2021 was kind to us!
We got the most precious gift of our lifetime- Nehaan! He made us feel important than ever! We got the Green card after nine years in the US. Anyone who went through the immigration hoops (specially in the USA) knows how rewarding it is! Our parents and both of us are healthy and enjoying a pleasant life. And personally, I made a remarkable leap in professional life- I am literally doing my dream job. Nobody can ask for more, that I am sure of!
Now, if I look microscopically through events, we didn’t have a “so easy” year.
We had a rough pregnancy, specially in the last month of Nehaan’s birth. People don’t glorify the sorrow and pain because you don’t focus on those when you win something that you want. But that pain and sorrow make the win more rewarding. For the last one month of his birth, we were not sure if we would see Nehaan and if Taskin would be well. I went to work every day with worry that I might get a call from the hospital. Taskin was admitted in three of the four weekends in that month. Nehaan was born prematurely five weeks before his projected delivery date through an emergency c-section. The two weeks Nehaan was at NICU, were, most probably, the longest two weeks of my life. Since they allow only one parent in the NICU (due to COVID), I spent endless hours drinking “fancy” juice, nuggets, and coffee in the hospital lobby. The people who stay in the hospital lobby for days would know how energy-sucking hospital lobby can be. I constantly thought about Nehaan for every waking hour, and both of us celebrated a small incremental improvement, if any, by the end of each day. We will write about our journey in detail on some other day. But as the saying goes, all is well that ends well. In the end, we got the biggest win of our lifetime- Nehaan Haque Mehedi. Our life revolves around him nowadays.
On another note, our green card came through nine years of painstaking work, perseverance, and patience. We never took any shortcuts, and we always tried to do the right thing. It sounds simple and nonglamorous, and the journey is not the same for everyone. But one thing I can guarantee you is that we made a lot of personal sacrifices to get to this point, and we did it with all our hearts.
My parents had COVID in the middle of 2021. My mother’s Oxygen saturation fell below 90%, and both my parents were hospitalized. Both my in-laws were hospitalized for COVID, and my father-in-law had a serious lungs infection as a result. All of these came through well, and we are standing together here in 2022 as a standalone, strong and lovely family. I am so grateful for a happy and healthy family.
Lastly, on a professional note, it’s something that I don’t discuss much in public. But I can tell you that I have been trying to do something since 2015, and it took me six years to get where I am today. Everyone’s definition of success is different, but to me, what I achieved in 2021, was a result of my perseverance over the last six years, and this is exactly what I wanted to do in life. Where people make next year’s resolution, I made a single-point resolution in 2015, and it never changed. I got to the starting point of my dream after six years of hustle, and let’s see where it goes. I still have that single-point resolution and am not sure how close to my dream I can reach, but having something to work for that is your passion that really doesn’t feel like work. Most probably, I am passing through the most fun time of my professional life.
Adult life is a mix of win and lose. I see life as “lose the battle to win the war”. I have no one-year resolution in 2022. I wish everyone remains happy and healthy through 2022 and so on.