Hacktoberfest 2025 – My First Open Source Journey
by Sanskriti Suhani
🧩 The Beginning:
This year marked my very first Hacktoberfest, my first step into the world of open source contribution.I never imagined that something as simple as curiosity could open up a space so vast, collaborative, and humbling.
As a first-year Computer Science student, I had always wanted to learn beyond classrooms — to build, share, and contribute. Hacktoberfest gave me that opportunity to explore, fail, learn, and grow.
💻 The Journey:
I’ve never believed in learning just for myself, knowledge holds real value only when it’s shared with those who need it. That belief is what naturally drew me toward open source. For me, it’s not just about writing code; it’s about collaboration, solving real problems, improving systems, and helping communities grow.
The experience itself was no less than a roller coaster. There were nights filled with coffee and endless scrolling through repositories, trying to find the right issue to contribute to. At times, I’d spend hours understanding a project and still end up feeling lost. Making my first pull request was both exciting and terrifying, the thrill of trying something new mixed with the fear of getting it wrong.
There were challenges, finding beginner-friendly repos, tackling errors, facing merge conflicts, and occasionally dealing with rejection. But each step taught me something deeper: patience, calmness, and perseverance. I may not have had any pull requests merged within the time frame, but what I gained was far more valuable , a sense of belonging, confidence, and understanding of how open source truly works.
It taught me that contribution isn’t always about results; sometimes, it’s about effort, intention, and growth. Even the smallest attempt to contribute helps you evolve, not just as a coder, but as a learner and a collaborator.
🌍 Looking Ahead:
Hacktoberfest 2025 reminded me that contribution doesn’t start with expertise, it starts with intent.
I’m now a part of the Open Source Club in my college, where I cleared a 24-hour hackathon challenge, cracked the interview, and finally joined a community that shares the same values — to build, share, and give back.
This is just the beginning.
Here’s to contributing, learning, and growing, one pull request at a time. 💫
🪄 Open Source Reflections:
Hacktoberfest wasn’t just a challenge, it was a realization. Open source isn’t a competition; it’s collaboration in its purest form.
It showed me that everyone, no matter how small their contribution, plays a role in building something bigger than themselves.
To anyone planning to join next year, don’t wait to be perfect. Start where you are. Ask questions. Read others’ work. Contribute, even if it’s small. Because the smallest contributions often make the biggest impact.
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