It is 9:26 p.m. on December 31, 2020, and I think this is a great opportunity for me to reflect on the past 366 days that I have spent mostly at home. This day is almost the perfect day to sum up this year as my dad has coronavirus and we are quarantined at home. Pretty much how I spent my entire year. But nevertheless, I think absorbing all that happened this year will allow me to improve myself and become a better human. So here is my year-end review for 2020.
I started the year with a sense of urgency. I realized I had to do something substantial, but I didn’t know what I should do. I knew I had to make a change. I realized I had an addiction that wasn’t serious, but I knew I had to do something about this addiction. I was addicted to binge-watching. I couldn’t stop watching newer TV series or movies, and it was almost as if I was wasting most of my time watching something that would never be of use to me. In January 2020, I decided to cut down on this futile hobby, which I later stopped watching altogether.
I had to replace a hobby with another hobby, and I found a perfect replacement for this in the gym. One of my New Year resolutions was to go to the gym 100 days in the year. I purposely chose 100 and not something larger because I felt if my goal was gettable, I would surely go past 100. February was when I got serious about the gym. My friends, Susanth and Achyuth, accompanied me to the gym, and it was as if we had a single goal to achieve peak fitness. By the end of the month, I had been to the gym 30 times. I was already almost one-third through my New Year resolution. Things were looking great fitness-wise.
All the stress of college had me waiting for the spring break in March. I did not have any plans except to relax during this time and give myself a breather from my studies. In the first week of March, Kartikey came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to South Padre (Texas) for Spring Break. I do not think I have said yes to anything faster than when I told him yes for South Padre. But this will be covered in another blog in greater depth. It was around the first week of March when coronavirus cases started occurring in different parts of the world. I did not imagine that coronavirus would become this deadly, so we went on the trip anyway. But after we returned to UTA from spring break, we got a piece of good news (at that time) that UTA is extending spring break for another week. This news was a massive relief for me as I had not started working on any of my assignments. But oh, how the things escalated from there.
It did not take much time for the world to shut down completely. It was as if we were in an apocalypse. This situation was unreal, and no one had ever faced or seen something like this before. UTA and other universities went online. Countries closed their borders. I needed to decide whether I should stay in the United States or go back to India. Staying in India made the most sense, and now we had to decide on our departure date. Kartikey and I settled for March 27, 2020, as that was the day when we both did not have any exams or assignments. Luckily, I received an unexpected group call. It was from my friends Saumya and Mustafa asking me what my plans were for going back to India. I informed them of my plan to go back to India on the 27th, but thankfully, Mustafa convinced me that we should leave earlier, like on the 20th in case India decides to close its borders like other countries. Kartikey wasn’t sure about this because he had his commitments with his job, but we decided to meet up and discuss when we should leave.
On the evening of March 18, 2020, many of my friends met at Mustafa’s place and decided to book the tickets that day for March 20, 2020. While some of us were quick to book our tickets, Mustafa was a bit too late and could not buy the tickets. The next morning, we learned that India would be closing its borders starting from March 22, 2020, just a day after our flight would land. All of us who booked the ticket breathed a sigh of relief. In the end, it worked out well for us, and we were able to leave the United States.
The experience in the airport was surreal. No one seemed to be knowing what was happening. I was too scared to get infected with coronavirus on the plane, but little did I know my experience at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi would be worse. My flight touched down at 8 pm in Delhi on the 21st, and my dad had planned to book a domestic flight from Delhi to Kanpur so that I could reach home safely. But what followed was utter chaos. We were made to sit in the IGI airport for 12 hours with what looked like more than two thousand people cramped in a confined airport space. I have no idea how I spent those 12 hours. It did help me to have Kartikey and Arghya by my side to spend time with. But passing time was the least of our concerns. Jet lag, hunger, tiredness, and protecting ourselves from other people who may have coronavirus in the airport were some of the things we had to endure. The airport was in disarray. No one was sure why we were not allowed to leave the airport or when we would be allowed to leave. We thought that the airport officials would be testing us for coronavirus in the airport, and only if we tested negative would they let us go out of the airport, which seemed to be taking forever. But when I finally reached the place with the “doctors,” all they did was ask me a few questions and then let me go. I am still not sure why they made us stay in the airport for 12 hours if they weren’t planning on screening us for coronavirus.
