27 and Unfolding ✨: Lessons Discovered Along the Way.

Komal Agarwal
3 min readFeb 5, 2023

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Although I have a distaste for chemistry, I found a silver lining when I reached out to ChatGPT for help with something containing 100 elements that could be related to age. It suggested options like the periodic table and prime numbers. Of the two, chemistry is more tolerable. 😛

The 27th element in the periodic table is Cobalt.

Cobalt is a shining, durable metal with a silvery-blue hue and magnetic properties. Now this year was a lot like that, I became a lot more resilient and attracted my tribe, my people.

Hey there! 🙂 Me being “26” 🫢

As we have learned in our design journey, it’s important to first determine the “Why” and “What” before starting any project. This has become second nature to us. So, without further ado…

What prompts me to write this blog all of a sudden?

While organizing my closet, I stumbled upon my journal from 2020 when I was 25 years old. My 25-year-old self-proclaimed wine as her drink and proclaimed that love stories were overrated. The 27-year-old me reading that journal had to set the notion straight. Just so that the future versions of me have something to iterate on when they read this one.

So here’s a snippet of what my current self would tell my 25-year-old self.

  1. Love stories are not overrated.
  2. Speak your heart out or you will always regret it.
  3. Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
  4. Wine is not my go-to drink rather it's Cosmo.
  5. Love what you do and do what you love.
  6. Take one day at a time.
  7. It's completely okay to be not okay. Trust me.
  8. List-making provides an additional sense of accomplishment.
  9. You can’t make everyone happy. So how about you make everyone equally unhappy?
  10. No is a complete sentence.
  11. You are allowed to walk away from situations that make you uncomfortable — without an explanation.
  12. You can’t pour from an empty glass, so take care of yourself first.
  13. Sometimes it's okay to disconnect from the world to connect with yourself.
  14. You are allowed to change your mind. It’s all good.
  15. Nothing is constant in life.
  16. You did the best you could at that moment.
  17. Begin now! It doesn’t matter if it’s delayed. The only thing that matters is getting started.
  18. In life, you get what you have the courage to ask for.
  19. If you really desire something from your heart, then the whole universe will work towards getting you that. The journey might be hard but trust me you will achieve it. (Indeed a huge fan of SRK 🫢)
  20. With confidence, fake it till you make it.
  21. You always have a choice.
  22. Be patient with the people you love. (I would say I am still learning)
  23. Dress up every day the best you can. The way you want. Don’t wait for good days, make them.
  24. You should be your first priority.
  25. Not everyone is entitled to know everything about you. You get to decide those humans.
  26. Your definition of fun might be different. But that doesn't mean you are wrong or defective. Be the craziest version of yourself.
  27. Just hit publish. Don’t think about being 100% perfect, 80% works as well. 🙂

If you liked this, don’t forget to show some love. xx

Yours K. ❤️

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Komal Agarwal
Komal Agarwal

Written by Komal Agarwal

Senior Product Designer at HackerRank | Creator | Coffee Lover | Designing products my grandma would understand ❤️

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