Senior Year

April 30, 2025

I think there is time in college, where your conversations go from talking about the cool things you could do in the future, to the cool things you did in the past. Filled with inside jokes, nostalgia, and funny incidents from the past.

That's when you know, you are close to the end.

That was senior year. Filled with jokes from the past, moments from the present, and the stress of what the future holds.

Highlights of the Year

• Campus Life
  Arrived in Ann Arbor two weeks after college started-landed at 4 PM, got picked up from the airport, and went straight to a Green Day concert. First concert in the US, and honestly, safe to say I never wanted that September to end.
  Went to every football game. Not our best season, but we still managed to beat Ohio State again, so I'll call it a win.
  Stuck to none of my plans. Treated every event like it was the last. Hit every bar on campus-probably twice. No regrets.
  Took just one class senior year: Computer Architecture.
  Pro tip: maybe don't tell your project teammates you're only doing one class.
  Built a processor though, so-worth it.
  Halloween weekend was fun. Rotated between a ghost, a banana, and a cop (a law-abiding one, of course).
  Spent a weekend in Los Angeles-quiet beach, warm breeze, and a sunset that refused to end.
  A few close friends moved to the U.S. this year, and I finally got to show them around-my campus, my life, the version of me they hadn't met yet. It's something I've always wanted to do.
• Cricket Game
  Faced off against MSU, our rivals-they needed 18 runs off the final over.
  I offered to bowl. Had the best figures of the game until then.
  Two deliveries later, the match was over.
  Don't ask how. My therapist and I are working on it.
  And it hit different-because I'd messed up the one thing I thought I had figured out.
  And for the first time in a long time, I doubted something I usually trust: my fast bowling.
  
  Sport, man.
  It humbles you fast.
  One moment you're the hero, the next you're questioning everything.
  But it teaches you-about pressure, composure, and how quickly the game (and life) can flip.
  You can be on top one moment... and dropped the next.
  
  All great athletes have gone through moments like this.
  Makes you pause and really appreciate how they handle pressure, criticism, public scrutiny and a billion dreams.
  At the highest levels, sport becomes more mental than physical.
  And it takes something deeper than skill to keep showing up.
  
  That game stung. Still does. But it taught me a few things.
  That you learn more from the days you fall short than the ones where everything goes right.
  That confidence isn't built on success-it's built on recovery.
  That showing up after failure takes way more strength than showing up when you're winning.
  And that even when you lose, you leave with something-perspective, resilience, and the knowledge that you'll be ready when it's your turn again.
• Winter Break
  Traveled to San Francisco, Chicago, Singapore, and Malaysia that winter. Sort of a graduation trip before leaving Michigan.
  Singapore felt... engineered. Like someone designed a utopia on paper-great education, spotless streets, public transit that actually works, and super safe. But almost too perfect. No real nature and a little too small.
  Malaysia, on the other hand, felt messier-chaotic, a little unsafe, but undeniably full of life.
  Also went to a shooting range for the first time. No one was harmed.
• Winter Semester
  Winter semester lasted 10 days. Came back to Michigan to pack up and start a new chapter of my life in San Francisco, working at Bronco AI.
  Spent those final days with friends-great food, better conversations, and a lot of quiet moments where we pretended it wasn't ending.
  Sad to leave, but ready-excited-to start a new chapter.
• San Francisco
  Lived in an Airbnb, a hacker house, and a friend's place over the course of 3 months.
  Went on a hike every weekend-saw the redwoods, walked along the Pacific coastline, and joined a local cricket team.
  Caught a Warriors vs. Pistons game and watched Draymond Green sink a game-winning three.
  Working as a Founding Engineer at Bronco AI.
  Realized I missed the college town rhythm-the late-night walks, spontaneous plans, and running into familiar faces everywhere. Ann Arbor has a quiet magic you only notice once you're gone.
  Worked long hours at a startup, played pickleball, ate Sweetgreen, and ran on caffeine.
  Peak SF tech bro moment.
  Oh, and I joined Twitter.
  
  Here's a small article I wrote after first moving to SF
• Graduation
  The un-peak SF tech bro moment-I didn't drop out.
  Took graduation photos, went to the senior bar crawl (basically every day), cleaned the apartment before my family arrived-just for them to say it was still dirty.
  Wiped a few tears while handing over my keys.
  Capped it off with a 4-hour ceremony-just to shake hands for 5 seconds and spend 10 seconds pronouncing Balasubramanian.
  Iconic.
  P.S. Did get my tie complimented on stage-wore a maize and blue ducky tie.
  
  It was also the first time my family visited college, which made it all the more special.
  We planned a graduation trip-stargazing, sunsets over Lake Michigan, tulips in Holland, and stood at the edge of the Niagara Falls (U.S. side, of course, where the mist hits harder than the view and where you mostly just hear how nice it looks in Canada.)
  Then flipped the vibe completely-with the giant billboards, and signature weed-scented breeze of New York City.
  The Met turned out to be my favorite museum there.
• Quotes That Hit Different This Year
  "Some people graduate with honors, I am just honored to graduate." - Andy Bernard, The Office
  "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." - A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
  "Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad. But it's everything in between that makes it all worth it." - Bob Marley
  Began with this quote. Ending with it, too.

Looking Back

It's hard to wrap up four years-four versions of myself, really-into a neat little paragraph.
College wasn't just a phase of life. It was a thousand small lives stitched together:
Early morning walks to class, late-night coding marathons, spontaneous night outs, heartbreaks, victories, bad food, deep conversations, and all the moments in between.

Some semesters felt like they flew by in a blur. Others felt like they might never end.
I've lived entire story arcs here-found friends I'll carry forever, lost touch with a few I never thought I would, and somehow kept learning and unlearning who I was the whole time.

I came in with questions-about who I wanted to be, what I wanted to build, where I was going.
I'm leaving with... more questions. But better ones.
Questions I'm proud to be asking.

I've failed things I thought I'd ace. Aced things I thought I'd fail.
Had nights I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe, and others where the silence in my apartment felt louder than anything.

Ann Arbor taught me a lot-some of it in classrooms, most of it outside.
It taught me how to sit with failure and still get up the next day.
How to be present-especially on the bad days.
That homesickness doesn't mean you chose wrong, just that you left something worth missing.
How to be okay with not knowing what comes next.
That some moments deserve to be lived, not posted.
That when you hit rock bottom, the only way forward is up.
That growth rarely feels like growth when it's happening.
That no work gets done after 2 a.m.-and yet, we kept trying anyway.
And somewhere between welcome week and that five-second walk across the stage,
I became someone I'm proud to know.

The scariest thing is probably how fast it all went.
The most comforting? That I made the most of it while I had it.

So here's to the skipped lectures and the late-night study grinds,
The Joe's Pizza runs at midnight and the mystery shots at Charley's,
The three-hour Thursday line at Rick's that we lined up for anyway,
The last-minute plans, the questionable choices, the mid-semester meltdowns,
and the people who made this town feel like home.

Here's to the kid who arrived full of wonder,
And the person that's walking out-tired, maybe, but a little more whole.

What I wrote here? Just an average Wednesday night conversation with my roommate.

Here's to taxes, full-time jobs, and to whatever comes after the cap and gown.

Peace.