This summer has been quite eventful and not in the way I had hoped for. My plan was quite simple, do the first summer session, fly to India where I'd spend 2-3 weeks then take a flight to Hong Kong, spend 5 days on a cruise to Vietnam, fly back to India and then home. Instead, I decided to enroll in a few online classes, read a few books and binge on a shit ton of TV shows.

As you can guess none of it actually went according to plan. I did finish my summer classes and fly to India but what happened next was beyond my control.

A week after landing, the state I was staying in (my home state) was met with one of the heaviest monsoon seasons in the last 100 years. The result was a devastating flood that affected almost every single area in the state. I myself didn't face any problems, just a day with water scarcity and frequent lack of electricity, all of which was nothing compared to the millions who lost their homes, some who were friends and family.

The days I would have been packing and shopping for my very much anticipated trip to Vietnam, was spent staying in my house due to the flooded roads and eventually helping out with the relief efforts by getting provisions and stocking necessities for my own household.

That's on the traveling front of my holidays, did I at least keep up with my promise to enroll in online classes and read books and binge TV shows? Not exactly, I enrolled in one class that I've not looked at in weeks, I started one book and never completed it... binging TV shows though, that's going fantastically. That's on me, I'll admit. Now all I've is flying back home and maybe trying re-do my list of stuff to do. Or I'll just curl up on a bed with Netflix, who knows the world is a fascinating place!

So yes things didn't go according to plans, the floods was a sobering moment as I watched everything flow away. I had seen natural disasters before but never was I ever right in the middle of it. Even though I came out of this unscathed, it's a jarring experience to see your city underwater, the houses of your friends and family underwater… My words fail to fully describe my feelings but one thing is for sure, this is an experience I will never forget.