2021: Year in Review

As 2021 winds to a close, its time to reflect on the year. It was an exceptional year, so much has changed. Lots of interesting stuff happened. Lets dig in.

My failures of 2021:

• Failed in some job interviews.
• Missed (had to let go because of the unavoidable situation) some high-paid job opportunities.
• Failed to keep on blogging.
• Missed to participate in 30 Days Google Cloud Challenge.

My wins of 2021:

• In January, mentored some students.
• In February, I Graduated(Class of 2020 but late due to Covid-19).
• Got selected as an Internshala Student Partner. During this program, I promoted Internshala & its product, helped several students in learning new skills, and motivated them to find their dream internship.
• Started pursuing an MCA(Master of Computer Applications) from JECRC University.
• In March, I created a Cool & Creative Dev Space Discord Community (currently 45+ members) but still, I need to set it up in the right way.
• In April, participated in CNC 2021 Challenge & successfully completed it. Won some cool Dev stickers as a swag.
• In May, started working as Freelance Graphic Designer. Thanks to Ambikas Daily Design Challenge WhatsApp Group.
• In June, got a Multimedia RGB Gaming Keyboard as a gift from Ankur Warikoo Sir. For me, its a pre-birthday gift as my birthday is in July.
• In July, got an internship as a Software Engineer at Shiv Guru IT Solutions. Started working in August. It is a remote position working with a dope team.
• In, September I was busy preparing & writing the masters assignments and exams.
• In October, participated in MLH Local Hack Day for the 1st time and learned a lot. I was in the top 6% of all hackers.
• This year I also participated for the 1st time in HackThisFall. Got to learn so many things from awesome speakers and mentors, got a chance to interact with them. Explored some new tech stuff. Overall it was a great experience.
• During the HTF, I won the Youtube Live Session Swag giveaway(Yet to come). Looking forward to HTF 3.0.
• Luckily I won the @hacker T-shirt in a giveaway by The @ Company. Thanks to Siddharth Dayalwal.
• Participated in Hacktoberfest 2021.
• Participated in the Instagram giveaway by Meme Coding & Sawo Labo and guess what I won SAWO Labs goodies(Yet to come).
• In November, got a chance to meet in person with my HR, she is very kind and supportive. She also brings chocolates from the U.S for me.
• Won a cool Pluralsight Tripper Backpack during MS Ignite.
• Got a cool T-shirt from Veeam Software. Thanks to Praveen Kumar Purushothaman.
• Bought a new phone for my brother.
• In December, learned how to create the Instagram filter using SparkAR Studio. Created 2 filters. BluePinkNeonLight Filter got 1.2K impressions.
• Meet school/college friends after a long time.
• My Linkedin connection has grown to 500+.
• Crossed 200+ followers on Twitter, 1.1k followers on Instagram, 50+ followers on Github.

Quote of the day
Your capacity to say No determines your capacity to say Yes to greater things. ~ E. Stanley Jones

Lesson I learned

• Explore -> Learn -> Win
• The best gift you can give yourself is knowledge
• Take care of your health & well-being
• Surround yourself with people who make you better
• Step out of your comfort zone
• Support others genuinely
• Life = Ups + Down

I just want to say thanks to the tech community for all your support. You're all great.
See you all in 2022.
Im excited about what 2022 will bring for me
Bye-Bye 2021