This year has been great for me so far. I have finally arrived at a point where my time is my own, and I’m getting to work on my projects that I care deeply about. Each day I choose how to spend my time and I have a great team to work with that I get to direct. I am so incredibly grateful for everything I have. I’m very optimistic about the future.

I also just feel immensely grateful for all the things that have led me to this point. The most important entity in my life that I’m most grateful for is my parents. I love them incredibly and want to do everything in my power to make them happy and live their life in the most fulfilled way possible. I cannot ever repay them for all that they have given me so far and continue to give me each day even at my age now.

Despite all the wonderful things that I’m grateful for, some things do bother me. Specifically, my venous malformation in my left hand is something that affects my lifestyle, albeit not in any fatal or severe ways. I can’t engage myself in physical fitness in the way that I want to. I would love to be able to start my day with a hundred push-ups each day as a warmup routine before I proceed to do more intense physical workouts. Even with this, I am grateful that my VM is on a part of my body that doesn’t affect me in severe ways. There are people with VMs in their brains, spinal cords, eyes, face, ankles etc. which all complicate their lives severely. Thankfully I am not as affected by it as others. The only limitation that I suffer is that I can’t lift heavy weights with my left hand without experiencing swelling and soreness on my left hand the following few days. A manageable malady, if you ask me, even though I am currently in pain as I write this.

But regardless of all this, my gratitude and optimism outweigh everything else.