I came out of the airport, but the journey wasn’t over yet. I had to catch a flight from Delhi to Lucknow that kept canceling, which didn’t help my cause. By this point in time, I was exhausted and drained. All I wanted to do was to sleep. Fortunately, I was able to get a flight to Lucknow. As soon as I stepped into the flight, I dozed off. I don’t think I have ever been asleep before the plane takes off, so this was a first. It was only a 30 odd minute sleep I got on the plane, but that was all I needed to feel better. March in itself felt like a year with all that happened, and things never got better from there.
The world was in a lockdown. I didn’t mind it. I liked staying at home doing my thing, but even someone like me would fancy an occasional break and go outside. That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t worth risking my life and those of others. But it was in April when I decided what I wanted to do this summer. For a long time, I was very interested in what my friend Swapnanil was doing with his iOS applications. I thought it was a cool thing to do, and I wanted to get into that kind of stuff. So, I decided to start learning iOS development in May when my exams were over. I had previously tried doing the same iOS development course in the summer of 2019, but I couldn’t give all my attention to it. But this time, I was determined and desperate to leave a mark. I wanted to do something substantial this year and what could be better than developing an app? I was so focused on not falling off the track when I started the course that I remember watching a TED talk on how to master a skill in 20 hours. This video helped me persevere through the initial tough times in learning the course.
Exams were supposed to get over by the second week of May. I couldn’t wait to start the iOS development course. I remember telling Mahesh, a friend from school, that even if I don’t make a great app after learning this course, all I would be grateful for would be if I could just make a functional calculator app. I exceeded my expectations and ended up building the calculator app in just the next week. I was truly in love with app development by then. I spent less time on studying for my finals and more time on learning iOS development. By mid-May, I had gotten my 4.0 for the semester and started developing a GPA calculator just for fun. When I look back at that project, I am utterly disgusted with its user interface, but I am proud that I found ways to learn different concepts efficiently.
I spent 7-8 hours every day on my laptop learning different concepts. I was grinding my way out of all the difficulties and bugs. I had never been this fascinated and engrossed by something like this. I was just so pleased that I was hooked to something that I could make a profession off. On the 26th of May, while I was going to bed, I thought of an app idea. An app for hand cricket (a game I used to play as a kid). I thought it would be a fun project to practice on and learn more principles through this. The next day, I started coding to make that app with whatever basic knowledge I possessed at that time.
I spent the entire June learning iOS development through my hand cricket project. While this app was turning out to be great, I had not originally planned to publish it on the App Store because I felt it was a bit basic to be on the App Store. All credits to Swapnanil for convincing me to publish it on the App Store. He also guided me throughout that time and even in the present as I type this year-end summary out. I asked him questions. Way too many questions. I think I could have googled most of the questions, but Swapnanil was nice enough to give me the answer and provide me with a thorough explanation for that answer. I spent the entire month of June fixing several bugs. Most of them felt impossible to fix. I had several mental breakdowns during this time, but I was determined to get this app on the App Store. Nothing could come in my way now that I had made up my mind. By the end of June, I had completed Hand Cricket, and all that was left to do was to do the formalities of publishing the app.
This was the month. A month where I finally received the fruit for all my hard work in the past 4-5 weeks. By then, I used to spend 8-9 hours a day on my laptop to add the minutest of detail I could on my app. Now it was time to publish my first application on App Store. It was truly satisfying. I had finally achieved my goal for the year, and I couldn’t be happier. I remember waking up on the morning of 11th July eagerly waiting for my app to appear on the App Store so I could tell the world. That night, I was finally able to get a peaceful sleep after weeks of work.
