2022

May not have started 2022 on the best notes. 2022 was probably one of my best years yet, not because it was all fun and roses, but because I think I have grown more into my own self, I’ve paved the path for discovering myself, and more importantly because I have shown tremendous growth and strength over the year. 

I started the year in ammachan’s hospital room in AJ Hospital, Mangalore with him, ammamma, and amma. Jan surely wasn’t my month of the year, I felt low without a sense of purpose in life, confused about what life college was for me, did going back to school for another year make sense, did grad school make sense, should I join Aviyel after school? In short confusion. To make it worse, it almost felt like my life revolved around Aviyel for the last few months, and now I didn’t even feel like joining them after college, what was it all for? 

By Feb, things may have improved slightly, and getting out of the house and going back to college definitely helped. Met Sejal after agesss. I’ve realized over this year, that sejal is one person that I’ve not appreciated enough in my life. She’s been my rock ever since my first year at Ashoka, and I’ve never even told her that. She’s smart and gives the best advice, even though I hate to admit that! This year, I want to make sure she feels appreciated better. Feb was a cute month, spent mostly with sej, manasjia and akhil over cute times in the mess lawns and having chill hangouts in the night! 

In March, we celebrated my birthday over a cute celebration with just the four of us, and it was beautiful and simple, just the way I like things. All of my friends from Ashoka, who weren’t on campus, sent over beautiful notes and those are notes I will treasure forever <3

I also went to Mussorie with Sejal and Tanya in march. It was a fun experience, but I’m surprised we didn’t kill each other. I think we realized how different lives we live compared to each other and how we were raised so differently despite being at similar places in life now. Sometimes I find it funny how despite growing up in a very privileged high-income family (by Indian standards most likely in higher than the top 0.5%), I often realize I most of the time don’t understand the spending habits of the rich. Anyways, dosti uther nahi toota, so theek hai. Lol. But one good thing did happen on the trip though, despite the bad stuff. One day, I spent on my own exploring the city, and that was something, I felt myself and unstoppable and loved the experience! 

In March, campus reopened at full strength after the pandemic and it was almost like the good old times in my first year. April flew away fast, but by May I realised I was still the same girl with my feelings in January bottled up in a pressure cooker, about to burst. I took a quick decision, and decided to leave campus as soon as I could, rather than staying for senior week and stuff. Came back home. 

In my head, this was when I realized Aviyel is probably not for me, I wasn’t happy. At the end of May, I made my first solo trip ever to Munnar - Mussorie gave me the strength for that. Well okay, if I skip over the next part I’m just lying to future Charu. So I may have had some sort of a weird romantic/sexual awakening in Munnar. Well, I didn’t really plan for anything tbvh. I went on a bike ride with a random stranger. Looking bad, not a very safe thing to do, especially considering there wasn’t any mobile network for the 7 hours our trip (or should I call it a date lol) lasted. Anyways, I always knew from the get-go that due to our differences in ages, it wasn’t the right thing to pursue, but I guess love works in weird ways, not very rational oftentimes. Anyways, after about two weeks of talking, I decided to block and ghost him. Did later clarify that I did in fact block him when he called up and clarified why. [Oh btw, we had made plans to go to Varkala together, but at that point I’d researched Varkala well enough, that even after we stopped talking I wanted to go, so chose dates a week after he said he’s gonna be there] 

Also in June, I graduated. Spent some quality time with the family, particularly amma ammmmma and ammachan. Our night rides to the beach and bubble blowing will always be my favorite memories 🙂

At Varkala, I had the experience that made me love solo traveling. I made new friends and met a lot of cool people, and Varkala is suddenly my favorite place of 2022! I may have bumped into Rameez again at Varkala, but we didn’t interact with each other so thank god it was alright. On the last day of June, I also quit Aviyel. 

Okay, I need to give context on why. So I had randomly filled out a google form for some investment analyst internship, not because it particularly interested me, but because I was bored and knew I didn’t want to work at Aviyel any longer. Long story short, I got selected for the internship, but in the final round I spoke with Prateek Agarwal who told me, I seemed to love startups over everything else, wouldn’t I enjoy working with one more? And then proceeded to tell me he’d be willing to make an introduction to any startup amongst the 100 in his portfolio 😀 BEST DAY EVER! Anyways again long story short, that’s pretty much how I got my current internship, wealth42. 

In July, I went on a trip to Gokarna with Shivani, got covid there, was miserable and came back quickly. In july, i think i spent some quality time with Niya, really had a sisterly experience for the first time in a very long time. I hope we grow closer over the years 🙂

In August, I decided to travel between Chennai, Vizag and then a week in Jaipur. It was quite fun travelling and catchup with friends 🙂. Especially, manasija who’s moved to London for grad school, right after that. 

Weirdly, I think a lot of this travelling made me probably think I’m more attractive than I think I am, with the amount of people who tried atleast to make a move with me lol. Not being cocky but yeah it’s true charu. 2022 was truly your year of sexual and romantic awakening. 

In September, I started TA’ing for a course lol, and that’s kindof when I realised I was becoming my own person. I enjoyed tech, i knew I loved startups, I knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, I had much more clarity than lots of other people. I didn't need my entire life planned out ahead of me, what’s the joy in that. Do things that I enjoy. I was in a better headspace for all reasons. 

Traveled for my first badminton tournament representing Ashoka, to BITS Pilani in October, also travelled to Kartarpur corridor, Pakistan, spent Diwali in Amritsar. October, is probably also the month, were I became closer with two people - Mehak and my roommate Niharika. Both beautiful souls. In November, I traveled to Chandigarh and went to my first-ever concert. Don’t think I’m really a concert person if you remove alcohol from the equation lol. It was also the month when I think I partied the most lol - or maybe just drank the most lol. 

December started on the worst note. Ammachan’s health deteriorated, I knew in my gut back then that it was nearing the end, so booked the next flight and came down. Spent the next week in Mangalore with the family. Had a final closure conversation with him, eternally grateful for having trusted my gut and came. Ammachan left us on the 21st of December. He’s been a fundamental part of shaping my identity and I’m so glad I was able to have his love in my life. Will miss him and his presence always <3. 

Oh hey future charu, you want to get some tea on me. I had a huge crush on this dude called Z in October. May have lowkey become obsessive lmao. But anyways, update from December is that he is very nice, but now we’ve gotten too comfortable, dude gives me too much bro energy. So nope, this aint the year we’re falling in love lmaoo. Next year, bitches, maybe next year I’ll meet the love of my life 😂