Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been passionate about computers and all sorts of tech stuff.
I also loved drawing and I still do. Back then, I would actively participate in drawing events and competitions. Thanks to my dad for always pushing me towards what I liked.
When I was around 13–14, my dad bought me my very first computer. I used to do drawings,paintings, origami and now ricing my arch linux.
Then I found out about Inkscape and GIMP. I already knew Adobe apps were paid, so these free tools felt like a treasure. I loved the communities and forums around them, so I stuck with Inkscape.
I followed tutorials, practiced them, and learned most of the basic tools.
My First Step Into Open Source
When I joined college, I came to know about the FOSSEE Summer Fellowship by IIT Bombay. I applied for a graphic design role, got shortlisted. Working with fellows from different states was a fun and great experience.
First Gig
A few days after the fellowship, I started creating gigs and doing some free work to gain knowledge for my freelance profile.
I applied for countless jobs on Upwork literally ran out of connects. I had to wait another month just to get 10 free connects.
To my surprise, someone actually saw my very first proposal. I was on top of the world! Since it was my first client, I bid very low to gain trust and it worked.
He put money into escrow, and I started working carefully, listening to everything he said. When I delivered, he actually loved it and gave me a great rating along with a nice review.
And then completely unexpectedly he sent me a bonus . That was such a great moment for me.
Thanks Open Source. Thanks Inkscape. Thanks Logos by Nick.I used to pray for time like these🙏.
My First Pull Request
Around this time, I was following **cal.com** (a scheduling platform). I was reading their codebase and docs to learn more about them.
I spotted some typos, restructured their docs a bit, and submitted a pull request. It got successfully merged — marking my first ever PR.Again it a small thing but I’m proud of it, and I’m looking forward to contributing more.
What lies ahead
I’m actually writing this on my birthday and I can’t wait to see what i will be one year apart from now.
Until then: The grind never stops.