Week of January 27th, 2020 - February 2nd, 2020

This is the first week of classes for the Spring 2020 semester. To be honest, prior to the start of the semester, I felt extremely exhausted. I was simply not ready to start the semester. But now, I feel pretty good about everything. I now feel a lot better than I was before. Let me explain why:

For one thing, I think the two class sessions I took this week for my Open-Source Software Development Class (OSSD) have gotten me pretty excited. This is because learning about the history behind Open Source Software was quite interesting. Prior to the class, I thought open source contributions were fascinating, and I was a full supporter of open source software and contributions. But now that I have learned more about what it really is, and what it really means, I am still a full supporter, but on a whole new level of “support”. It reminded me about why I chose to take this class. So, why did I choose to take this class? Well, there are a couple of reasons why. For one thing, I asked my friends (who have taken this class last semester), “What elective should I take?”, and 2 of them responded: “Take Open Source”. They are really smart people, and I trust them. For another thing, I am truly interested in the concept of Open Source Software. I think it’s amazing to have the freedom to contribute to any repository, either big or small. My dream is to be a software engineer one day, and what I mainly want to do in my career in the future is to exert impact on whatever project I’m working on. I want to create software that has an impact on society, or even an impact at all. Last year, my friend told me that he contributed to an open source Tetris Game, which I thought was really cool! That inspired me to participate in Hacktoberfest the following months, because I wanted to contribute to someone’s work and help! This is why I wanted to take OSSD, thanks for reading!

~ Jessica Wong