Day 1000: It's Here, A New Beginning!

Over the last few months, I used to wonder every now and then on what I would write on the final day of the blog, given that it's a culmination of almost three years of my blogging experience.

Should I just write about the day itself and leave it at that? Should I write a summary of all that happened over the last 1000 days? Should I write about all the wonderful highlights from the last three decades of my life and make the theme around 30 years? Should I write about what I learned on this journey? Should I write about what I would do moving forward? Should I write about this, that and everything else?

For the last half hour or so, I had been staring at this laptop, still continuing to wonder on the above questions and I realized that I still have no clue. I still have no freaking clue.

Blah.

So am gonna stop blinking idiotically at the screen and instead just write whatever that comes to my mind without over-thinking it. If the rest of this post meanders and sounds like utter gibberish, I apologize in advance.

When I started on this blog, I had simply wanted it to be a forced attempt at staying positive. The background for this is as follows - I had went through a bad phase some time in 2009 (in hindsight, it was nothing really... but during the phase I thought the world was ending)  and it took a visit to an orphanage and seeing a bunch of kids being perfectly happy with their dry dosa and black tea to drive some perspective into my thick head (a bit of that story is covered in the post here).

That left a lasting impression and I learned once and for all that I can be perfectly happy with what I have, provided I make an effort to do so. And I thought that jotting down one positive thing about each day would ensure that I think more positively than I would otherwise.

Given that the timing of this thought process coincided with some of my friends turning 30 and feeling royally blue about it, I thought maybe I shall kill two birds with one stone. I thought that if I make this searching-for-positivity thing a habit for the next 1000 days or so, when 30 hits me, instead of feeling blue about it (of which there was a good chance), it will find a very happy me.

Today I turned 30 and I am very happy to declare that I am.... a very happy me! Actually, not just happy but really on top of the world!

In other words, the mission worked!

And I asked myself why am I on top of the world and I realized that the answers are few and simple:
- Because I feel like I have given my best effort to everything that I did the last few years.
- Because I feel like I was conscious of every passing day and even if not all days were really maxed out in terms of productivity, most of them were.
- Because I feel like I am aware of how blessed I am to have everything I do and I stop myself from cribbing as far as I can help it.
- Because I feel like I have lived through a number of experiences that I had wanted to go through and have ticked off everything from that before-30 list.
And most important of all,
- Because I feel loved and appreciated by my family and friends more than I could have ever hoped for and every bit of time spent with them has been incredibly awesome!

That's it. That's the summary of what made the last 1000 days work for me:
I gave my best,
I kept track of time,
I counted my blessings,
I packed in as many experiences and
I was loved and I loved in return. 

I don't think there's really much else to it.

And I guess moving forward too, this is exactly what I need to continue doing to make the most of the remaining years on this big, bad, beautiful planet! Am hoping that with 1000 days of practice, this may be hard but not impossible.

So then, it's time for goodbye and time for a new beginning. One where I start all over again, in new roles, with new lists, facing new challenges, but still hopefully making the most out of it. 

But not before I jot down what made today, the day of my 30th birthday, beautiful!

Let's do that list one last time, shall we?

Here we go...

a) At 00:00am, when I wished the hubby "Happy Birthday" (we share our birthday, in case you are not aware), instead of wishing me in return, the man soberly took his laptop out and started to set it up, much to my annoyance. And then I realized it was to give me my best gift ever! And I really mean The. Best. Gift. Ever. When I saw what he had prepared for me, I was so ridiculously overwhelmed! Had my parents not been around, I would probably have become an emotional mess and shed copious amounts of happy tears! It was that awesome! This man, the one I love and who loves me, made me this!

http://shilpakrishnanshukla.com/

Needless to say, it made my day, week, month, year and many more to come and I thanked all known Gods for making this wonderful guy mine! Like I declared on Facebook immediately...
"I love my husband. Period."

b) I got a TON of birthday messages and calls from all my wonderful family and friends which made me feel oh-so-happy and special! I spent a considerable amount of time going through their messages - reading and re-reading, responding, chatting for a long time with those who called or met up with me,and basically basking in all that love and attention! God bless each and every one of them! A special mention to my wonderful teacher from school who has been a terrific support to this blog as well as everything I have been up to, ever since we came into contact on Facebook after more than a decade! This amazing teacher actually wrote a blog for me on my birthday, which was like the best gift any student can ever hope for and it left me humbled, honoured and truly blessed!

c) I had an important meeting at work, which started early in the morning. I had to make several presentations and it lasted for a good 5 hours! I was dreading this for weeks, but it went off very well and that made me happy. To top the work success, one of my lovely colleagues made a "Happy birthday" presentation to wish me during the meeting and the team even sang the song at the end of it! It was rather sweet! 

d) It  looks like there will be a screening of Mausams in Singapore exactly one month from now, with the proceeds going to charity. This is being arranged by a couple of friends with the objective of encouraging independent artists in Singapore as well as supporting charitable institutions. I thought it was wonderful that a screening of my film was confirmed today and that too for a good cause!

e) Given that it was a weekday, we decided to have a birthday dinner celebration with just the family. So the hubby, my brother in law, my parents and I went to 1-Altitute for drinks and dinner. With the wonderful view around, we had a nice, cozy, family time there. At the end of it, the guys at 1-Altitude brought in three sets of desserts with birthday messages - one for me, one for the hubby and one for my mom who is celebrating hers tomorrow! It was a first of its kind experience because we had never celebrated all our birthdays together before, so that was lovely! My mom especially was super excited by the whole thing! It was really cute watching her gushing over the desserts, taking multiple photos etc!

In short, it was the perfect birthday!

And at this point in time, I really can't ask for more. I am beaming and I feel blessed beyond reason.

For anyone and everyone who has been to this blog over the last 1000 days - thank you for reading, commenting, encouraging! It means the world to me! I know for a fact that I couldn't have kept it going for a 1000 days had it not been for your terrific support. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here's to new beginnings...!

0 more to go.