New Year, Same Me

Posted by Nasser Eledroos on December 29th, 2024. Tagged Growth

We’ve all heard the cliché: a new year means a fresh start. Weirdly? I enjoy setting intentions for the year. Our worlds are vast, and we each explore different life experiences at different times. Often, we compare those experiences with others — my graduation party versus yours, my 30th birthday versus yours, and so on. Don’t tell me you didn’t think about food at someone else’s graduation party, or (even) a wedding.

There are so few moments everyone on Earth shares in real time. The start of a new year, however manufactured, is one of them. It can be good or bad, that’s our choice, but it’s a collective moment all the same. I think that creates a chance to set new goals and have them reinforced externally.

I’d like to list a few of mine for this upcoming year!

Quit subscription media. I just read Liz Pelly’s The Ghosts in the Machine in Harpers. It exposed how platforms like Spotify use fake artists and stock music to reduce royalty payouts, while prioritizing profit over genuine creativity. Adding to this, companies like Adobe, Microsoft, others, pour resources into AI tools, further detaching from authentic storytelling and artistry while actively profiting off it in their training datasets. I’m appalled by how these systems exploit creators while devaluing their work and feel like my discomfort has reached a boiling point.
Run a 100K race. In 2024, I completed my first 50K (31 mi) ultra-marathon in Grand Junction, Colorado, after tackling a 25K (15 mi) trail race in Doi Inthanon, Thailand at the end of 2023. Trail running has reshaped my body and mindset, offering a kinder way to see the world and reconnect with nature after years spent working in front of screens. A 100K (62 mi), however, is a different beast — some races allow 24 hours or more to finish and you can't just hobble your way along for that time. My friend ran one and finished in 22 hours, which is incredible. I want to push myself that far, because we can do hard things! I didn’t know I could run more than 10K (6 mi) without stopping until September 2023. Who knows what I can do by September 2025.
See at least one friend I haven’t seen since before COVID. This new year marks five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. My younger brother is now the age I was when it began. There are enumerable friends that I haven’t seen, for lots of reasons — people moved away, remain COVID-conscious, lost touch, lost shared third-spaces — and it’s been on my mind. I read somewhere that friends in your twenties are an accident, and in your thirties are a full-time job. Relationship-management is work, but it is how we stay connected with people we care about. I’d like to practice that more.
Get my Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status. I recently learned that children of former Indian nationals can apply for OCI, which allows visa-free travel, property ownership, and employment rights in India. I’ve been reconnecting with my ancestral roots (heck, I’m writing this from India right now), and I’m thankful my parents taught me Hindi while I grew up in the U.S. I would love for this to open new doors for me.
Create things, even bad things. I often feel like I have spent my life collecting hobbies. In middle school I learned how to use industrial machinery and make objects like CO2 race cars and clocks out of wood. Into high school I trained in Indian classical music, learning and performing the tabla. In college I taught myself how to take 19th century tintype photos using a large format camera from the 1940s. I’ve collected more skills, even if only slightly pursued, over the last three decades. I would like to take some time and make things — songs, wooden gifts, photos — even if they’re bad. At least I wouldn’t feel frustrated about not doing anything with interests I have, and who knows: maybe a person or two might appreciate it too.
See two US National Parks. The natural beauty within the National Park system is, truly, incredible. Two friends gleefully took me on a quick drive-through visit to Arches National Park this year and I quickly realized that these parks really deserve my time and attention, slowly. This coming year, I’d love to finally visit Zion National Park, and one other that I’m leaving open to discovery.
Organize 1 affordable-ish friend group trip. Going back to #3, I think group friend hangouts require, especially among older friends who might have met in college, extra work and care to continue connecting with. It also requires some initiative, which at least among my closer friends hasn’t been the easiest to come by. I’m going to try to right that! And am endeavoring to one, reasonable and domestic get together that is relatively cell-phone free and in nature.
Be more responsible about finances and use technology to help. I’ve tried various budgeting apps with mixed success, so this year, I’ll return to “old-school” spreadsheets and add a Python twist for monthly planning. Who knows — maybe I’ll even integrate an unsupervised classifier or an LLM to spot spending patterns.
Begin the path to a PhD. It increasingly feels like I’ve hit a career ceiling at this intersection of policy and practice. I’d like to deepen my expertise in how technology shapes society, particularly in areas like criminal law, privacy, AI ethics, and digital equity. A PhD would allow me to contribute more effectively to the systemic change I’m passionate about — whether through designing interventions in public systems, using public data to hold government accountable, shaping global technology policy, or mentoring the next generation of leaders in public interest technology. This year, I aim to clarify my research goals, identify programs that align with my interdisciplinary interests, and start reaching out to faculty.
Write more, a lot more. This post is part of this intention I am setting for 2025. Social media has reduced us to 1080p photos and 280 characters. We are so much more than that. My brain is filled with so much! Hopefully it might interest you, too.