First week at Outreachy

Hi, I’m Aryan Godara, an intern at Outreachy in Summer’23. And I’m working on the MIDI over Ethernet project for OCaml. This is my first exposure to functional programming, having worked with mainly, C/C++, Python, Golang, Rust, etc. in the past. All have an emphasis on Imperative or Object-Oriented Programming.

So, I’m taking this as a fun challenge to dive into a completely new domain.
This is the top reason as to why I picked this project to work on this year, out of all the other, equally amazing projects offered by Outreachy.
Plus the stipend and the chance to work on unikernels, ethernet, MIDI, and all these new concepts and protocols and technology I’m getting exposed to every day.

I’ve been blessed with amazing mentors who are always ready to help, even taking time to hold one-on-one meets with me whenever I get stuck.

Now, coming to the prompt for this blog; My core values are growth, humor, and meaningful work.

Growth is extremely important to me, as I want to achieve huge success in life, both monetarily, and by living a balanced and fun life, where I look back and see an adventurous trail of things I did with my life. I don’t want to grow old without living up to my potential, and without exploring this amazing vast world. And for that, I need money, and that requires skills. And when I learned I can earn while spending time on my favorite things in the world, “computers” I was super happy, to say the least. And have since devoted all my extra time after class, (and other stuff) to learning how to code, and contributing to open-source.

The second is humor. Now, what is life without wit? Bland and boring! And it’s what makes all the hardships in life worth it when you sit together with your friends and have a good laugh about both your successes and failures, giving you strength to get back in and persevere towards your goals.

And lastly, meaningful work. I want to leave an impact on the world before I die. But before doing that, I must make sure that I’m doing right by my colleagues and mentors. And so, I must give in my very best, to the work that I do, and be a meaningful asset to my team and/or employer.

This marks the end of my very first blog. So, stay tuned in to get more regular content. And follow closely as I dive into the technical challenges I ran into at work, and how I overcame them; by providing you with a detailed guide.