u/Big-Tailor-1404

I turned 33 today.

And honestly, if someone had met me in my early 20s, they would never have imagined I’d end up with this.

Because back then, I was a complete mess.

Never the “promising kid.”

Always average.

I’ve been in boys hostel since class 5, so I learned very early how to survive alone.

How to manage things myself.

How to hide emotions and act normal even when life wasn’t.

I joined a BTech college in Bhubaneswar for the dumbest reason possible:

my friend got admission there.

That was my level of planning in life.

Engineering was chaos.

Alcohol.

Smoking.

Weed almost daily.

Sleeping at 4 AM.

Waking up at 2 PM.

Missing classes.

No routine.

No ambition.

No direction.

I somehow got placed in an IT company with a 3.6 LPA package.

Joined only because Indian families need the sentence:

“Beta job pe lag gaya.”

For 2 years I just existed.

Office.

Trips.

Weekends.

Drinks.

Smoke.

Repeat.

The only good thing I did during those years was start investing early.

Somewhere, that slowly changed how I thought about life.

Then came the “I’ll crack CAT easily” phase.

Biggest overconfidence of my life.

I left my job thinking one year was enough.

Didn’t crack.

Then Covid came.

My sister faced serious health issues and multiple hospital rounds.

At the same time, I went through a HORRIBLE breakup.

That phase broke me completely.

For months I couldn’t eat properly.

Couldn’t focus.

Couldn’t explain to people what I was feeling.

Meanwhile friends were getting promoted, earning well, moving ahead in life.

And there I was:

gap years increasing,

confidence decreasing,

pretending everything was okay.

I genuinely felt like I had ruined my own life.

But somewhere, I still believed God had a plan.

So with whatever energy I had left, I gave one final attempt.

And somehow, cracked an IIM.

MBA changed me.

Not academically.

As a person.

For the first time, I started believing maybe I wasn’t useless after all.

Placements were brutal.

Rejections hurt.

But eventually I got into fintech.

Life slowly started becoming stable.

Around that time, I also looked at myself properly for the first time.

113 kg.

Unhealthy.

Smoker.

Bad habits everywhere.

That scared me.

So slowly, I changed my life.

Quit smoking completely.

Started reading.

Meditation.

Gym.

Journaling.

Clean diet.

Wake up at ~5.

Sleep at 11.

Just small habits repeated daily.

Today I’m 91 kg.

Health is improving.

Mind is calmer.

Life feels lighter.

Last year, I got married.

Arranged marriage.

And honestly, I got lucky.

After years of chaos, having someone peaceful beside you changes everything.

Financially too, things are good now.

Combined Monthly Income : 4 + lpm post tax

We invest together now and dream of achieving FIRE by 45-50.

But honestly, the biggest achievement at 33 is not money, MBA, or career.

It’s peace.

Because there was a time I truly believed I was a failure.

And no, this is not one of those “everything is perfect now” stories.

Life still has problems.

Still has stress.

Still has responsibilities, fears, uncertainties and battles I’m not even mentioning here.

Maybe those stories are for next birthday 😃

But one thing I’ve learned through all these years is this:

If your intent and intentions are right, life somehow slowly starts falling into place.

Not immediately.

But gradually.

At least that’s been my experience so far.

So if anyone in their 20s or 30s feels lost right now:

life can change very slowly… and then all at once.

Happy 33rd to me.

Cooking has been my favourite thing to do.

I usually give chutti to my maid on weekends and try to cook food by myself for me and my wife.

Love this.

Half way through and this is some hell of a read. Woow 😧

I want to ask a simple question how often do u gift ur parents or parents in law after ur financial responsibilities increase after marriage?

Is it on occasions or random or not at all.

I gifted my mom on mothers day and after thinking I realised I gifted her last on last birthday.

I think random gifting to parents should also be normal considering all the sacrifices they did. Even I am not able to do it but wanted to know what u all r upto

Do you guys prefer celebrating ur special occasions in noise , peace or how ???

Friday night I made this.

No recipe. No YouTube tutorial. Just opened the fridge, trusted the process, and started cooking.

Honestly, this has always been my way of slowing down. Something about chopping vegetables, stirring a pan at midnight, tasting random combinations, and watching it all come together feels so calming after a long week.

I spend most of my weekdays around screens, notifications, meetings, and timelines. Cooking is probably the only thing where I genuinely don’t care about optimizing anything.

Sometimes the food turns out great. Sometimes it becomes an experiment nobody should repeat. Either way, I enjoy the process.

What’s that one activity that instantly slows your mind down after a hectic week?

I didn’t like any reading tracker I tried.

Most of them:

just track books

show streaks

or give basic stats

But none of them answered a simple question:

What kind of reader am I becoming?

So I built something for myself using Gemini.

What it does differently:

Instead of just tracking books, it tries to model reading behavior.

Identifies your reader identity (deep reader, domain focus, thinking style)

Tracks session depth, not just pages

Shows momentum vs consistency

Breaks down thinking into:

analytical

creative

pragmatic

What I’ve noticed after 3 months:

I wasn’t inconsistent — I was just volatile

My reading is heavily health + psychology biased

My sessions are deep, but frequency fluctuates

“Momentum” matters more than streaks

Starting the first book for the month of May . Heard a lot of positive words about this