Work experience = 1 year.

Yesterday was my first anniversary of being a working professional.
1 year as a software engineer.

If you ask me whether I've evolved as a better person or not since I shed my student garb, I don't know what to say. Not much, but this single year alone has taught me how bittersweet life can be all at once, more than the preceding 21 years put together.

Work has not changed me as a person but this one year taught me priorities in life can suffer a mammoth shift. From being a careless, absent minded girl unsure of the future, suddenly I find myself searching for ways to secure a future; for my siblings, my Mom, myself.

Values haven't changed, even after living for an year in the Silicon Valley of India.

Finding new friends, for a lifetime....
Catching up with old mates....
The revelation how exciting waiting for a weekend can be...
Missing home....
Discovering what 'hectic' means...
Learning to meet deadlines...
Managing time...
Missing home...
Feeling guilty when I see that dreaded sentence "Keep in touch"...
Chain mails...
New cuisines...
Added responsibilities...
Missing home...
Being independent.

It seems that just yesterday, we finished our last university exams.

One year.

Unbelievably short, yet long.