Introducing My Website + Me

I started this blog for many reasons. Firstly, it was a way to aggregate all my passions, interests, and ideas in one place. But now, it has become a space where I can be imaginative while having complete ownership over what I’m creating. Everything on this website is representative of me. My lifestyle page demonstrates my style, my travel page reveals my wanderlust, my design page exposes my passion, and my blog page explores my thoughts. In each tab, in each picture, and in each blog post, you will find a new piece of me.

I started blogging (through a different medium) when I was in junior high, but stopped after high school started getting busy. Looking through old blog posts makes me cringe....but it is just a testament to how much people grow and how much growing I still have to do! Part of the fun of having a blog is resurfacing old memories or rolling your eyes over something you said.

But a blog is only as good as how current it is. So, please consider this my official challenge that I will upload new content weekly. And hopefully, this website will become a great way for me to communicate, learn, and improve.

And as any traditional first blog post goes, I should probably give a little backstory on who I am.

I’m currently a sophomore at San Jose State University, majoring in Computer Science with a minor in American Studies. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, but spent the past summer in Boston, interning for a financial company. It was my first time away from home for an extended period of time, but it was a much-needed escape. As much as I love the Bay, it is very much a bubble. Life is very different outside of it.

I have two sisters, one of whom is my twin. And before anyone says anything, let me just answer the six questions I always get asked when I reveal I’m a twin:

1. Who is smarter? We each are skilled in different things. In other words, we are both equally stupid.

2. Which one is older? For some reason people always assume I’m the older one (possibly because I’m more reserved and serious), but I’m actually the youngest in the family. My twin sister is one minute older than me.

3. Are you fraternal or identical? We are fraternal, but by some freaky act of nature, we look identical. So many people couldn’t believe that we were fraternal that my mom actually called the hospital just to double check. Our similar looks is just a coincidence. But, if you ask me, we look nothing alike.

4. Can you read each other’s minds? I get asked this more often that you think. It’s normally by younger kids, so I like to spook them out by performing “twin telepathy.” In reality, since I’ve always been with my twin sister (even in the womb), I know her very well to guess what she’s thinking at certain moments. It has nothing to do with being twins.

5. Who is the evil one? That would be my twin sister. She was quite cunning and manipulative as a child. My mother likes to recount this story of how my twin sister would convince me to steal chocolate for her from the fridge when she was just a baby and I would always be the one to get caught.

6. Have you ever switched places? In first grade, we were just starting at a new elementary school and on the first day, my mother accidentally put us in the the wrong classrooms. It was only until my twin sister saw the name “Navya” on one of the desks that my mom noticed her mistake. We have never intentionally exactly switched places, but I have gone to classes in college pretending to be her and vice versa. This is normally just if I really needed to go to a class for participation points, but also had an interview or another conflict that day. No one has ever noticed.

My parents (mom is a teacher, dad is an engineer) and other sister, who is six years older (programmer as well), immigrated from India, making my twin sister and I the first in our entire family bloodline to be born in the States. We visit Punjab as often as we can, my most recent trip being in the summer of 2016.

I love going to India and seeing my family, but I also love traveling in general. So far, I have gone to Canada, India, France, Italy, and Switzerland. Within the U.S., I have visited Nevada, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Florida, Washington, Washington D.C., and New Jersey. I can’t decide my favorite place, because each city brings out different feelings and memories...but I would say Venice, Italy is the most uniquely beautiful; Switzerland is the most naturally beautiful; Rome, Italy is the most fun; and Paris, France is the most sophisticated. I desperately want to become fluent in French...so far I only have 3 years of high school-level French experience, most of which I’ve forgotten. I would love to live abroad for at least six months, just to fully understand the culture and learn the language. Hopefully 2018 will bring some more exciting adventures!

Now that this blog post is getting dangerously long, it is time I wrap this up. Thank you for reading and hopefully you come visit the site again soon!

sincerely,

navya

Also, I love dogs.