Reflections on Q2 of 2021

As Q2 of 2021 draws to a close, I have a lot to celebrate. There has been numerous wins across various areas of my life. Most notably, I have finally gotten my driving license after years of procrastinating on it, I secured my dream job, and I have graduated with my second engineering degree from one of the best universities in the world. I could not be more thankful for all the fortune that continues to flow into my life. There are so many people who have carried me thus far and I recently made an attempt to express my gratitude. No amount of words can ever fully capture the gratitude but it was a worthy attempt. As usual, I reflect on Q2 using my four pillars as an organizing framework. 

Personal Development: I continue to eat well, stay active, and get sufficient rest. Thanks to my current down time as I wait to start my full-time job, I have even started taking day time naps. Naps are golden! The greatest achievement from Q2 in this area comes from developing a personal ethical code that I shall use to guide the decisions I make. This process forced me to refine and defend my values and aspirations. It is my best reflective and aspirational piece yet. It goes beyond outlining what actions by me I consider ethically permissible and ethically impermissible. It also prescribes actions I will take to make it more likely that I will behave ethically and reduce the temptation to be unethical. I know the document will continue to evolve over time, but I am satisfied with where it is at the moment. I am also glad it helped provide more clarity and specificity with respect to some of the goals I have under my current life goals. 

Meaningful Communities: Following a successful vaccine rollout here in California, things are more or less back to normal. During Q2, I slowly resumed a few of my in-person social activities including weekly hikes, hosting dinners, and attending a few social gatherings. After an eternity of life under lockdown, it has been refreshing to see loved ones again and engage in some of my favorite recreational activities. I have also began regular check-ins with some of my closest friends. These check-ins have helped ease the readjustment following the end of my 5 year therapy journey at the end of Q1. As I transition into the next phase of my life, I am rethinking my social policy. I am allowing myself to cut back on quantity in order to invest more in quality of relationships. It is in that same spirit that I have resolved to discontinue my WhatsApp and FB stories. It has been fun being a WhatsApp influencer. Thank you to everyone who has kept up with my content. I will continue to write on my blogs from time to time, but I will not post those to my WhatsApp anymore. Those who wish to keep up will have to proactively check my website.

Professional Excellence: It is old news by now that I have finished school for life and will be joining Krikey as an Associate Product Manager in a few days. I will reflect soon on the job search but a key reminder from it was that sometimes things do not work out for a great reason. It was easy to be sad in the moment when the jobs I was applying to did not work out, but the truth of the matter is most of them were not aligned with what I was looking for. As I have said over and over again, I aspire to help organizations build products for sustainability and impact by enabling them to make better decisions. Krikey and the role provide exactly that. On top of that, I loved the team the most of all the teams I have met throughout this process. This promises to be the beginning of a great career. As I wrapped up my degree this Q2, I made sure to challenge myself to the fullest in my selection of classes and the ways in which I applied myself. I want my name to be synonymous with high quality work in everything that I touch. Q2 has been great and Q3 is going to be even greater under this pillar as I lay down the foundation for a great career ahead.

Financial Sustainability: In Q2, I made modest progress in my goals under this pillar. One of my biggest achievements in this area has been setting and sticking to boundaries. My newly drafted ethical code has provided clarity with respect to goal 4.3, which makes it easy to implement the boundaries I have established in these matters. This is especially important as goals 4.1 and 4.2 take precedence in this new chapter of my life. Q2 has also been a time to consolidate and interpret my financial data from the past 3 years. In a lot of ways, the past 3 years have been an opportunity to test and iteratively refine my financial policy. So far, the experiment has succeeded - with a few opportunities for growth. As I look to Q3 and beyond, I am excited to implement the refined policy as I work towards my goals under this pillar. Generally speaking, Q3 will serve as a transitionary period as I adjust to the new financial policy. 

In all, the second quarter of 2021 has been great and I am on progress on most of my goals. This next chapter is going to be the best one yet. I look forward to getting my own place, living life more since the world (this side at least) is reopening, and becoming the best Product Manager the world has ever known. Until then, I will wrap up the rest of Q2 with more reading, more movies, and more naps.