2010: A review

I've felt compelled to review 2010, especially because the year was not only mostly awesome but also significant in some ways. But every time I'd start writing something, five minutes later I'd just delete it all and go do something else. Some sort of writer's block....is what I would say if I was a.....writer! :-) So here goes, highlights of 2010.

Travel - We had an *EPIC* trip to Peru with friends. We hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu and I can confidently say that it was a trip of a lifetime. We started training for it a few months earlier, which led us to hike some very beautiful trails around the lovely PacNW. Our second week in Peru was spent at a rainforest. Not my most favorite thing in the world but came back with a lifetime of fun stories and memories. :-) Also took another Hawaii trip in December. It still is paradise. So travel and outdoor wise I'd say, the best year yet.

Fitness - I think I was probably in the best shape of my adult life in 2010. It was a combination of 3 things. First, the hikes. Second, I took personal training at the gym for a few weeks. Third, a lot of dancing. The combination of all three led to me getting in really good shape. I have slacked off since, but I know now that my body is capable of a lot more fitness than I thought earlier. Must pick up where I left off.

Life - Big changes on this front. I finally gave up my corporate career in the pursuit of my ideal life so to speak. A lot of different factors led to this - stress, passions, change in perspective/purpose, adopting minimalism and striving for it in my daily life (albeit in baby steps), wanting sanity in our daily lives. I think I've known this coming for a while subconsciously, but didn't have the courage to take the step earlier. I was also hacking together my exit strategy slowly and plans for the after(corporate)life. It was not very easy giving up a highly paid corporate career that I worked through 6 years of college for, believing corporate life to be my life's purpose. I struggled with this decision a lot, vacillated constantly and debated pros and cons endlessly. I was finally able to silence out the noise, prioritize what I really wanted and cross the bridge (with a little kick and a ton of support from my extremely awesome husband). Remains to be seen where I lead myself from here. But I'm happy. This opens up a world of possibilities.

Charity - Gave a lot of money to an organization in India that we believe does good work. This is the second time we've done this through Microsoft's Give Campaign. My husband's rationale is that if it doesn't visibly hurt your bank balance a little, it's not worth it. I agree. Sometime in the future, when I'm older, I would like to do more than just give money. But for now, this will have to do.

Other - The husband and I wrote a Windows 7 Phone application and actually shipped it. For a while we believed that we're not going to ever ship it, due to our work etc. taking priority at the time and slacking off from time to time. But we finally did it. This was a perfect segway for me into the non-corporate life, outside of my dance related pursuits. I loved working on the app. And I'm happy to say that as of writing this, we're very close to hitting about 900 downloads worldwide and have gotten a lot of feedback and feature requests. I hope we can make the time to keep updating it.

On another note, I completely slacked off on painting and piano in 2010. Will have to do something about this in 2011, even if it means learning just one new song or a single painting. On the positive side, I took up photography a little more seriously but have a long way to go. Plan to work on it some more this year.

Health - DEFINITELY tops the did-not-go-well list. I've been sick more times in 2010 than probably in the last ten years. Gotta do something about this.

So there it is. 2011 did not get off to a very good start for me. I was sick again for about a week and a half. But I'm slowly regaining my strength back. So I decided that my new year will start in Feb this year. :-)