12 Moments of '12

There are times in life when you feel down...times when you begin questioning the way things have turned out. It's true that things aren't always the way you expect them to be. But if life were that simple, there would be nothing left in this world except pure joy and abundance right? I'm at a point in my life where I am seriously questioning my existence as it is today. It's a new year now - a perfect time to think of all that has happened in the last year and how it has changed me into the person I am now. A sort of "12 important moments of '12" for me :)Moment #1 - February 27The first big moment to happen in 2012. I was done with applying to all the universities in my list for my Masters program and results were out from all but one. What made it even worse was, I wanted this result out badly than I wanted from the others. It was at around 9PM on this day did Texas A&M University get back to me. All that the email said was 'The admissions committee has made a decision on your application. Click on the link below to know your status'.That moments ranks among the top 10 most anxious moments of my life. I didn't have the courage to open the link. I asked my brother to do it. As soon as he saw result, his eyes started tearing and I thought I was gone. His hug reassured me that I had done the impossible. TAMU had decided to accept me. Wow! What a moment that was! Unforgettable!Moment #2 - May 12They say that it's the people in your life that make your life colorful and happy. Everyone has that 'one' person in their life and I had mine too. It was her birthday today and I wanted to make sure I did everything to make that person happy. It was even more important for me because I knew that for her next birthday, I wouldn't be there to cut the cake with her. After all, it becomes a habit when you've been doing it for close to 6 years doesn't it?Moment #3 - June 3Right from my childhood, I have always been a big fan of birthdays, especially if it's mine. All the presents you get, all the cake you get to eat, nobody will get mad at you for the silly things you do just because it's your 'special' day. Exciting! What makes it even more special is, at least once a year, all those in your circle remember you. It doesn't matter if they remembered because their calendar alarm went off or otherwise because, in the end it's all the same. It feels great to be remembered and pampered :D After 23 years of cutting the cake with family, this would be my last birthday with them for at least the next couple years. That made the moment even more enjoyable and important :)Moment #4 - July 31Definitely one of the longest days of my life. EVER! I was all set to leave to Texas for my Masters on the night of the 31st but deep inside there was a part of me hoping that the day would never come and when it did come, I was so earnestly hoping it would just pause(like it does in the movies). A day of laughing, good food, lying down on my mom's lap, my best friend coming home to send me off, me saying good bye to that friend not knowing when I was going to see her again, the tears, the hugs, the consolations and saying "It's going to be alright" even when you are not so certain yourself. It's funny how things turn out. It's not that I regret my decision to come to the States but just that I didn't know how long it would be before I could stop missing the place I thought I'd never leave. Only at that moment did I realize my mom's words - "you won't realize what you're missing until the moment you don't have it". Irony.Moment #5 - August 20I was new to the place and frantically looking for some means to earn money to manage my expenses. It was at this point that our on campus Dining services offered me a job as an attendant at our campus dining facility. The lure was that, we'd get amazing food to eat, flexible working hours and good pay and everything. But when I went there, the picture was totally different. Me and a few others in the same situation as myself were put in charge of doing the dishes, cleaning the tables, mopping the floor and everything. It was so rigorous that we were putting in 7 hour work days and by the end of the weekend, we made up our mind. It's okay to take a bank loan and finance our education than work here. But now that I think of it, it was a pretty good experience, quite different from what I had done till then :)Moment #6 - August 27I was the first person in my entire lineage to have ever set foot in an engineering college when I set foot into St.Joseph's Engineering college on August 23, 2006. 4 years later, I felt as if I had conquered the world when I received my B.E. degree in 2010. My whole family was proud of the accomplishment and went about bragging to everyone they knew about this. Little did I or my parents think that, 2 years later, I would be enrolling for a master's program, that too in a country thousands of miles away from home. On this day, August the 27th of 2012, as I entered Room 111 Wehner, MAYS Business School for my first ever accounting class, I felt as if I was graduating already and entering a room to take oath as the next president of the country. Pure exhilaration that moment! Chance-less :)Moment #7 - October 10One of the most memorable moments of my life this. It was just after the career fairs for the Fall term was over. Wherever I went submitting applications, all that I heard was, 'Do you need sponsorship?', 'Oh you graduate in 2013? We are looking for 2014 graduates', 'We do not have requirements for MIS students now but we will keep in touch if there is a need'. I had given interview with a few companies but wasn't really expecting anything positive from them. There I was, with no certainty about my summer, no part time job to pay my day-to-day expenses and absolutely no clue as to what I was going to do next. It was 9AM in the morning