This year I decided to try something different. Instead of posting tonnes of stuff on my social media accounts (which I usually do), I decided to record the key events that I witnessed in 2021 as my Instagram stories. The following post is my attempt to piece them together.
History repeats itself
2021 was different. It started with some good news- after more than a year after the first case of COVID, the vaccination campaign started with the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on 11th December 2020. Bloomberg estimated that almost 9 billion doses have been administered so far around the world, which is quite an impressive feat yet insufficient to stop COVID mutations as we already witnessed, with the arrival of new variants like Omicron and Delta.
We all learnt many lessons from COVID. Everyone started adapting to the new normal – more digital, less physical interaction. Similar to last year, we saw tremendous growth in technology particularly over social media apps and digital communications. We also witnessed some of the unforeseen events like the Ever Given ship stuck in the Suez Canal that led to global shortages of electrical equipment, medical supplies etc.
We also saw a significant surge in catastrophic floods and wildfires around the world as a result of Climate Change and the continuous rise in our CO2 emissions.
Luckily, we had some good news on this front as well – the ozone layer has started healing, and it is estimated to fully heal by 2050.
Also, in another remarkable feat, NASA successfully launched the world’s biggest space telescope to attempt to find evidence of the first stars and galaxies that came into existence after our universe was formed. I am hoping to see some remarkable discoveries in the coming years.
Unlike most others, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with my family. During my seven month stay in India, I witnessed first-hand the destruction that was caused by the Delta variant of COVID-19. During the second wave of COVID in India, countless people lost their lives due to the enormous pressure on the health services and failure on the government’s part.
For me, 2021 was a year of hardships and struggle, but it was also a year of success and celebration. I felt immense personal growth this year. During my stay in India, I tried learning so many different things and tried to get away from my comfort zone. I started working on our farm with my mother where we achieved some remarkable results this year.
I also read several interesting books, articles and worked on some new projects that helped to choose my career path after finishing my master’s in September 2020. The short summaries of some of these books that I read this year can be found below:
In August 2021, I started doing my PhD in Circular Economy in Offshore Wind Sector at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
After moving to Norway, I met so many interesting people, made new friends, attended countless social, academic and industrial events.
I also started playing Tennis, which is something I always wanted to do for a long time and saw Aurora Borealis (AKA Northern Lights) for the first time- crossing one item from my bucket list.
I also went on several hiking trips, including my first ever hiking experience in the snow.
Here are some of the other interesting memories that I recorded this year.
Despite all the struggles that we endured this year, I hope the coming year will bring peace and prosperity to you all. Happy new year!
Illuminating The Dark Fields 