for raghav

Things I wish for you.

Advice you did not ask for. Take what is useful and leave the rest. No pressure.

• Try to be happier in general. Not as a project with a deadline. Just as the direction you lean when you get to choose.
• Find the purpose of your life. Something to anchor on and keep moving toward. Something you actually want to be, or become, or achieve, or own. Set a default baseline and keep walking on it, no matter what the week looks like. PS, I would really love if one day you opened a restaurent. I would visit daily.
• Restart your old hobbies. Cooking. The 3D printing. The bike. Going out to Alviso for the sunset. Maybe find a
• Please keep hitting the gym (Planet Fitness if possible, it's better than your community gym). Your health is your most prized possession. When nothing else is going right, that is the one thing that should be. It is the most valuable currency you have. Build muscle. You will be able to throw the next one out of your bed with much more ease.
• Eat your damn protein. My breakfast, in case you want it:
  30 g oats
  20 g chia seeds
  5 g flax seeds
  5 g hemp seeds
  10 g pumpkin seeds
  1 scoop collagen
  100 g frozen blueberries
  42 g Fairlife milk, vanilla works best, plus some water
  
  Blend it, take it to the office, drink it slowly over two hours. Works like a charm.
  Try to work in a 20 to 25 g protein yogurt in the evening as well, Oikos (20g) or Ratio (25g) or Chobani (20g). Deep frozen wraps are good for an evening snack or dinner, around 20 g protein. Always pair your lunch and dinner protein with some carbs. And do not forget carbs before the gym.
• Take creatine (5g) and beta-alanine (5g) daily. Keep your levels saturated rather than topping up when you remember. It shows up in the gym and in the gains.
• Focus on your work, but read the signal. Notice when you are not being valued. If things stop looking good, move to a better company. Apple's Health Sensing team would be a great place for you, in my opinion.
• Congratulations on your H-1B. Genuinely. But do not go for stamping under the current circumstances. Absolutely not before your NIW is approved. I still maintain that you should go for O1-A stamping because you deserve it. Take any and all decisions keeping in mind that you have to go for stamping. That includes when to be done with your Day1CPT program. Be super longsighted about this.
• Keep building the profile for O-1A and EB-1A. No Pressure though. RA work with professors, and publish if you can. Peer review through Immigration Jason and other similar sources. The CODiE and Globee awards, do them again I suppose. No pressure though, if we get back together, I'll give you the greencard. You focus on being happy and building your life.
• Sleep and wake up on time. Good sleep is the floor everything else stands on. Without it, none of the rest of this list works.
• Keep your surroundings clean and tidy. And do not undress and leave the clothes right where they landed. Create healthy habits around all this.
• Supplements - Take them seriously. Multivitamins, Magnesium (all forms), Omega/Fish Oil, Iron, Vit D3+K2 (without K2, D3 is useless and rather dangerous), Ashwagandha, etc.
• Renew Global Entry on Time.. Feel free to text me if you need help
• Apply for a Canadian visa once you get your H-1B/O-1A stamp. You just got a new passport! Get your Canadian visa soon. But yeah, you cannot get one before you get your H-1B/O-1A stamp.

None of this is a condition, and none of it is a bargain. I want all of it for you whether or not I am the one standing there.