Looking back at my year in 2017 - My year in a nutshell

in #life6 years ago

The end of the year is usually a good time to look at all the time that has gone by. The end of the year is usually a spent in some form of travel for me, but this year, it has been different. Work was off for end of the year, but I was not out travelling. Most of my time has been at home, recovering from a surgery to fix a broken wrist and trying to get back to a good rhytm in life.

All that time off from doing anything feels like time to reflect and take a look back at what the year had been for me. I guess I could say it was a pretty eventful year, right from the start. I managed to accomplish some of the goals I had set for myself at the start of the year. Now that I think of it, there is a sense of satisfaction at having been able to do the things I wanted to do. But at the same time, it is also a mixed bag, just like any other year so far.

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Update:

I got back to writing this post only in 2018, a week into January. I did have a few days of fun to close out 2017, got back into writing on Steemit, went on a holiday to Malaysia with the money I earned right here on Steemit. It was a crypto currency sponsored trip. But I get way too ahead of myself. I should start from the beginning

I closed off 2016 and started 2017 with a 12 day roadtrip across one of the most scenic places in Southern India. Kerala, God's Own Country, as many call it was a really nice and fun roadtrip. It still gives me something to write about every now and then on Steemit. Check out some of the posts from that fun roadtrip below!

DTube - Exploring God's Own Country on 2 wheels!

Breathtaking beauty of Silent Valley National Park, Kerala

I did a roadtrip of beautiful Kerala and these are the sights I witnessed...

Back to basics... January and February

January 2017 may not be a very exciting month as far as today's social media can be concerned. My first goal in January was to get back to the gym and start working on getting back into routine. One of my goals was to gain some muscle and then get lean before the start of August. Most of my efforts for January was in trying to build a consistent routine, successfully.

The end of January and the first week of February was spent in the forests of the Wayanad region of Kerala. I was part of a 6-member group who were working on a project with the tribal villages of the Wayanad. It was two weeks of getting back to basics.

Our project involved camping in the forest (next to a tribal village), and the goal was to build bio-gas pits and cowsheds for the tribal village. The outcome of this project would be less dependence on forest produce (such as firewood), and also get additional income by sales of bio-gas manure, as well as milk from the cows that were provided in the cowshed.

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For us, it was back to basics, and cherishing the simple pleasures of life, such as quiet evenings amidst nature, hard work, and the evening cup of lemon and ginger tea. We also had to dig our own toilets, build our own shower. It was an eye-opening experience. We also held a drawing competition for the tribal kids, and gave away prizes to the winners. I wrote a post about the drawings done by them, check out the link below:

Drawings by tribal kids of the Wayanad region of India

First Steps towards the racetrack...

By March, I had started working on another goal that I wanted to accomplish in 2017 - To get into racing motorcycles. The Indian National Motorcycle championship was due to start in June 2017 and I had 4 months to prepare for it. This involved lots of learning and unlearning, practicing and crashing, learning and falling.

Most of March and April was spent in this pursuit. It was every other weekend of track practice, and now, i'm finally a level III certified track rider (level I is basics of riding on a racetrack, level II is setting up the basics of riding a bike around the racetrack, and level III is where a lot of new concepts are taught in terms of thinking and learning how to go fast around corners, race lines, and basics of overtaking)

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Lining up on the grid for the first race of 2017 - Notice the look in my eyes.

And of course, before the weather turned hot, there were roadtrips. Plenty of them!

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I didn't realize that I had broken something...

May was the month where it all went wrong. At the end of May, I had a very nasty crash on my motorcycle, and I came out of it shook up pretty well. I had not realized that I had broken a bone in my right wrist at the time of the crash, nor after 4 months. It was incorrectly diagonized and I wound up racing with a broken right wrist (albeit unaware). It was only in the first week of November after MRI and CT scans revealed the fracture to the bone did I get a surgery.

The first race...