While these were some of the happiest days for me, I also had a tense July as the Trump administration came up with plans that would negatively affect my chances of studying online from India. I did not want to go to the United States because things were getting worse there. But like almost all the bugs in my code, that problem was fixed. I was all set to do Fall 2020 from India.
Now that I had nothing to worry about, I could relax for a while. I took a break from app development for a week so that I could get back to it fresher.
Although I had met my goals by publishing Hand Cricket, I was not satisfied. I was hungry for more. I wanted to publish another app on the App Store. Before I had started working on Hand Cricket, I had an idea for an app that could have all the essential apps a person would need in a single app. But at that time, I could not make that app because I did not have enough knowledge to build that app. After Hand Cricket, I felt I was ready to work on this app. I started working on this app a week or so after I published Hand Cricket. By then, I had completely turned into a workaholic. Since I was working those long hours, I planned to put this app on AppStore before the college started in August. However, things got busier when my grandparents came over to our place to stay with us, and we decided to move into another apartment. That set me off for two weeks.
While the college had started to get hectic, I was still very determined and focused to publish this app on the App Store. It was finally on September 11, 2020, that I finally published Sortify: Pocket Planner (formerly known as Sortify: Pocket College). I spent the next few weeks to update these apps to make them better, but college had started in full flow. I barely got time to focus on my apps as I was preoccupied with my college studies and internship applications. The contentment of having two applications that the world could see was just amazing.
I turned 21. There are a lot of happy memories that I could look back on that I will share in other blogs. But it seemed like yesterday when I was a kid having no idea what I would do if I grew up. Now I knew what I wanted to do and had two beautiful apps on the Appstore to show for it. Other than my birthday, October was uneventful. I was super busy with college studies, and barely got any time to do anything else. It was around this time that I thought that I should start learning web development. Learning web development would be advantageous for me as I would broaden my skills and make a website for myself. But with exams and assignments every week, I procrastinated this for the next month.
November was just like September and October, but I think my interest in web development grew significantly by the thought of having my website. Despite my busy schedule, I tried making some time for learning the web development course. I soon had to leave the course mid-way as finals were approaching, and I decided to continue the course in December.
A big thing that happened during this time was that my favourite IPL team, Delhi Capitals, qualified for the finals of IPL 13. I was a constant supporter of this team for the past 12 years. There were many disappointing IPL seasons but I always believed them to come back stronger. In 2020, DC managed to get the 2nd place on the points table and then go on to qualify for IPL Finals. Despite DC not winning the trophy, I am very proud of the way DC performed this year.
December hasn’t been too happening either. The Fall 2020 semester ended with me getting my third 4.0 GPA in college. As soon as college ended, I started working on developing my website so I could host information about myself and my apps on it. Susanth approached me with a start-up idea that we are currently working on, and I am excited about where that idea takes us. I am also eagerly waiting to get an internship offer so I can gain some formal experience with software engineering, but even if I don’t get an internship offer, I will find a better way to utilize my time in the summer of 2021.
This year has been very unpredictable. People have lost their lives and their livelihood. While things don’t necessarily look bright for 2021 with the new variant of coronavirus, I do hope that we all can gather the strength to get through another tough year if it happens to be that way. As far as this year is concerned, I could not keep my New Year resolution to go to the gym for 100 days. What I did manage to achieve was to find something that interests me and build something significant out of that.
I don’t have many personal goals at this point, but all I can hope for is that I am a better and more successful human being by the end of 2021. I think if I can just be as passionate about what I like in the future as I am right now, I will have the resilience to fix the hardest of bugs and fight the toughest of diseases.
It is 11:55 p.m. on December 31, 2020, right now. I hope my year’s summary can provide strength and determination to anyone reading this to overcome any tasks and difficulties. Peace.
© 2020 - 2021 Shubham Arya