What is life if not an accumulation of experiences? And what are experiences if they don’t convert to lessons? Small or big, simple or complex, relatable or vague – here are 27 lessons I’ve learned in 27 years of existing.
At the start of last year, I wrote a blog post on how 2020 was going to be my year of gratitude. But not much longer after I published the above-mentioned article, life as we knew it, changed.
The pandemic hit. Casualties mounted, economies sunk, perceptions shifted and belief systems collapsed…as the very state of our existence dwindled.
For an external point of view – if you think about it – there could be no better year to test one’s endurance and commitment to gratitude than one like 2020, when the world experienced a catastrophe of such a magnitude.
2020 was a difficult year in many ways. But when I look back in retrospect, I see it as a year of learning.
It was the year I learnt I could live away from the city. It was the year I learnt to adapt. It was the year I learnt to let go. But most importantly, it was the year I learnt to incorporate positive changes into my life that led me to become a happier being.
I can’t specifically say what spurred these changes. Maybe because I was in isolation for so long that it gave me an un-interrupted introspective view of my own life. Or maybe because when so much bad happens in the world that it gives you perspective on the important things, that the unnecessary burdens just melt away. OR maybe I was just tired with the monotony of my own existence – that change was inevitable. I don’t know.
I’ve always been a solitary person. Happy in my own company.
Even when I was in the city, when my girlfriends went out on Friday nights, I’d choose to stay home. On those nights alone, I’d spend hours staring out of my bedroom window looking at city lights. Millions of those colorful dots that lit up the whole world. Vertically on buildings, on hoardings, as street lights and in thousands on cars that drove from under me in a golden blur.
Jesus! Christmas is literally 4 days away! If you count Christmas eve, then 3 days.
How did time fly?
In any case, if you’re freaking over the fact that you haven’t bought the perfect Christmas gift for your man yet – and worst still don’t know what to get – then this list of 15 last minute Christmas gifts for men should help you find something.
Shopping for men is so hard, especially if the man in question is impossibly choosy. So, to save time, I took gift suggestions from actual men about what they’d really like at any age as a Christmas gift and drew up this list.