Merry Christmas y’all!!!
Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s Christmas time again!! Seems just like yesterday that the New Year had begun and now we are already getting ready for 2017!!
Like every year, I like to reflect on the great things that have happened during the year that have helped shape me.
Lets start by reflecting on my goals I had set out for 2016.
My top 10 goals/resolutions were:
Get into grad school
Be healthier
Travel more
Laugh more
Eat steak
Eat lasagna
Dance more
Fall in love
Read more
Be more confident
I think some of these are still a working progress but I was able to accomplish all of these during 2016.
I got into grad school!
I tried to be healthier, but still enjoyed my desserts.
I traveled! A LOT! Every single month of this year!
I made some wonderful memories with friends and families and laughed a lot!
At the end of last year I had some food cravings, which I most definitely satisfied multiple times this year, Steak and lasagna!
I danced as much as I could, even when Buttercup gave me weird looks.
I fell in love… hard… but also had my heart broken… hard!
I think being a grad student has automatically signed me up to read way too much so for the next lifetime, reading goals shouldn’t be hard. Unless of course I say “for pleasure.”
And lastly, I think I am a bit more confident today than I was a year ago. Whether it be as a person or a scientist, I have a lot more growing to do but so far 2016 has been an amazing year for me!
Some monthly (traveling) highlights from 2016:
January: Flew to UMass for my first interview
February: Flew to UTSW for my interview. My first first author paper was published. Got into UMass
March: Got into UTSW. Flew to UMiami for an interview. Got offered admission at UMiami
April: Little vacation to Edmonton to visit family and Calgary to visit my childhood best friend and met “Alaji”
May: Apartment hunting in Dallas. Visit Sarina and “Alaji” in Calgary. Celebrate my baby cousin’s high school graduation in Atlanta. Pack up and move out of St. Louis.
June: My first 12 hour road trip alone from STL to home in NC. As soon as I got home, I packed up to go on my dream vacation to Europe.
June/July: Traveled Europe. Zurich, Interlaken, Stuttgart, Budapest, Split, Rome, Granada, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London, Leicester! 12 cities in 3 weeks! At the end of my trip, my sister joined me at my best friend’s wedding in Leicester then from there we went to India to visit our aunt and maternal grand parents.
July/Aug: Travel around India and spend time with family. Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Munnar, Allepey, Goa, back to Hyderabad. 7 cities in 2.5 weeks.
August: Return home to NC. Unpack from trip and repack to move to Dallas. Road trip to go pick up Buttercup from my friend Stephanie in STL (round trip 22 hrs). Start Grad school!!
September: Go visit Alaji in Calgary and soon after get my heart broken (an important lesson I had to remember all over again)
October: Go to STL for Halloween to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday!
November: Emergency visit to Edmonton for my paternal grandfather passing away. He was an amazing honest caring man. I was so lucky to have had the opportunity to build a relationship with him.
December: Finished my first semester in grad school. Finished 2 rotations. Having an amazing time with my cousins Nageen and Tazeena celebrating Christmas in Dallas. Ending 2016 with a bam by celebrating in San Francisco!!
WOW! What a Year!! 2017 has some big shoes to fill!!
While I haven’t thought of my exact goals and resolutions for 2017, some lessons I’ve learned from 2016 that I would like to continue on in the new year:
I am finally in grad school and it took me a long time to get where I am, I want to continue my grad school career with the utmost curiosity and humility. I would like to be more humble in 2017 and give back more to the community I live in. I want to be able to do more scientific outreach and progress with my grad school studies. Of course, being healthy, but I would like to make a goal of working out 3-4 times a week. My weakness is soda, somehow I cannot take it out completely from my diet, so I need to limit myself to 1 serving a soda in a month! And to cater to my hopeless romantic side, I am still open to finding love (even though I probably shouldn’t be after my track record with dating[1. dating a guy 10 yrs older who was too concerned about his reputation at the end of the day; 2. dating a guy too insecure with himself he could only put others down around him to feel more confident; and 3. a weasel who snuck in, made fake promises all the while cheating on me). However, this time in addition to finding a life partner, I want to add no more heart breaks. Of course, I want to continue to travel as much as possible, meet new people, make new friends, build stronger relationships with the people in my life already and try to get one more fur-baby in my life!!
That’s a wrap for me for 2016!! Looking forward to 2017 and the new goals for next year!!
Happy Holidays and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
~Cell-ebraTez
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