The final hour is quickly approaching, with one enemy left. Release 0.4, the final assignment in my Open Source Development class. It’s the big boy. We’re to add a feature to any project of our choosing, and this feature cannot be a simple translation or minor bug fix. Let us proceed.

When I started programming about 2 years ago, I immediately felt enamored with C/C++. The flow, the structure, the control, the headaches, the pain, the disapp- but when I self-taught myself Python in between semesters I really started to enjoy the more high level, dynamically typed languages. Maybe JavaScript and web programming wasn’t so bad. Confusing and kind of a mess, but not so bad. Structure exists in there, you just need the right eyes to discern it.

At any rate, my JavaScript/TypeScript are my weakest aspects as a developer, thus I’d like to improve them. It’s for that reason that I’d like to return to Telescope and assist with the migration of Gatsby to Next. So far I’ve assigned myself two issues related to this, and ideally I’ll do more before the end of the semester (I can’t believe November is already over) but my Data Structures and Algorithms class is starting to really worry me (along with my 5 other classes, but this more than those.) Fascinating course, but terrifying.

It will be fun to challenge myself yet again and dive into a pretty decently sized project. My TypeScript is even worse than my JavaScript so we’ll see how that goes, but I’m starting to really dig web development, so I think the challenge will be a lot of fun.

And that’s the plan, and with a bit of luck (and lots of planning), hopefully the pieces will naturally fall into place.

So many times in college I’ve questioned why I’m here, how I got here, and where I’m heading. Are you really growing if you’re not the dumbest person in the room? Can you really increasing your bipedal plumage if you’re not consistently (and adequately) challenged? Intimidation is a non-issue when contrasted next to bravery when moving forward. Git push yourself.

Melodramatic, I know, but I’ve come to the realization that this course is not about programming; that’s secondary. OSD600 is primarily about your growth as a developer, and thus your growth as a person.

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave…. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas Toronto and look West, and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: Super interesting post here.