A little about me
“– Peter Senge. As we grow up, all of us have different aspirations in life. It starts due to the different inspirations that we see around us and the various experiences that we have as life proceeds.”
I’m Sandra and I’m a web developer from Nigeria. I never dreamed of becoming a great programmer for a career, I actually never thought I'd be coding, it just sort of happened. I started learning how to code around January 2022 and it’s been a lot of mixed feelings. As you probably know, I’m still a newbie at this point(at least I consider myself one) so I do have a whole lot to learn. Some words of advice I’ll probably give to a newbie like me would be, “stay motivated, don’t lose yourself, enjoy the process and take your time”.
My core values
Discipline “We all have dreams but in order to make our dreams a reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self discipline and effort”. A lot comes to mind when I hear the word “discipline”. For me, it emcompasses principles and self-respect. I believe discipline makes most people stand out from the crowd. A disciplined person stands by his/her/their word and conscience and I think it’s worth respecting when people do such. In the journey of achieving your dream, discipline is the key!
Honesty I’m proud to say honesty is my watch word. I stand and live by the truth and I believe the world will be a much better place if more people could be honest.
Perseverance One thing I’d never stop doing is being positive and hoping for the best. We go through challenges, we fail, hit blockers. But amidst these challenges, I believe it’s important to know you have to get up and keep going. Life’s not a bed of roses, things won’t always be perfect, however , perseverance is another secret to achieving dreams!
My motivation for outreachy
So I first heard about outreachy from a friend who happens to be a past intern. I did my research and when I got to know more about it, I was so proud of my friend. That alone was a huge motivation for me. I was months into learning how to code. My first fear about applying for outreachy was that I wasn’t ready. But I saw from the website that anyone could apply no matter your skill level, that was a huge encouragement.
Outreachy provides internships in open source for people subject to systemic bias and are underrepresented in the technical industry. I fell in love with their values which sort to give underrepresented people a place in the technical industry. I had hoped that by December 2022 which was the next round, I’ll be ready to apply. Matter of fact, I was going to apply ready or not. I got accepted to Outreachy and it was one of the happiest moments of my life! For me, it was a huge boost to keep going in my tech journey no matter how challenging. I was going to be interning for Debian, an Operating System under linux distribution, how cool! The journey has been great, lots of learning. But I’m forever grateful to my mentors, Pirate Praveen and Daniel Kahn Gillmor who are very supportive and willing to help every step of the way.
To the one reading this, never stop believing and never stop working hard. It’s never too late to start something new . Think about it this way, if you don’t start, years will pass you by and you’ll look back and wish you started. So don’t be afraid to take that first step, It’ll all make sense one day.