Hello there!
I'm a senior computer science student new to the DEV community. Since the beginning of 2020, I've been realizing how much more I need to learn after college. I joined this community to find resources and articles that expand my knowledge about different technologies and become more involved in the developer community. I saw Hacktoberfest as a great opportunity to put my name out in the community and experience large scale projects.
Background
I've always been interested in computers and started programming with JavaScript on Codecademy in 2011. Since then, I've always seen programming as a limitless medium that allows me to dream of outlandish ideas and actually be able to implement them. I spend a lot of my time programming academically but I find myself unable to stop programming outside of school. If I'm not programming I enjoy researching new technologies and discovering more about this amazing industry.
Since I only made one open-source contribution before Hacktoberfest, I was still very much a beginner. However, I found there was plenty of helpful resources and documentation available that made me confident to contribute to larger projects.
Contributions
Although my schedule is fairly packed with my studies, I made some small contributions. I found using the #first-timers-only tag on GitHub useful for finding introductory issues that I could manage.
I made some documentation contributions to Meshery.
Then I wanted to do some work on my personal website that is very barebones at the moment. I opened my repository up to the public and began creating issues. I was originally making the issues with the expectation that I would be the only one fulfilling them. However, I was very surprised to find community members found my issues and made pull requests to fulfill them.
Reflections
Overall, I love this event. My eyes have been opened to the power of the open-source community and I would gladly participate again. I was astounded by the speed at which my issues were found and fulfilled on GitHub. I created an issue then went to make a sandwich and when I returned someone had completed it. Next year I would like to create a blank repository that starts with an idea at the beginning of HacktoberFest and see what the community can create together in just a month.
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