final entry, see you later!

Here I sit, next to a stuffed suitcase. Intoxicated, but sober enough to catch my spelling mistakes and probably not drunk enough to deal with the fact that this is my last night here in Bangalore.

I am rather disappointed in myself for not having done a better job of updating this blog. I know that some, maybe many, friends out there were counting on entries and stories and pictures galore. I am sorry to have let you down. The possibly good news is that I am thankful for all y'all's positive feedback and I am determined to blog as much as ever once I get home and maybe get some free time... maybe.

I've heard many times that ThoughtWorks can become your life. And I always refused to believe it. I had my own life, my own friends, my own direction, my own ambitions. It's been six weeks since I've stubbornly and skeptically boarded a plane, confident that I could handle whatever ThoughtWorks threw at me. And now, even I know I am still Rose Fan, my own person, ThoughtWorks has become a part of me too. TWU has confirmed my suspicions that being a "ThoughtWorker" is different from being an "Accenturer" or an "IBMer" because ThoughtWorks is a culture, a movement, an initiative towards something that is beyond just technology or Agile or consulting, something greater and more important to us as a society. I've never been around so many different people who've all been so passionate and so accepting and so different - it's quite wonderful. I think about all those conversations I had about omg should I become a paralegal or a business analyst for this crazy company just a few months ago, and now I finally, finally know I made the right decision.

These past six weeks have also taught me a lot about others - maybe a little too much, but these things are important to understand. It's also taught me a lot about myself. What I'm good at, what I'm not. What I should strive towards and be grateful for. What is decency, what is motivation, what is humility and acceptance.

The Angels Orphanage website is now live. We still have to fix a bunch of CSS and content details, but the gist of it is there: http://orphanage.heroku.com/home

I'm so excited to come home. And I am deeply sad to leave. It's been a wonderful experience here, one that I will never forget in my years to come.

Thanks for reading this blog. If you'd like to know the URL to my other one, just ask.