? So, let's unfold the mystery right now. Well, I didn't join any college until December 2021. When I took a drop in 2019, I was enthusiastic. In fact, I studied a lot in that year. Moreover, the pandemic that caused the exam to postpone gave me a lot more time to study a lot more. And so, I just studied like never before. But, on the exam day, I just panicked. Something wrong happened with me in the initial hour of the exam and I just ruined it. Obviously, I couldn't clear it. It was a big shock for me. I lost all the enthusiasm and was actually very hurt. Surprisingly, my father suggested I try one more time, something that I didn't expect. I thought he would be disappointed but nothing like that happened. Somehow I made my mind and actually didn't study for the first three months which were the last three months of 2020. I was still not enthusiastic. Then, in the last few days of December I just made my mind that if I'm giving it a try for one last time, I should at least make some satisfactory efforts. The exam was in February and so I actually started studying in January. Out of the four exams, the last two were postponed due to the pandemic.  But I didn't care. In fact, I didn't study much this time. But somehow, I actually performed way too better than my last two years and made it to Delhi Technological University. Cheers to my carefree attitude in this last attempt. 

6. Earn money

I've always had this dream of creating wealth as a teenager. But, I could never actually make it happen. I just kept on postponing it. I wanted to have financial independence so that I can do things that require money without the worry of asking or convincing my parents. Years were passing on and I was just postponing things. But this time I made my mind. I just decided that if not now then never. And so, I just started doing what I always wanted to do and in a few months till date made a good amount of money and still counting. Even my parents got to know about it very late because I just didn't let anyone know. It's just I don't like to disclose things until they're not done.

7. Work on The Photo Booth

Well, I have always been a photography enthusiast and I was so inclined towards it that I created a brand named "The Photo Booth" in 2019. It was kind of progressing and so I worked on it for a couple of months until I realized I didn't clear any of the entrance exams I have given. I was in such a tense situation that I had to shut it down. A year later, when I saw that I actually couldn't clear the entrance exam for whose preparation I just stopped working on my brand. Had I worked on it sideways, at least I would have had something in my hand. I realized that I lost both ways and so resuming working on 'The Photo Booth' was a much-needed thing. Now, I have worked out on a lot of things for it and it's going to be live again in 2022 and this time in a much better outlook. 

So, I took the action and actually made these things happen. Also, I'm not trying to show off these things. It's just that I want to make everyone aware that there are endless possibilities and everything is possible. The most important thing is to take action. I had this thought of writing out my experiences in 2019, but it was just a thought because I didn't take any action. And it remained a thought for the next two years until I took the action in 2021 from the very first day.

I am thankful for the worst situations I faced in 2019 which actually made it a memorable year. I would never forget that year. Had I not faced the worst, I would have been another typical college guy doing those usual things.

Also, this blog worked as a reminder to me for all the things I did throughout the year. It helped me go through all the things I did in particular when I used to sit for writing the post for that day. 

If you remember, my first post had the same title "Happy New Year" and was posted on this same date of the last year. Let's just take a look at a paragraph of it,

Now, we all know today is the first day of this new year. I've started the first day by writing my first blog and will continue atleast till the end of the year. I believe, we all should start this year with something new and rewarding and continue it for atleast an year. Trust me, it will make you feel really great and you will have something to appreciate on the last day of this year. 2020 had passed really fast (atleast for me) and it had not been a really good year for me. It's just not covid but still many more things, and I'm not going to discuss them because it's over now. (Don't cry because it happened, smile because it's over).

So, in the end, I have got something to appreciate on this last day of this year. I just did what I wrote and totally enjoyed it. 2020 had not been a good year, but 2021 had been one of the best. And it all had become possible only because I took the action and made the efforts. This time I don't have anything to regret for. Just a list full of goals for the coming year because this time I'm too enthusiastic and confident to do a lot of bigger things ahead. 

This twenty-year-old guy has just shown how we can do a lot of things by just taking those actions that we all have in our minds. We choose to postpone them because they seem too challenging to happen. Trust me, once you decide that you will do it no matter what and start taking the action, things become easier unexpectedly.

I would end this blog here only with this small line I wrote on the first day also, don't cry because it happened, smile because it's over. It had been a great year and I'm thankful for each and every person who has read even a single post on this blog. Had you stopped reading this, I would have stopped writing way too earlier. Let the new year come up with bigger things in each of our lives.

Happy New Year!

The end.

Ritik T.