The 2nd weekend of June and the start of the Indian National Racing Championship season for 2017. I had crashed just 5 days prior. Looking back at that race, I rode most of that race with constant pain and a dull throbbing in my head due to it. I remember my first practice session. 6 laps and I was spent. I remember asking the track doctor to give me painkillers and a wrist support and bandage the bruises in the legs.

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#95 is yours truly...

Yet, I am quite happy with the progress with that race. I qualified quite down the grid, but was able to keep up with the top 10. I am quite unable to understand what mindset I was in when I was racing on that first race. All I know is that I crashed both the races pushing to the limit by injuries would permit me to. Still, I look quite fondly upon that particular race weekend.

I also attended the second Steemit Accelerator and Steem Cryptocurrency meetup by my great friend @firepower and did have a good time meeting some new Steemians and learning somethings I had not known about Steemit before.

@ Firepower's post on the 2nd Steemit Accelerator meet

A high speed crash taught me two of the biggest lessons of life

Racing thru to September...

I wound up with my first season of racing. Except the first two races, the remaining 3 outings were disappointment for me. I crashed in a further four races... Finished 9th once, and outside the top 10 in the other races that I finished. It was not the season that I had hoped for. But I did learn a lot from it, and was all determined to practice for 2018's season.

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It was also a period of two roadtrips. I have some really good memories of them and I shared them on Steemit, do check the link below.

Exploring the unknown parts of Western Ghats with friends and bikes

A cryptocurrency sponsored trip...

In October, I went to Malaysia for a week with two other Steemiens @firepower and @leftfield. My flight tickets and my stay expenses were taken care of by the SBD that I had earned here on the platform. I transferred that to BTC and then got my flight tickets booked from the money I made selling the BTC. It is pretty awesome now that I think of it! Writing, getting payouts and being able to use that in the real world for travelling is pretty cool!

The whole idea was to watch MotoGP in person and attend a GP weekend, where @firepower, @leftfield and I had a blast of a time.

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I still have to write about my Malaysian experience yet! I had some of the best chicken dishes there and met fellow Steemian @kevinwong and had some fun times!

A fractured hand, surgery and slow times...

In November, the fracture in the right wrist was confirmed. I got a surgery for fixing the bone. It was a pretty slow time after that, with the right hand in a cast. No bike riding, no workouts and loads of effort to move the mouse and type. It was a difficult time for me in terms of finding something to do as I was restless. I lost the inclination to go out and meet people. I read a lot of books, discovered a love for the Kindle, and got a new phone as well. The One Plus 5T is a great package!

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First step to comeback, and end of the year...

I got the cast on my hand removed at the end of December. Looking back, I think that day was the most looked forward to day of the year by me. I wrote my first Steemit post after nearly 2.5 months of zero inclination and energy for writing one.

I wrote more Steemit posts in those 10 days than most other months combined. And at the same time, the price of Steem went up, as did that of SBD.

I started doing physiotherapy and currently have another 3 sessions left. I did ride the bike despite the doctor's orders. Nothing serious, just around the neighborhood. And it was good. It actually felt great.

I spent the last night of the year camping out in the wild with a few friends. It was a good way to see the year out. I am more at peace in these kind of places rather than in a pub or a crowd filled street. A time to ponder and reflect back upon everything that had happened in the year.

Most of my thoughts and topics for this post came to me during the early hours of January 1st, as I stood alone on the river bank watching the Super Moon fade into the rapidly brightening eastern sky.

I felt quite happy writing this post reflecting upon the year that had passed by. I also feel that there is a lot more that I could've done in the year had it not been for the accident and the aftermath, and also my own disinterest in a lot of other things towards the end of the year.

This year, 2018, I look forward to achieving more goals than the previous year, and also growing up the ladder professionally and personally. I am looking for things to work out, and if they aren't, for ways to make them work out.
I do not have that sense yet of how this year is going to shape out, but as long as I focus on working towards some crucial goals, it should turn out good.

Thanks for reading, and happy new year to all. Cheers!

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Thanks for sharing your experiences in 2017 and best of luck for 2018, May the universe bless you in surprising and joyful ways. @thebatmanbiker

Thank you and wish you the same as well :)

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