It's the end of the semester. While I'm still working on a couple of issues for the Hurl project, I think it's a good time to not only look back on my work this month, but also my experience with the open source development course throughout this semester:
❄️ December Recap
It's been such a good time working on Hurl. For one, I finally got to get my hands on a real Rust project. Also, working with a fantastic maintainer such as @jcamiel has been incredibly motivating. My interactions with them have been inspiring and rewarding in and of itself. I found myself willingly putting more efforts into research and problem-solving. I felt much more comfortable asking for clarifications, and more confident proposing solutions.
🖥️ Technologies I Learned
It's honestly been the most productive 4 months I've ever had! I went from a open source "consumer" to a contributor, from a self-taught Rust novice to... let's say an apprentice. Here's a list of technologies I came in touch with:
- Rust 🦀
- TypeScript
- Go
- Django
- GNOME JavaScript (GJS)
- GTK / GLib
- React Native
- WatermelonDB
- Android SDK / Emulator
- libcurl
- ...
🛠️ Knowledge vs Applying it
Something I felt throughout the past 2 years in college was that, I learned a crazy amount of stuff from school, but somehow I had no clue how to start on coding in real life. It's almost like there's a gap in between the knowledge and the application.
Working in open source for me has been the perfect building block to fill in that gap. Looking back, I don't think there's much skills to learn to covert that knowledge into application, but that first-hand experience was absolutely crucial.
❤️🩹 Personal Growth
It might not sound like a lot, but finally being able to put myself out there and do the things I'm passionate about was a huge step forward.
In the past, I spent a lot of time working on solo projects. Whether it being a Nextcloud server stack, or a fresh install of Arch Linux, I only went as far as where the documentations took me. I was too afraid to ask questions or even report an issue.
I know I have a passionate and curious mind, but it's often drowned out by an overwhelming amount of anxiety. Ironically, in most cases, all I really need is a simple nudge to get me started. Then I'll realize things are nowhere nearly as scary as I've feared. This was no exception.
This course has been so much fun that I found it totally worth it to constantly push myself out of my comfort zone. I actively reached out to strangers and ask for contributions. I worked closely with other people from the class and even hopped on calls with them (a significant achievement for me 😆)! I attended the 8 am Friday session every single week to share my progress and thoughts - something that would scare me away from week 1 if it were for a different course.
👬 Friends Along the Way
It's hard to meet people or make friends in college in this post-pandemic world. Most classes have become online and for the in-person sessions, people just show up for the work and leave when they're done.
In this course, Not only did I have the honor to work with the best professor I've ever had (Shout out to professor Dave(@humphd)! You are a real gem 🙏!), I also get to meet some of the best classmates. Their passion and insights throughout the semester have been a great source of inspiration!
I'm also happy to say that I made a really good friend! I met Amir early in the class when we worked on each other's project (I would never forget how you learned Rust from scratch just to work on my project 😆). From then we just instantly clicked. We connected a lot in and out of class, and now we're thinking about starting a project together, which I'm very excited about!
📗 Conclusion
It's been an incredible 4 months! But just as the professor said, this is only the beginning of our open source journey - and I couldn't have asked for a better way to start. Also, next semester I'm coming back for a different open source course. Who knows what lies ahead?
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