Memories of 2008

Today when I was watching TV, a news channel was trying to capture the events that had taken place in past 1 year and since these days i had been thinking of finding new ways of passing time, so I thought how about me too taking a look at the year in my perspective.
I am summarizing the major events that I could recall from this year

1.SGPA of 8.67 : It began with January and with this month I had no more Baja responsibilities (the All terrain vehicle project that I had been involved with for the past 2-3 yrs) Although it marked up a big void in the schedule and daily thinking process but I had another thing to do, for the first time in past 3 yrs, academics had taken topmost priority for me as my first under 7 sggpa could have severe consequences on my placements. So meeting numbers being the only priority it was the time to show interest in rural development an act which didn't helped me much in the end.But still I ended up meeting the numbers and could safely finish above 8.5 mark taking my CGPA above 7.5 mark, the target that I had for the semester

Elections : Its not the general elections that I am talking about rather the elections inside the campus in which I got slightly involved. I had to face quandary in few of the instances but thankfully could come out of it without any harms. The topic is too inflammatory to be talked and have been debated over and over again my times hence I'll not elaborate.

Internship: It was the first time that I entered a professional environment and it turned out that whatever professionalism and work ethics that are talked about are merely restricted to books and none of it is actually in practice. For me too it was more comfortable to sit idle most of the times and find fraudulent ways of completing the task ,so instead of learning professionalism, i learned how to show that you are doing a lot of things when actually you are hardly doing anything. Also it was the internship that consolidated my resolve of not making a career in core manufacturing sector or to be more precise, I decided to make career in a field which is totally unrelated to manufacturing or if possible even to mechanical engineering.

CAT: My first attempt at taming the exam abbreviated in the name of beast. Although I never wanted to pursue MBA right after my B.Tech, but the internship and fears of not bagging a good placement, I put myself into it but started off too late to catch up, particularly with the level that I had in one of the major testing areas of the test

Placement: After screwing up in CAT and then not managing to get shortlisted or clearing the test, my worst fear was appearing to be turning into reality. In the end I somehow could get placed. Like many of the fellow students I too still think that I could have got something better but It would be wrong to attribute the present state to bad luck only, as I got shot at most of the things its just that I others were smarter if not better.

I should say that FEAR was one word that was always occupying my mind for most parts of the last year. "Fear" of failing to meet the GPA, "fear" of not clearing CAT, "fear" of not getting placed, "fear" of physical harm when the bombs were exploding everywhere (this fear was only in my find for few fleeting moments only but still is worth recalling). I would say that in the end it was one of the defining years of my life with me getting my first job and subsequently raising my self confidence, getting knocked down by an entrance exam and making me to take things more seriously and above all with 3 trips and lots of parties towards the end of year, strengthed bonds with many of the friends that I had.
Its time to say goodbye to 2008 and make way for 2009. I just hope that next year be the best one that I had seen so far and I have lesser things to complain about.