and I was still sleeping( I didn't have classes till 11.30). I get this call from an unknown number which I pick up(with a hazy 'Who the hell is waking me up right now' attitude) :DMe: Who is it?Lady on the other side(LOTOS): This is ***** from Valero Oil and Gas.Me: Who?LOTOS: ***** from Valero Oil and Gas. This is regarding the interview you gave with us a week back for a summer internship position with us. We have reached a decision. Are you free to talk?Me(jumping up on the bed): Yes I am free to talk (all of a sudden my heart beat accelerated)LOTOS: I have some good news for you KarthikMe: OMG(literally said that on the phone) :D*The rest is pretty much what you think it is*Moment #8 - November 4This has got to be one of the most funniest moments of the year ever. We guys were on our first trip outside College Station. It was a sudden trip to Houston because we were all just bored of CS. No plans no itinerary no nothing. We decided that we'll plan on the fly. 14 of us, three cars and no plan. That is how it started. Me, my friends Akshay and Ashwin behind the wheels of the three cars - 2 Dodge Avengers and 1 VW Jetta. The driving part was all fun but the real comedy happened when we were on our way back to College Station. It was a couple hours past midnight and our cars were the only vehicles on the road. My car was in between Ashwin's and Akshay's(the car in front) and I didn't realize that the high beam on my car was turned on. I was also driving at 15 mph over the limit and I don't know from where the hell a cop came but he did. It was like watching NFS Most wanted - that's the way he drove in front of us and pulled us over. Whoa! That picture is still clear in my mind. Apparently he thought that we were having a road rage or something and started questioning us. I still remember Vijay's terrorized look when the cop questioned us. LOL EPIC! :D In the end we did get a ticket but since none of us had a Texas license on us, it won't go on our records. Phew! But what a night it wasMoment #9 - November 14 and November 15Just when I thought that I had seen everything, 2012 gave me another surprise. I received this Office Visit invitation from Ernst and Young to come to their Dallas office. Not by car..not by train. They were flying me out of CS to their office. My mind was like 'Alagarsamy family varisuku ipppadi oru vazhva?( which means - A life like this for a person from the Alagarsamy family lineage)' :P It was a truly awesome trip - amazing dinner at a fancy restaurant, night stay at a posh hotel(which by the way was bigger than the apartment I share with 4 people here in College Station) and most importantly I got the opportunity to visit the office of one of the biggest firms in the world. My oh my...It was a day to remember :)Moment #10 - December 12This day is memorable for 2 totally different reasons. The first one being, it was my mom's birthday and the first time I was away from her on her birthday. I tried sending flowers to her at midnight but being the dumb ass I was, I selected the date of delivery as 12th midnight which meant that she got the flowers on the night AFTER her birthday #facepalmShe was happy nevertheless because she had always wanted 12 roses for her birthday this year (12 roses on the 12th of the 12th month of 2012). Nice eh? :D My dad went on to do an even sweeter thing for her. He traveled around Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and got all her friends and relatives to sign this huge card for her. He even got her 48 gifts for her 48th birthday. Cute! :)There is one more reason why I will never forget this day. People do stupid things at times and today was the day when I did something really stupid thinking that it was the only thing for me to do. Of course I'm not going to tell ya what I did but this is just for my record keeping so that, when I read this entry years down the lane, I'll know what I did and give that sheepish grin and smile to myself :DMoment #11 - December 21OMG this is one day which I was actually part dreading and part looking forward to ever since I said 'Happy New Year' on Jan 1, 2012. I was scared that the Mayans would actually be true and that there would be this huge wave of water from the ocean that would sweep off everything and bring about the next ice age or something. Seriously, movies like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow didn't help at all. I was actually in split minds whether I should sleep or not on the night of the 20th (even though I knew it was already the 21st back home in India :D ) I spent the whole day of the 21st looking at the sky for that meteor and frequently checking my phone for weather updates and Tsunami warnings. Now when I think of it, it sounds so funny and silly. We are well into the next year and thankfully, the Mayans were wrong. What a bummer :PMoment #12 - December 31The last day of the year. New Year's eve here while its already a new year in India. Being away from family for another important day of the year, missing SUN TV's count down to the New Year, reminiscing all that happened the past year. December the 31st was a day of mixed feelings for me. But I did travel all the way to Houston with my friends - Arun, Ekta and Ashwin to welcome the new year in a lousy pub in Downtown Houston :D Atleast I wasn't alone for New Years which is a good thing IMO.Pretty long post isn't it? I know. But this is all that 2012 has been to me. It has been cruel at some point and caring at certain other moments. I know for a fact that it has shaped me into a better and stronger person, teaching me to disregard things that don't matter and take happiness in the things and people that matter. For that 2012, I love you. 2013 - You better be atleast half as good to me as 2012 was. Otherwise I'm not wasting time writing an entry on you :)Love,Karthik Venkatachalapathi