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Tanvir Mulla
Tanvir Mulla

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🌱 My First Hacktoberfest: How Open Source Changed the Way I See Code

#hacktoberfest2025 #opensource #devops #codingjourney

This is a submission for the 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge: Contribution Chronicles.

🎉 My First Step into the Open Source Universe

This October, I did something I’d been planning for years —

I participated in Hacktoberfest 2025, my first ever open-source event. 🌍

I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew one thing —

it was time to stop being a spectator and start being a contributor.

🧠 Before It All Began

Before Hacktoberfest, I had only worked on personal projects and tutorials.

I’d seen open-source repos with hundreds of contributors, and I always thought:

“That’s for pros — not for someone like me.”

But this year, I wanted to prove myself wrong.

So I made a simple rule:

👉 Don’t aim to be perfect. Aim to participate.

And that mindset changed everything.

🪶 My Hacktoberfest Badge Moment 🎖️

Here’s my proudest digital moment — the badge that marks the start of something bigger.

Hacktoberfest 2025 Badges

It’s not just a badge — it’s a reminder that I can contribute to something global, real, and impactful.

🧩 The Real Challenge: Understanding the “Why” of Code

Hacktoberfest taught me something that tutorials never did:

Code isn’t just about logic — it’s about people.

Each pull request I made wasn’t just a line of code —

it was a conversation with maintainers, designers, and other contributors.

It made me ask questions like:

  • Why was this function written this way?
  • How can this README help a future contributor?
  • Can I make this code a little clearer, even if I didn’t write it?

That mindset shift — from “How it works” to “Why it exists” —

was my biggest win.

⚙️ My Technical Growth

Even though I didn’t focus on one project, I explored many areas across DevOps and frontend repositories.

Here’s what I built up along the way:

  • Learned to read other people’s code efficiently
  • Improved my Git and GitHub workflow (branching, rebasing, PR hygiene)
  • Understood how CI/CD pipelines keep large projects stable
  • Practiced Docker image optimization and code documentation
  • Explored issues triaging — helping others understand, label, or debug problems

These skills weren’t from one tutorial — they came from real collaboration.

🔍 What Surprised Me Most

  1. Documentation is a Superpower.

    Writing clear, human-friendly docs is sometimes more valuable than code.

    It connects contributors faster than any commit ever could.

  2. Maintainers are mentors.

    Many maintainers gave me patient, detailed feedback that made me rethink my approach to commits.

  3. Open Source isn’t a competition — it’s collaboration.

    The energy of people improving each other’s work for free is something you have to experience to believe.

🚧 Mistakes That Taught Me More Than Success

  • I pushed a broken commit once. Instead of panic, I learned to revert gracefully.
  • I misunderstood a code comment and realized the importance of communication before contribution.
  • I got my PR rejected — and it turned into a learning session about readability vs. optimization.

Each small “failure” became a micro-lesson that no YouTube tutorial could teach.

🔥 My Takeaway: Contribution > Perfection

When you contribute to open source, nobody expects you to be perfect.

They expect you to show up, communicate, and care about what you’re building.

And that’s what Hacktoberfest truly is — not just a challenge,

but a reminder that every developer has something valuable to give.

🌈 A New Perspective

Before Hacktoberfest:

“I’m learning to code.”

After Hacktoberfest:

“I’m helping the community grow.”

That’s a big mindset upgrade — and it’s the one I’m carrying forward into every project now.

✨ My Advice for Future First-Timers

If you’re planning to join next year:

  • Start with good first issues — they’re gold for beginners.
  • Don’t chase fancy repos; pick something you understand and enjoy.
  • Read the README. Twice.
  • Talk to maintainers — they’re nicer than you think.
  • And yes, celebrate every small contribution. 💪

💬 Final Reflection

Hacktoberfest didn’t just give me a badge.

It gave me confidence, clarity, and connection.

It reminded me why we all started coding in the first place —

to create, to share, and to make something that outlives us.

👨‍💻 Author

Tanvir Mulla

DevOps Enthusiast | AWS Learner | Open Source Explorer

💼 GitHub: @tanvirmulla11

💬 DEV: @tanvirmulla

⭐ Thanks for reading! See you in Hacktoberfest 2026 — with even bigger pull requests and smaller fears.

Hacktoberfest

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