2015 was the year I cried at a concert. 2016 was the year of checking things off my bucket list. I lived 7 years’ worth of life in this one year. In 2016, I graduated (FINALLY! After 6 years of changing colleges, hostels, roommates, plagiarism, acing assignments, leaving notes, crushing over teachers, writing exams in ink and tears, but mostly tears, I graduated), went to Pondicherry, got a pet. I found a job after all the would-you-like-some-fries-with-that-liberal-arts-degree McDonalds-is-always-hiring jokes. I even finished probation and lasted at the job in spite of my low self-esteem. Varanasi (also FINALLY! because I waited 427 years for that before giving up and thinking it was never going to happen). And turning a redhead, 2016 saw my hair go from long to short to asymmetric to blond to bright pink-almost red.
But the thing 2016 will be remembered for is the fact that, for the first time in forever, I broke up out of successive romantic relationships. I felt, for the first time, the freedom that was not granted by someone you are better halves of, but a freedom that just is. 2016 will also be the year I found Awk. Which stands for an awkward group of soulmate-like people I found in office cubicles connected through their IPs and love of good writing, movies, walks, and their basic need for love.
Moving forward, I must talk about what I have decided the destiny of 2017 to be. It will be the year I will write. And travel. But mostly write. Good and bad. But mostly bad. And be okay with it. Because BrainPickings told me “You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly. Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” 2017 is destined also for 12 projects, 1 taken up every month, about writing, stitching, exercising, knitting, realizing hidden dreams of acting maybe, or bar-tending even. Breaking this free fall of getting too ahead of myself, I take 2 steps away from this social construct of measuring time in years and talk about things I am thankful for regardless of time: tampons, perfumes, cameras, paper soap, and jet sprays. But, mainly jet sprays.