Expectations from 2022 me

Dear 2022 me,

Here is how I want you to be when the next year arrives.

As you are about to graduate soon, I want you to start working hard like you have never done before. Develop new skills and make new connections. Stop burning bridges and start rebuilding the broken ones. But most importantly, do not lose yourself.

As we grow older, we tend to start having high expectations from ourselves in order to thrive in this competitive world and that subsequently leads us to huge disappointment in ourselves. But that's WRONG! It's okay to have expectations but they need to be healthy lest we will only hurt ourselves and those close to us.

Over the past years, especially before joining the university, we definitely never took ourselves seriously with our resolutions and kept blaming our life or god while also developing a hatred for ourselves. But we have grown mature now. We have learned to accept ourselves the way we are. And that was part of one of our previous resolutions: be proud of yourself. I won't say resolutions are meant to be broken but it's okay to not follow them one hundred percent beginning from 0:00 AM, 1st Jan 2022 itself. It's also okay to take a longer time than others do without comparing ourselves with them.

Say we are learning some programming languages. Day 1: learn the basic syntax and feel confident about it. That should take an hour max. Day 2: write some 10-line simple scripts. Should take 2 hours mostly. But that will help you feel more confident with the language now. The point is that it's high time we realize that being hard on ourselves has never helped us and now we need to try a more patient but gentle approach for our growth. In the past, from Day 1 itself, we would think about building complicated software while learning about simple syntax, and hence we would immediately give up. We always had too many expectations when we were just "beginning to walk".We have been following this failing method for many years hence, it's alright to be open-minded now and try a new method of following resolutions where we can feel proud of our progress.

Thus, from next year onwards, we will forget all the unhealthy methods we have been trying to be successful. We will start learning new skills. Keep trying to take breaks in-between. We will also do our best to finish learning new skills without giving up. We will keep updating our resumes and LinkedIn. We will apply for various jobs but keep taking breaks.

Another expectation I have from you is to stop burning bridges. I agree there are various kinds of people we want to avoid: some are bad role models and some are too unhealthy to have them around. But this is where we can play the role of a positive influencer. Here is the chance where we can start practicing our communication skills to help everyone get on the same page and also help them develop a more positive attitude rather than just have ourselves avoiding them. The more people we help, the more the connections we make, and that too stronger ones. Helping people is never wrong but running away without trying is. Of course, I won't advise you to just hang onto them until they have changed for good. Some people may choose to stay the way they always have been and it's ok to step back when we have realized that. Again, give yourself a break when needed :)

Overall, keep working hard but don't push yourself too hard. It's ok to fail sometimes but don't give up. Don't break relations but try to see how we can change them. 2022 is going to be a brilliant year for you and you will definitely see it for yourself!

Take care,

2021 me