I still remember the day of November 22nd, it was an ordinary day for most but that day I received an email that became the reason why I'm writing this blog. I was an absolute newbie designer who was trying to learn and just get any opportunity to work and improve her skills. However, my journey so far has been rewarding doing something that I truly love, and growing each day. I remembered a quote that I felt related to me the most at that moment :

"However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at" - Stephen Hawking

Background :

I am an electronics engineer turned self-taught designer, who recently started this journey as a UX/UI designer in the last 6 months. At that time I was never aware of the open source community nor of outreachy. It was a long but enlightening journey till now, during this course I got to learn a lot about myself and my core values.

Core values

I like to call it the 3C's of my life

Curiosity

I strongly believe no knowledge is wasted, and there is no end to knowledge. Whether it be curious about the history of the world or the wonders of space or the diversity of nature, curiosity has always been a part of my identity. This has led me to many great places including discovering the open-source community.

Creativity

I've always considered myself to be a creative individual. I have tons of ideas and one day would love to explore each of those.

Compassion

If there's something I've learned being in the UX industry for the small amount of time I've been, that's compassion for the users and since then I've always made sure to look out for it, purely because I love to see people experiencing the happy paths. This has also motivated me to try harder to make that smile possible to s larger audience.

What motivated me for outreachy ?

One of the reasons I applied for outreachy was because of my curiosity towards the open source community. I've only heard of people coding their summers away contributing to open source, but to be very honest I was quite intimidated as I come from a non-coding background. I thought I could never get into open source as a designer, but through past outreachy participants, I got to know many amazing designers who successfully contributed to this community. This gave me hope and ultimately made my dream of becoming an open-source designer come true.

Why Fedora?

Even after getting selected through the first round, I was confused about what projects to choose and what not. I was advised to choose and contribute to max 3 projects and I did choose 3 but ultimately I decided to give my best on only my 1st preference - the fedora as I fell in love with the immense support and help from the community. I could genuinely see myself grow from the interactions of the community. The growth I experienced during the one-month contribution period made up for all the sleepless nights I spent researching, sketching, and contributing.

I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity from outreachy and fedora, I can't wait to see how my journey unfolds. Thanks for reading, hope you have a wonderful day ahead.

Love,

Tanu