Recap of 2024 · Rishab Academy

Dec '24 (edited) • Self Improvement & Motivation

Recap of 2024

You Can Read a Better-Formatted Version of the Text Here: Recap of 2024

I mean, if you don’t want to… man, why don’t you like better-formatted text? I won’t steal your money. Don’t worry!

Well, that aside. It’s December 25th! Two things: first off, Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you are enjoying your holidays. I surely am, since I got a two-week break. It’s just sleep, sleep, sleep because after that, I won’t be able to… story for another day. The other thing is, the New Year is coming soon, so what I wanted to do in this post is to recap my year. In one word: eventful. To give you a perspective of how important this year was, if you visit my LinkedIn account and see the things I’ve accomplished, all of them are from 2024. So let’s get this thing rolling:

January to May: My First Year in FRC Robotics

This was my first year in FRC Robotics, and man, it was crazy. We had work meetings every day from 6-9 PM and from 10 AM-4 PM on Saturdays too. It wasn’t like we were just chilling there; we actually needed to get stuff done, test them out, and treat it like an actual job. You might have guessed it, I’m on the programming team, and we needed to have the code almost ready before the robot was even built. How, you ask? While we simulate the robot in a virtual world. We already have the CAD model of it (which is just a digital twin of the robot, used as a guide to build it in real life), and we just need that to write the code for the robot and see if it works as intended.

Honestly, I learned a lot. I learned how to use GitHub in a more teamwork-oriented environment and better collaborative coding practices. There was just so much to learn, and I worked on the vision side. Next year (2025), we are planning to implement AI in vision, and you know how interested I’m in that. We also got selected for Worlds, which is really good! But it was also so stressful, waking up at 5 AM, going to school at 7 AM, coming back, then tennis after school, followed by robotics, and finally getting back home to freshen up… It’s 10:30 PM, and I haven’t even opened my homework. Then other not-so-fun things came by: finals, APs, and sleepless nights.

June

In June, I found out that I was a Non-Trivial Finalist, and it was just an awesome feeling after all that stress. Honestly, it changed a lot. I met a lot of new friends and people from MIT, or students like me, and working with them was such an amazing opportunity. Shout out to Gordon! I worked on SigmaGO with him and my other friends, Devin and Dan. It was just a cool project, and I learned a lot about algorithms along the way. This is also when I found this community, which was one of the best things that happened to me, and you'll see why later.

When I first saw this community, I wasn’t really excited. It was just like, “Oh, Rishab launched a new community, that’s cool. Let me join.” And after I did, it was good. Nothing really special, just a place where we could talk to our fellow peers and maybe some mentors, and just maybe with Rishab. But I was wrong… you’ll see why. I started seeing other people making posts, and I was curious to post something too. I began with some tips and stuff but didn’t connect much, so I left it after maybe 2 or 3 posts. Later, I saw Kevin making posts about books, and I thought, “Hey, I’ve read a lot of books last year. I can do something similar.” So, I started with that. Since I took notes of my reading before, it was just taking my notes, rereading them (instead of the whole book again), and turning that into a post. It sounds easy, but it took me like 2-3 hours every day to do this. When I was writing my first post, I was like, “Hmm, what if I get no replies or people don’t care about it?” I was kinda doubting my actions, but I just posted it anyway and was super wrong, people liked it and were quite interested. I know some might not read the whole thing, but for the few who did, I wanted to post more. After all, I also wanted to write something, and this was just the perfect opportunity.

July

Now it’s July, and some pretty cool things happened here. I met my partner,

@Rudaiba Tarannum

. I was just scrolling through Skool for a bit and found a post from Rudaiba Tarrannum titled “Presentation Must Always Be at Its Peak.” It was a good post explaining why presentation is a really important part of winning projects. I wanted to share my thoughts too, so like anyone would do, I commented on her post. It led to a long conversation for no particular reason (you can read that if you want; it’s under her post), and later we met. Now, it’s just so nice to have her—a really memorable moment that happened this year.

August: My Birthday and Coding Competitions

Later in August, this is obviously a special month for me because it’s my BIRTHDAY! Duh! Yeah, and the crazy part is that Dan (who worked on that project) and Rudaiba both forgot my birthday. Chi chi chi. So sad.

This is also when coding competitions started. After 4-5 years of coding, we (me, Rudaiba, and Devin) formed a team and attended the contest. The contest was fun, and I enjoyed it. I think we ranked around top #18 out of approximately 200 teams, which is great for what I had imagined I could achieve.

