Looking Back 2015

Every year is a total of 365 unique days, so each year is different with new memories and experiences. Even though there's always combination of good and bad days, some years are very special, and you don't want to look back at some. But most often we are so busy to live our everyday life that we don't have time to look back and calculate what we've gained and what we've lost; think about whether we could really live the year as we wanted to or not. 

Looking back at 2015 now, probably it has been the busiest year of my life, which also helped me grow a lot - I traveled the most, attended my first conference and also presented there, took some challenging courses and learned many new things, embraced my vulnerability and fear of failure, and most of all, met some amazing people who added the best memories of the year. All of these have definitely helped me grow a lot. At the same time 2015 was probably one of the most stressful years of my life, but for this moment I decided to let everything go and only take the good memories with me to the new year.

One of my fav photos from St Anne's College, Oxford

Best Memories of 2015

With all the challenging coursework of Spring 2015, the first half went by super fast and super busy, without too many new happenings. Summer was the most fun, and full of beautiful memories. Fall 2015 was really busy and stressful as well but with many new happenings. So, here are the best memories -

• Celebrating first birthday in US! Well, I'm not the birthday celebration type of person, I used to be but not anymore. In fact, last couple of years I almost tried to escape from the day, but couldn't do that this year. Received a surprise birthday party from close friends, which was very sweet of them, and got some lovely and thoughtful presents as well. Overall, birthday was well-spent, and growing up with these wonderful people didn't feel so bad after all!
• Captured my first thunderbolt shot! I always wanted to capture such a photo and finally my dream came true! After trying 20 shots while sitting in a running car, I finally got a good one. And it also became my first photo to be Explored on Flickr.

Yes! :D

• Attending Oxford-Illinois Digital Libraries Placement Program! Sorry, I had to bold this cause this is the BEST thing that happened in this year cause it was a whole new experience, and really helped me to look at life in a different way. First of all, that was my first time in Europe and all by myself. I had the opportunity to work with Oxford e-Research Centre with some of the most wonderful people there. Attended Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School for a week and also presented my poster there, which was definitely the most fun week during my whole stay. Most importantly, I could successfully finish my project in 5 weeks and received a lot of appreciation from everyone at the OeRC, which also got accepted at the iConference 2016. I can't thank enough for all the love, care and appreciation I received in 1.5 months. I'd probably treasure these people and the moments my whole life.

Really enjoyed running at the Oxford University Park after work everyday

My present from the colleagues at OeRC

• Traveled to 9 different cities in 3 countries this year - Chicago, Wisconsin-Madison, Bloomington, Carbondale in US, Oxford, London, Manchester, Bath in UK, and Vancouver in Canada. Also, didn't have any phone and mostly no Internet connection while traveling in UK, which I consider as an achievement! And of course, that included a lot of getting lost but let's not count that :p

Stunning Vancouver from the hotel window

• Presented for the first time at a conference (DLF Forum 2015), which was quite scary as I never spoke on stage in front of hundreds of professional people. But I made it! Yay! Achievement unlocked! :D
• I also painted more than last year and wrote the highest number of blog posts in last three years. So, overall not a bad year in terms of productivity! 

Despite of all the stress and tough times, 2015 wasn't that bad year after all! And for me the take away is to fully live each moment cause we can't promise tomorrow. Who knows what happens to me next year, I don't know where I'll be, whether I'll live another year or not, but at this moment I'm grateful to live this year and for all the beautiful memories that I'd love to relive in the new year :)