2021 Wrapped

2021 was a different year. This year I was able to do more than last year and I’m happy for this year because this year I was introduced to many Communities and New Opportunities. Class 11, that was the first time when I started to Code. Since then I wished to be among people who are passionate about Tech. Even after coming to college, I wanted to be part of a Programming Club, but my college doesn’t have any. In 2020 January, I attended an event called TinkerDay from Cyberpark, Kozhikode, where I was introduced to TinkerHub, a Tech Learning Community with a great vision and Its Co-Founder Moosa Mehar, who become a motivation in my life to do many things. Mostly I used his words to keep my juniors motivated.

In 2020 July, My friends and I Co-Founded a Tech Community in College called Techsias. It wasn’t much active then. During December 2020 we restarted the community with much more passionate and motivated students of our college. 2021 March, Everything changed when TinkerHub SIAS Campus Chapter was introduced. I formed it with some cool Juniors of mine, Naswih, Afna, Khadeeja and Sreelakshmi. This Campus Chapter brought us to a greater network of Students, Working Professionals and Tinkerers(ഞങ്ങടെ ഭാഷയിൽ പറഞ്ഞാൽ, കൊറച്ചു നല്ല അടിപൊളി മനുഷ്യന്മാർ), which led our students to learn and do more cool things, which even helped Techsias to grow further, becoming the only student-run community in our college.

For me, TinkerHub was a huge thing, a place where I wished to be. A place with many crazy students like me. I networked with many students across Kerala. It was so cool that I forgot I was an introvert(LOL). There is a story behind it. ‘Ananthan was the Campus Community Manager then and I need to talk to him about how we can start a community and everything else related, so before sending him anything I would send a small short voice to my Senior Aquibe to know if everything is right, or is there anything I’ve missed. If He says it’s ok I share it with Ananthan.’ Now, when I’m looking backwards I notice that big change the Community had brought me.

During this time I met with Vinu Balagopalan, he’s an awesome guy. He was the reason how I reached Pygrammers. It was during April, he told me that there is a networking meetup at Cyberpark. I went then I was able to meet Shaheen Hyder, who became a Python mentor for me, and many others. I’m mainly focusing on Social Media handling and Community Outreach here at Pygrammers.

In May, I got to know about TinkerHub Foundation is inviting Interns. I wasn’t applying for it, because I thought I wasn’t qualified enough for that, but Ananthan made me apply for it. Then after several rounds of form submissions, essays, videos and interviews, I was hired as Campus Community Manager Intern with the other two, Iqbal and Sarayu in June 2021.

This December is my last month as an Intern. looking back to these 6 months, I believe I’ve contributed something to others. I was able to motivate some about the opportunities these communities bring. I was able to organize some events with the wonderful team of Fellows and Interns at TinkerHub Foundation. While Attending TinkerDay from Cyberpark in 2020, I never knew I’ll be part of TinkerDay Organizers for TinkerDay4.0. Connected with many Working Professionals, Student Developers and more. Last but not least, I got a family this year, from different parts of Kerala, with different skills, from Coders to Designers and more.

This year was all good when I look at my Soft Skills. But when I look at my Hard Skills, I’m disappointed with myself. Because I still couldn’t learn something completely, I don’t have a project to showcase, which I believe is a red mark of this year. If you look at my GitHub you can see tonnes of commits. But nothing for a project. I learn something then practice it a lot, leave it for some weeks, come back to it again then try something and fail again goes back to the beginning with a tutorial. This endless loop is a pain(Tutorial Hell, yes it is).

I know a little bit of Android, a little bit of Django, and Now I’m Learning iOS App Development. I’m just a Jack of all trades and master of none. But I believe I’ll somehow figure out everything, in time. But all this was learned in this year itself, which is more than the last year. So this year wasn’t a complete disappointment in terms of my technical skills right?! Because I grew. from 0 to 0.001😅

I read this somewhere, “Write down what you are now and read it after some years, you’ll know how much you grow”. I’m looking forward to 2022. I don’t know what future awaits me. But looking backward I clearly understand, why this timeline is more important than what I’ve wished for. (And I don’t want to make a ‘Nexus Event’ though😅)

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. — Steve Jobs

Thanks to everyone…. #snehamMathram💙