Three Things I Learned In Randa

   I had gone to Randa last week for my very first sprint, Randa is more than 4000 miles far away from Mumbai airport , it took me almost 16 hours to reach there and back but in the end I could say the experience was worth all the travel and few misgivings , I had lots of fun in Randa, I talked to lots of cool people , ate lots of different food, coded a bit as well, but more importantly I learned lot of things and I would like to share three important things I learned it Randa.

1. I am and always be a noob

  The sprint at Randa made me realize how little I know about coding, how what I learned at college is actually implemented, and in the end it made me realize that I am still a noob but I don’t really see that as a bad thing, I mean there is always much to learn and to be honest understanding, asking questions (even if they are stupid), making (very) silly mistakes are all parts that make life exciting, I am happy that I am still a noob as it fills the life with a sense of excitement , though sometimes it does bother me a little but in all I hope I always be a noob so I can keep learning new things be it programming or any other thing for that matter.

On a side note, knowing me I am sure I annoyed lots people during the sprint sorry I didn’t mean to but it’s all right, that’s part of life too. Your not perfect but you gotta lot to give along the way.

2. Help is always there

  The 2^nd thing I learned is that the help is always there, in my time at Randa I realized that I was never truly alone that any of the problem I might have could be solved by simply asking for help. Whenever I had reached out my hand at Randa someone was always there to hold it and this was something I had never seen. I guess this is what being in a community is all about that when you need something, someone is always out there to help you, you just need to reach out for it and if you can do that you are never alone.

3. Trust

 

Finally the most important thing I learned at Randa was to trust people again. Trust is something we all have lost at some point of life, but events in Randa and even before the sprint began made me realize that there is still something called ‘trust’ in this world, how else could you explain , when someone vouches for you, and even readily agrees to pay 30,000 Euro fine if something goes wrong when you have never met that person in real life, or how about giving a developer account with which you can modify any projects in the entire organization, or allowing a person to stay at your house whom you just met few days ago when your even not there I could keep going on and on these events made me believe that people still trust each other in this world which is rare sight to see.

  When you make a person feel that you trust him and that you believe in him is sometimes enough for that person to do his best and when people trust each other and work together on a common goal miracles are bound to happen and I truly believe that the entire KDE, no maybe the entire FOSS community is filled with such miracles and i just feel lucky to be part of such community.

In the end I would like to borrow a line from Shawshank Redemption

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

So I hope that I can get such opportunities in the future, I hope I can keep meeting such wonderful people, and lastly I hope I can keep learning new things forever 🙂