2025 was the year of sidequests, every month I was up to something new / crazy. I have so many pictures I wanted to show that I couldn’t put on here
2026 lock in year, trust
January
January was super fun, I spent the first 2 weeks in India where I attended my cousin’s wedding, went on a ski trip with very cool people, and met all my friends again
Got cussed out by my prof for not showing up to class for the first 2 weeks
February
February was another great month, participating in Bracketbot was super cool. It built on the idea of Microbots Hackathon where the objective of the hackathon was super technical. This kind of inspired ChessHacks
I participated in TreeHacks 2025 with Varun, Jon, and David and ended up winning best dev tool track by Warp. This happened during reading week where 0 reading happened
March
No actual work happened in 1B I swear, we celebrated friends’ 19th bday and Holi. Holi is the Indian festival of colors, it was a lot of fun introducing some of my non-indian friends to some of the Indian culture.
I also ran a 5k, it was a fun run with a lot of breaks but I finished it lol
April
Finals came, I somehow passed and took a pretty fire class photo
After finals I flew back home had a couple friends visit me in SF and go to LAHacks after.
Did nothing at LAHacks, I slept more than I slept at Waterloo and somehow built something that ended up winning 5k+ USD in prizes + an internship
Fun times
Explore LA after, went to Universal Studios with Raph from SE. That was super fun
May
1st co-op term, I was back home
Went to Ocean Beach with some friends from Solcoa, road trip up to Fort Bragg along Highway 1 (got a ticket for going 30 mph over), and went to the Tech Roast Show on my birthday
June
All of Waterloo spawned in SF for YC AI Startup School. I personally didn’t go but it was super cool to see everyone. Wasted so much time but made hella cool memories
July
Went to Lake Tahoe with Vishnu and some of his other friends. At Tahoe we went on 2 hikes, Maggies Peak and Mt. Tallac. After completing Maggies Peak the 1st day I thought it’d be impossible for me to go complete Mt. Tallac.
After completing Maggie’s Peak it enlightened me, the feeling of being exhausted and knowing you gave it your best. So I gave Mt. Tallac a try, after hours and hours of climbing and pushing myself mentally I made it to the top. I was the highest person at Lake Tahoe
Kevin stayed a week with me in SF that was really fun, and me and Moulik went to visit Steven
Last month of first co-op term, me and my friends went to Yosemite, ate a copious amount of Tandoori Pizza (best pizza imo) Neha dropped by, and drove from Waterloo all the way Newfoundland and Labrador
I’ve done some crazy stuff but driving 3500+ km 1 way to the eastern most point of North America definitely has to be one of the craziest things I’ve done
September
On the way back from Newfoundland Labrador we stayed the night in Bonavista, it’s absolutely beautiful, went to PEI, and went to my friend Nathan’s 19th bday party
First month back and sidequests still persist
October
Writing this recap I am asking myself if I did any work all year
On a whim me and Himansh drove to a casino took pictures and left
We celebrated Rohan’s 19th bday, and on another whim I went to Niagara Falls with Yasen. It was so beautiful I love Niagara and the deep talks we had in the car
November
ChessHacks month, this month was spent transporting couches or snacks.
We worked really hard and I am proud of the event that we put up but for some reason I wasn’t satisfied by what we did, will probably elaborate on this in ChessHacks blog
Thank you for making my vision come true Moulik, Jeffrey, Claire, Cooper
Also celebrated Moulik’s 19th bday this guy’s like spoiled asf
I am publicly exposing him
December
Finals season again, celebrated Faisal’s 20th bday
This term was interesting, lots of ups and downs but thats part of life
To new beginnings, cooler things are coming
Reflection
2025 was definitely a ROUGH year, felt like it started off really strong and went on a casual decline as the year went on
2024 was the year I made the most number of friends, met so many cool people
It felt like 2025 was the year I lost so much of what I gained in 2024, but everything happens for a reason and if things are meant to be then they’ll happen
Sometimes it’s not the right time or there were misunderstandings but there was a time where there was mutual understanding and all you can do is appreciate the good times that brought you together
Some general thoughts:
I love school, I get to learn, meet cool people, and fail. I came to Waterloo from across the continent in an unfamiliar environment and I feel like I’ve left my mark, I made a positive difference in people’s lives. You can’t cater to everyone’s likings and things happen but when’s all is said and done coming to Waterloo was the best choice I could have ever made.
I don’t care about the school’s rankings or co-op program to me the only thing that matters are the friends who’ve supported me in every step of the way
In life I’ve always given with no expectation of anything in return, I never thought I’d meet people who cared about me to the same degree
So much happened in 2025, my highest and lows. In 2026 I have to make it for the people who have sacrificed so much for me, I have to do it for the others who believe in me
I’m nothing without the people around me