Life Update + Insights (Version: July 2025)

It’s been some time since I did one of these updates. Honestly, I’m unsure if I even want to do it right now. I’m scared to jinx how good things have been. But I feel the responsibility to slip it in for you. I can’t just put my mind out there, but not allow you to see the human that carries it. So here we are!

I’ll save you from the rest of the ruminations and get straight to the point.

I quit my job exactly a month ago.

Sadly, this time I didn’t get to part my way on a good note. It was borderline ugly with mutual frustration, to say the least. And now that I’ve let go of my anger, I can look at everything I learned during my role:

1. Attention is the name of the game. Whether you buy it, snatch it, beg for it, or command it by being yourself, energy flows where the mind goes. We launched some of the biggest marketing campaigns I’ve ever run in my life, and one thing that always worked was how long we could hold our audience’s attention.

2. Do not ignore your gut feelings. Be it about people or things. The times I messed up, I had ignored my gut feelings about my work. The times others messed up, I had ignored my gut feelings about them. If a task makes you feel a hollow twist in your stomach, sit with it. If someone’s words make you feel a sting in your heart, sit with it. Your body knows before your mind does.

   

   I took this photo of drying fish a few weeks back at Anita Sjømat in Norway. The slightly haunting teeth and lifeless eyes make it a perfect analogy for a toxic work culture.

3. See and accept unconditionally. Not things, or people, but reality. See everything as it is. I had seen the signs to leave very early on, but I hung on to the hopes of change. You can make an impact on people, organizations, and things, but you can’t force change. If it doesn’t align with you, it doesn’t. It’s hard when you want to be an optimist and try to change the world for the better, but sometimes the best thing is to leave. Leave. It’s not giving up, it’s saving yourself for what matters more.

That being said, I’m grateful for the lessons and new experiences. What’s better than growing as a person, while also growing in numbers?

So just like that, I’m 24 now.

It feels a bit weird because when I was a kid, I always thought that by this age I’d be a very serious adult (whatever that means). I don’t think I’m anywhere close to it. I’ll spare you from the long list of reasons.

But turning 24 has definitely taught me this one thing:

Recently, I did my first bikepacking trip across the Lofoten Islands with a friend. It was easily one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done. However, it taught me how strong my body is, and how stronger it can be. I never knew I could climb Svolværgeita or cycle 100 km in a day. But I could, and now I know I can do so much more with some training.

Moreover, I learned how important it is to have someone always cheering for you. Love can give you unimaginable amounts of strength.

I have so much more to say about how amazing this experience was, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Now that I’m in Berlin for a month, a few things I’m learning lately:

1. Nobody really cares about you as much as you think they do. Most people are nice, some are even great. But they do not care. Nobody cares if you break a traffic signal and risk your life, walk across the streets with your head buried in a phone, or run long enough to cause a knee injury. A few nice people might ask you to be careful, fewer will make you promise them that you’ll be safe. But, no one actually cares, and neither do you. We all live our own lives, and it is impossible to care as much as we wishfully or cynically think we do.

2. Life is too short. Life is too short to waste a day not being yourself. You are gifted this unique experience of being a human in this lifetime. The moment you try to fit in and do anything against your very nature, you’re wasting that gift. I’ve never seen people being so unapologetically themselves as in Berlin. There’s no such thing as being too much here, except being too scared.

3. Lastly, everything is a choice. You choose your priorities every single day, consciously or unconsciously. You can choose to act, or you can choose to procrastinate. You can choose to live for yourself, or you can choose to live for another. You can choose to be patient, or you can choose to say things you don’t mean. You can choose to let new possibilities shape you, or you can choose to stick to old ways. You can choose to flow like water, or you can choose to burn like fire. You can choose. You make a choice every moment. My goal is to make as many of them as possible consciously, instead of being driven by the mysteries of the unconscious.

So, as I get one day closer to leaving this beautiful part of my life behind, hopefully, I’m also getting closer to coming back here again.

And maybe that’s life.

You find yourself at Shakespears & Sons on a random Monday evening, eyes filled with tears, partly in disbelief of how far you’ve come, and partly longing for all that you can be. Yearning for something you don’t know. Seeking someone you might become. Missing the little version of you who would’ve jumped with joy seeing this part of life. Feeling grateful for this moment. Aching for something unknown. Clinging to a hope. Believing. Dreaming.

Wake up, it’s a new dawn.

Flow like water, burn like fire.

Live.

Yours,
Komalika