this is a slightly different version of my reflections that i'm sharing. you don't have to read it all, feel free to skip and get back to your work.
this year had a huge impact on me. college, friends, close friends, trips, international travel, remote jobs, solana, open source everything played some role in shaping how the year went.
the last year of college really hits different. there was no pressure of exams and most of the focus was on major projects. i hate writing reports, but with the help of my team members, i somehow managed to get through it.
i also realized how much i can genuinely hate certain things. but honestly, our major project team was great. everyone had their own strengths. one was bad at presentations, another was good at documentation. somehow, it balanced out really well.
at the same time, there was a lot of peer pressure. only a few companies were coming to campus and most of them offered low compensation. some of it even felt gender-biased. everyone was stressed, constantly comparing themselves, chasing titles and trying to claim positions.
i always had a strong thought of going for remote jobs and putting minimal effort into campus placements. but seeing many people leave college for internships and take interviews very seriously completely shook my mindset.
in january, we had a pool drive from a company. the package was below average, but i decided to take it seriously anyway. somehow, i ended up getting an offer. till date, i still haven’t been called for full time. it felt weird mentally, but something inside me told me not to resist it.
around the same time, i saw a listing on superteam earn looking for a full stack web3 developer to build a casino platform. the role was already closed, but i still thought of dm’ing the person who posted it.
turns out he was the founder. we had a quick chat, i shared my point of view, and later he found out that i was a superteam member which he really liked.
the next day, we had a call. it was a mix of tech and general conversation and by the end of it i was in the team :)
the team was small, focused and working on something genuinely interesting. i instantly felt that this was the kind of work i enjoy the most. the culture was flexible, and the pay was good too. i started as a part-time intern while managing college for two months and later joined full time while handling my last semester exams.
i really loved the vision of rob, the founder. he himself is a developer and always steps in whenever someone is stuck. i can confidently say this is one of the best teams i’ve worked with till now, as of 30-12-2025.
after a month, i got reached out to by harkirat and got featured on a podcast. honestly, it kind of went viral. my socials, x handle, and linkedin dms were completely flooded.
soon after that, jay (the superteam host) reached out to me and i got featured in a superteam community call as well. this was my first feature in a community call apart from grant projects, and it felt really special.
i also applied to summer of bitcoin this time, but got rejected.
back in college, i’m really grateful for one minor class iot. it had a huge impact on my life. i got to know a really beautiful person from my class much better. sometimes i wonder why i didn’t get to know that person earlier, but life works in unexpected ways. i’d say this is the best takeaway from my college life, something i believe will stay for a lifetime. spending time after college hours, in the canteen, and during walks from college to the hostel are moments i genuinely misses now :')
between exams, assignments, and seminar reports, we had our first class trip in february 2025. it was a two-day trip to goa, and it was genuinely fun. i felt the bond for the first time, even though people still split into their own groups.
then came exams. last-minute studying, reading pdfs on the phone, stress everywhere. in may, we finally graduated. i ended up with a cgpa of 8.21, which i’m honestly proud of.
after that, everyone went their own ways. it was hard to digest initially, wondering if we’d ever meet again. but we did meet a few times after college, with a few friends.
turns out i also made another best friend from my entire college life. (i only had one before, someone i’d known for almost six years)
then something difficult happened.
the remote job i was doing got paused. development stopped, and the entire team was shut down. just like that, i entered my unemployment era.
soon after, i came across the dmp c4gt program. i looked into a few organizations, wrote three proposals and applied. not sure if it was luck or god’s grace probably both i got accepted into one organization.
the catch was that the entire tech stack was python. initially, it was tough. but my mentor was extremely kind and supportive. we had calls every monday, wednesday, and friday, and he helped me with almost everything.
those three months taught me a lot — django, fhir modules, and deep optimizations around them. after three months, i successfully completed the program.
not bragging, but during this time i also tried bounties on superteam earn, won a few, and attended some web3 hackathons. this helped me financially and gave me some breathing room.
soon after that, i landed a full-time role at a solana-based startup and have been working there for almost three months now.
i had enough money to take my family out for dinner, spend on a few gifts and by god’s grace, i was able to gift my mom a new phone.
i usually invest very little in myself. not sure if that’s the right approach, but i always try to save for the future.
i hit the gym (not very consistently) but for around three months and still continuing. i also continued my sips without any breaks.
in the last month, something big happened that i had always dreamed of. i got a sponsorship from superteam for solana breakpoint 2025 in abu dhabi. everything was sponsored tickets, flights, and hotel.
special thanks to paarug and the solana foundation. the most important part was being in a room full of people with a similar mindset and having meaningful conversations with them.
well, that’s a wrap.
the question is — did i achieve enough this year?
hell yes....
it was a bullish year for me.
2025 is just the beginning and i hope the next years are even better.
onwards and upwards :)
wishing everyone a great year ahead. cheers and happy new year.