Everybody Struggles
“Nothing worth having comes easy” ✨✨
Do you ever feel like you are not ready for something right now? But maybe, later on, it will work for you? It was exactly my situation before applying to Outreachy.
I was working as a Technical Content Engineer and it did not involve much programming. So, I constantly felt like my coding practice and skills were not enough to apply to Outreachy this time. I thought I should brush up on my coding skills and try in the next cohort.
Then I asked myself,
What if I feel the same next time as well?
And the answer was,
There is no perfect time when you will feel ready. You just need to trust yourself and dive into it.
And it turned out all right Alhamdulillah(Thank God).
So, yeah, just believe in yourself. It will be an exciting, terrifying, and confusing period but you’ll do great. You’ll learn new things and start gaining confidence gradually. And when it’s all gone, you will look back and thank your old self ✨🍀.
One thing I realized about myself was that I was only afraid of things as long as I had not touched them. I was capable of doing everything I haven’t tried before. Yeah, sometimes it took me more time than others to do the same task. But it was my persistence that kept me one step ahead of others.
My journey towards Outreachy 🚗
The journey of the application period was a rollercoaster of emotions. The notion of “what’s gonna happen next” kept bothering me. But I think that’s the beauty of achievement, you struggle hard for it and then wait anxiously for the outcomes.
I had a competition going on with myself, I always felt like I am not giving my 100% but I continuously kept on working. For Outreachy, I think perseverance is paramount. There are a lot of other contributors in every project. You have to be active, persistent, and act smartly. From my experience, smart work is more essential than hard work in Outreachy.
My Project
Choosing the project you like will not only reduce the mental pressure but also increase your productivity level.
The first project I chose was OpenFoodFacts and it proved lucky for me. The mentor was super kind and supportive. One thing I learned during Outreachy is that “no question is a stupid question”.
Contribution Period
These 5 weeks were full of ups and downs. I always felt like my code is not good enough, how is it gonna get merged? Every time I got stuck, I started questioning my abilities.
You know what they call this behavior…..Imposter syndrome.
However, there were so many points I was able to fix the bug without any help. I was over the moon every time my PR got merged. I remember, working on a complex PR. I planned to finish it in 4 days but it took me almost 1.5 weeks. These 1.5 weeks were tough but I learned so many new things and debugged the code several times. Then I realized that it was supposed to take this much time. So, yeah just keep swimming ✨🌟✨
Result Day
I started cleaning my room to keep myself busy and distracted an hour before the result time. After 20 mins, I got the first congratulations text. I checked the Outreachy website and slack channel. A kind congratulations text from my mentor was waiting there for me 😇.
Now it’s been 3 weeks since my internship started. I still get stuck at many points and still feel like I am not giving my 100% but now I know one thing that I got this 💪.
