I remember being sad when I turned thirty. I was not looking forward to turning thirty, but having spent the last two years in my thirties, I must say I am quite looking forward to turning thirty-three. Each year has been better than the previous one and I also like the way thirty-three sounds.

I also wonder if I should start having themes for each year similar to Chinese horoscope.

Have I mentioned that writing this blog post is something I look forward to each year and as I start writing this post two days before 15th, the joy of writing this post remains the same as what it was five years ago.

This year has been great. Got to spend a lot of time with friends and family and overall I think I did some of my best work professionally.

From my goals for 2018, I managed to tick these boxes.

  • Continue learning new languages/tools.
  • Exercise and swim more often.
  • Launch and maintain one web app and one mobile app.
  • Spend more time with family and friends.

Things I failed at :(

  • Move/stay in another country for some time(more about this below)
  • Write at least eight blog posts every month.
  • Travel to at least four new countries(I only visited Singapore again this year. No new countries.
  • Make time to date someone seriously(Failing at this goal for two years now)

I spent a week this year being very sad about losing a good friend. Magesh you will be missed. How I wish I had planned for the trip together to Thailand in the first half of this year instead of planning for it sometime next year.

Work

“The year of exciting work.”

I spent a major part of this year getting better at React Native, serverless programming(node.js), improving the performance of existing apps and continuing to be better at building API with PHP(Laravel).

Brightpod’s mobile app which I worked on in 2017, was launched this year. Was really happy to see the app on Play / App Store.

Serverless is the new hot trend and I was able to successfully deploy two cloud functions in AWS and Google and they both are working well. Will continue to work on more serverless programs next year.

Maintaining software is still something I continue to be excited about rather than building something new.

Tools I spent the most time with this year: React Native, Node, Laravel, Heroku, AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google Cloud functions and Redis.

Personal

This year has been great in regards to getting to spend time with friends. The highlight was that I got to spend quality time with most of them this year. Something which I will cherish forever. I consider myself to be very very lucky to have some really good friends. 🤗

I also got to spend a lot of quality time with family too this year. More years like this place. I am a bit sad that I did not travel a lot with family this year, but hoping to rectify this next year.

Getting to spend time with my niece is something I really grateful for. Its been a great to see her grow up, make friends, teach me about colours and fight with me. I don’t think me and my sister ever fought as much as the fights I continue to have with my niece.

Fitness was a priority this year and I am happy that I got to exercise regularly. Reached my target weight and then went below it by a few kgs. 6 pack abs though continue to remain a goal I target to achieve someday.

I joined WeWork co-working in Goregaon(Mumbai) this year and had a blast working from there. Got to meet some really really interesting people and was amazed at the different kind of work/industries people were involved in. I also got to concentrate and get a lot of work done from WeWork. WeWork community team in Goregaon organised some really nice events which I got to attend. Will miss not being a part of this community next year.

Travel

I did not travel a lot this year. Work wise this year was quite busy and that meant I did not think about travel as much.

Travelling around Singapore with friends was great. I have been to Singapore before, but travelling to a place alone vs being there with friends has been quite a different experience. I enjoyed Singapore a lot more this time around.

Few others places I visited this year: Goa(5 times.. I am Goa as I write this post) Pune Nasik Singapore Hyderabad(twice) Udupi

Life update

My residency application to Australia got approved yesterday. I am looking forward to moving there early next year. Will be a big change. I am excited and equally scared.

Goals for 2019

  • More road trips.
  • Pick up a new hobby/activity to do.
  • Write/share more often on this blog.
  • Continue learning new languages/tools.
  • Travel to at least three new countries.
  • Make time to date someone seriously(Hopefully this is the year 🤞🏻)
  • Spend more time with family and friends.

Hope you all have a great 2019.