" You can only connect the dots looking backward, so sometimes you've just gotta trust yourself and keep doing what you do "
Steve Jobs
What do I mean by connecting the dots?
It's more of a 'term' for denoting how far a person came from their initial starting when they knew less and were overwhelmed by so much awesome stuff around - a long way, learning, contributing, failing, and still growing more and more as the days pass. It is a journey every individual is a part of though very few look back and realize how much they have grown, how their hard work and decisions in the past made up for opportunities in the present.
How do I make decisions?
Honestly, there are no perfect decisions ever. Most of the time you need to put all your trust and belief into a decision you made/ going to make and move forward with it. It will sometimes work out, sometimes it really won't - in that case, you'll have to work hard again and get through it!
I believe decisions should be made only when you want to dive into it and when you are sure you can work it out in case something goes wrong. Making a decision can affect a lot around you, so work smart. It's all up to you.
So, did my dots connect?
Maybe it did, maybe it will do later. I'm never sure where life takes me, I keep doing what I do the best, if not now maybe sometime later it surely will make sense. Despite that, why not share my journey - maybe I'll figure it out that way if my decisions made sense at all.
Gamer to Competitive coder
Not that big, but I used to play games all day. CSGO, Call of duty, Assassins Creed, GTA, Among Us, PUBG, and the list goes on. This was the whole my 2019 and it went on for a few months in 2020 too. Everyone was stuck in their houses because of pandemics, and folks being productive meanwhile I was wasting the whole 24 hours playing games. But things did change, fortunately, one fine day in a group chat I saw two of my friends talking about Codechef - a coding platform. I was bored of games anyways, I jumped in. I started with DSA, using C++, and got into competitive coding. That was the start of my coding!
And then I left coding
Competitive coding bored me. Like as a beginner, it was frustrating that I needed to think this far on. So many different logics and approaches - all messed up in my brain. Moreover, I was having TLE ( time limit exceeded ), in most of the competitions, I tried fixing it up but it was not working out well for me TBH. So I kind of abandoned it after like 3-4 months of struggle. What next? I heard about GitHub, and that was one turning point for me.
I started Developing websites
I got into Git, and GitHub - made an account there and as I was exploring I saw projects. Some were websites, some were android apps and whatnot. I knew so less, yet I fell in love with it. I decided to go with Web, watched basics from udemy, youtube, started watching videos, and struggled a bit but awesome folks around helped me too. Building projects were super fun! That led me to another world - the world of Opensource where there are many other awesome projects made up of different tech stacks throughout and I enjoy contributing and collaborating !
Looking back today, do the dots connect ?
I would say some of them does. Looking at the present, I get to be a mentor and judge in so many Opensource events happening around. I get paid, to code, to help other folks around the world make a web app for their own need. I get to work as a software engineer in startups helping them and the community too! Also, I have my Opensource project called Milan which has over 40 contributors from all over India and more than 100 contributions in recent months. So I would pretty much say, diving into the world of Opensource and being a full-stack web developer with a little bit of wit mixed with hard work, patience, struggle, and learning - it's all working out pretty well.
A long blog, ain't it ?
Definitely, a long article to read, though this was me stating my journey and trying to add a little bit of motivation for the folks who work hard all the time - it's just the fact that sometimes you need to believe in yourself and the decisions you make. Life is unpredictable, it might take you to places that you won't imagine. So don't be afraid to make decisions, you live only once.
Thank you for reading through, if you have reached the end, you have my respect! You can follow me on Twitter, I generally talk about Opensource, Hackathons, and more. Bye, have a great day !