September

September… this is not my favorite month. I lost a really, really important person in my life, and some of you might know him, Suma. He was such an awesome friend; we were friends for years and were together through thick and thin, happy, sad, joy, anything. We even shared our accounts; we trusted each other so much. But when I needed to come to the USA, I didn’t tell him until the last minute because my parents told me not to share this information with anyone. I don’t know why. But I still remember his face on the last day I saw him. He was saying goodbye with a smile, thinking that he would see me the next day, which wasn’t the case. All I did was call at the last moment before the flight to tell him that I’m leaving India. He was shocked and thought I was joking, but later realizing it wasn’t, he gave a long pause. No words came out, and I felt the same way. I didn’t even tell him that I’m leaving him at least a day before. I can feel how sad he was knowing that. We told ourselves that we would be meeting soon when I come back to India, and after 2 years, here we are. He lied to me and left me forever… I can’t do anything to stop him from leaving me. September has not been my best month for a lot of reasons.

October

But now, I should wipe these tears and talk about October. It was an exciting month, right? More coding competitions and some awards. The best one was being selected as a finalist for 18U18 with our SigmaGO project. It was just an awesome thing to receive. When I applied for this, I was taking a break, stalking others on LinkedIn, found a guy doing this, got curious, looked it up, and just started the application. Spent 2 hours on it, thinking, “Yeah, 2 hours of procrastination, what a good use of time. I’m not getting in anyway. Good job, Chinnu,” but baby, I was wrong. Two weeks later, I got an email saying we were finalists and needed to prepare a presentation. I was so happy to see that because it’s pretty hard to get in, only about 100 or fewer people out of thousands. I was thrilled that I spent those 2 hours doing this. Haha, really worth it.

November

November is a mix. I felt really sad one day, like I don’t know, a kind of betrayed feeling, but I don’t want to talk about sad stuff here. On the good side, I was ranked #14 on LeetCode and won a LeetCode Big O Notebook. It was exciting to achieve that, and it’s great that I have it now.

December

And baby December, this is another best month! I already made a post about the coding contests happening this month. And OMG, see the Advent of Code after getting all the stars, so good. Also, USACO, I got into Gold, and I think that’s great since this is my first year doing USACO.

About this community, I already made a post here about how grateful I am for joining this community. To sum it up, it helped me start a blog, introduced me to some really amazing people, and a really special person that I won't forget in my life. It has changed me as a person in so many ways. Thanks,

@Rishab Jain

, for creating a community like this.

This year has been just awesome, and I won’t forget it anytime soon. I learned a lot, faced many ups and downs, felt the worst but also felt the best, loved, and was cared for. Overall, I love this year. Thanks to everyone who is here reading my posts. Ah, you know what, let’s talk about some people I know.

Starting with you, Not Rudaiba:

@Daniel Y

! Man, you are so chill. You have some of the best posts. While mine are about books and some motivational stuff, you’ve got some really good guides. OMG, I see you under almost every post. You help a lot of people, Dan. And at the end of every week, I love how you just come in and text, “Hey Chinnu, how has your week been?” or something like that. It makes me happy to have a friend that just checks in on me. Thanks for doing that! I’ve said this many times, but you are a G.O.A.T.

@Grace Lee

! You’ve got some really cool stuff, and you’re just as helpful as Dan. I see you helping others under their posts with the free time you have. I also enjoyed talking to you. You’ve got a lot of reach for your NP. Hope that's going well. You are an awesome and curious person.

@Nowshin Jahan Jhelek

! Where have you gone? Didn’t see you here for quite a while. But hope you are doing great. Haha, I really enjoyed your "Me Giving Advice as My Mum Chases Me Down to Study" series. It was fun to read and useful too. And other than that, your posts with really interesting questions are super engaging. I remember spending 1-2 hours researching one of your questions. Haha, it was a fun time with your writing. Happy holidays and hope you’re safe from your mom, haha!

@Kevin D

! Long time no see, but you started really dang great. I loved all of your posts—they were quite informative and easy to read. Hope you’re having a great holiday and getting your stuff done.

@Syeda Zainab Fatima

! You are also really helpful. Your comments aren’t like mini essays like mine; they’re mostly short and clear to the point. I just can’t do that—I yap enough, haha. But seeing you help others is really nice, and since your comments are short and clear, it’s good. Thanks for being helpful, and hope you have a great holiday!

And, ahh, I’m tired, Rudaiba… You know you are, Rudaiba. You are good. Hope you enjoy your holidays.

Yeah!

You guys are just awesome! And everyone else, you are just as awesome as they are, but I know them more, and I wanted to appreciate them for what they have done here. Nothing more. Okay, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays.

Summary:

This year has been a rollercoaster of achievements, friendships, challenges, and personal growth. From diving deep into robotics and coding competitions to building meaningful connections and facing heartbreaking losses, each month has brought something unique. Joining this community has been one of the highlights, providing me with a platform to share, learn, and connect with amazing people. As I look back, I’m grateful for every moment and every person who has been part of this journey. Here’s to an even more incredible year ahead!

Happy Holidays to All and go touch some grass, unlike me!

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