IN the morning of Dec. 31, 2021, I felt tired and was coughing all through the night. I didn't think of Covid since I had my booster, and my family and I has been very careful the past year or so; not going out without wearing masks or only when we had to go to the grocery or get food. Alas, after taking the three-step at-home rapid test, there were two lines, indicating that I was positive for Covid and most likely, got the Omicron variant. I had no idea where or how I got it, but one thing that I heard was that even if you were careful but you were around an unmasked asymptomatic infected individual, you might still get it.

As I slept most of the day, I woke up for our New Year's Eve dinner and in the end, watched on TV the dropping of the ball at midnight. That time, I had many emotions gushing through my mind. It was a combination of my thoughts on the past year but to be honest, also of my own mortality as a human being and my borrowed time with my wife and kids as a father of two boys. A lot of questions ranged from existential ones to business to family. With this, I wanted to share the top five reflections I had on the first day of 2022.