31 thoughts I had while attending my first #RubyConf as an Opportunity Scholar
I am a full stack web development student @ Ada Developers Academy in Seattle. I applied to attend RubyConf 2017 as an Opportunity Scholar (more info here). Below are some thoughts I had during my 3 days in New Orleans.
Day 1:
1. Woah, I’m scared. Do I deserve to be here? I do not know ANYONE here.
#impostersyndrome #fakeittillyoumakeit
2. OMG, There is a line in the women’s bathroom!! This is a GOOD sign.
3. Matz says: “Ruby is nice so we are nice.” What a beautiful tagline. How incredible that Ruby was designed specifically to bring joy and happiness to its users? Thanks, @yukihiro_matz :)
4. Holy smokes @railsCAMP is a thing? I. am. in.
5. @ElieenCodes taught me how to identify open source projects to get involved in. This seems important. I’m declaring now to the internet that I am going to try my best and get involved.
6. Building off of that idea, @_jnf reminded me that using code for good is a beautiful, important, and tangible thing. I wept during his talk, but I am so glad I attended. After being a high school English teacher for so many years I struggle with the fact that I may end up at a company that does not necessarily contribute to the social good…
“Not everything needs to be a product… use tech for good. Soothe problems for the ppl you love.” — Jeremy Flores
Not all products directly correlate to making the world a better place and I get that. But I do know that when I search for projects to get involved in in the future, they absolutely will be those that I believe in.
7. Wow, developers LOVE stickers.
8. Damn, New Orleanian food smells amazing. Let’s create smellovision app to sync up TVs with odor tech.
9. My guide @JessRudder is such a badass. This opportunity scholar/guide program is pretty incredible. Support, genuine kindness, and mentorship. We shared our stories with one another while eating delicious food or exploring the city together. Plus, sitting in the front row next to Sandi and Matz is pretty fricken amazing.
10. oOoOOoo! @RubyForGood seems really fantastic. TODO: learn more about this event.
11. A developer evangelist and/or advocate sounds like a really cool job. #goals
12. This community can only be described as amazing.
13. Where does everyone put their stickers?
14. Hearing Matz preview Ruby 3 is pretty darn exciting. It’s fun to learn what direction he and the core team sees the language moving in the future. #insidescoop! I’m sure a bunch of the stuff, like real keyword arguments and concurrency, will be really cool, but I think I’m too green to reaaallly understand those features. I do however understand that backward stack traces will be pretty great!
15. Networking tip received: hold your drink in your left hand so your right hand is free to shake! And always accept an offered sticker.
16. My running list of unknown terms to Google back in my hotel room is growing really really long.
17. Capstone project advice received: make it unique and quirky. Could help companies remember you and your project.
17. Everyone that worked on Apollo 11’s guides computer had no formal training? How rad is that? OMG and the original launch code is on Github? Fun. Thanks @nateberkopec
18. People here seem really receptive to nontraditional paths to tech. No one seems to be judging me for not having a CS degree. In fact, people seem to be celebrating my prior life experience. I’m beginning to actually believe it when people say that it will help diversify the tech scene and be an asset to the community. 😊😊😊😊
19. Sooo apparently you can code music. @samaaron used a @Sonic_Pi and live coded / DJ’d the @digitalocean party. My mind was blown. Not only was it epic and technically interesting, it sounded great and was fun to dance to!
20. @ChadFowler encouraged us to rethink the connotation of the term legacy… Wouldn’t it be pretty epic if Ruby was responsible for creating a “sustainable legacy”?
Day 2:
21. Woah, I’m making friends! I’m learning so much… This is pretty fun!
22. It’s the community. The open source team, the core, the people.
25. Life is short. Code will decay and betray you. Projects will die. People will die. So make the most of it while you’re here.
23. Might the sticker obsession be connected to @AndyCroll’s theory that everyone is a toddler? Feeling as though I should pull out my old sticker book collection from elementary school.
24. I can’t stop thinking about the tweet @AndyCroll referenced:
@KyFaSt “Like most of you, I will be an average engineer. My legacy won’t be my code. It will be the names I lift up.”
Mentorship, collaboration, support, teamwork, and allyship is essential in this field and in life.
25. If they don’t experience failure, a team becomes rigid, in fear of it. @JessRudder reminded us all to learn from and embrace our failures.
26. More career advice received: find jobs that will fill gaps in my career. A generalist who is well rounded will go far.
Day 3:
26. Hungover and headache. But #rubykaraoke was worth it. So was the piano bar where the original Sazerac was poured at 1 in the morning.
27. Holy smokes, I really like all of my new friends. I have to come again next year to see them all again!
28. Gosh, I fangirled hard when I met @SandiMetz. I asked her to sign my copy of POODR. She is brilliant. And humble. Her keynote gave me all of the feels and when she said, “You are good enough,” I really believed her. All of her photos rocked by the way. Inclusive and representative. 🙌🏾
29. Sandi’s stickers are pretty great.
29. @tenderlove’s talk encouraged me to question the assumptions I make when someone tells me something is impossible. Challenge accepted.
30. The sense of glee he demonstrated when he made Matz laugh while telling his hilarious story about the time his tweet went viral in Japan was seriously beautiful.
31. Maybe one day I could give a talk at RubyConf? Maybe I could try at a smaller scale at one of our local meetups to build up my skills and confidence.
And that’s a wrap. As I fly back home after what could only be described as a whirlwind of three days, I’m feeling all of the feels. That was quite literally so much more fun than I expected it to be.
So I thought I would jot down some advice to future Opportunity Scholars or #RubyConf first timers.
- Everyone should apply to be an Opportunity Scholar. Seriously. If you are new to the industry, a bootcamp student, a hobbyist, or even just slightly interested in ruby, you should do it. As of right now in my tech life/career, Ruby is all I know. And I feel so god damn lucky and happy that Ada chose to teach us this language first in their curriculum. I don’t identify as a strong coder yet but it didn’t stop me from having an amazing experience.
- If you attend alone, know that you will survive and be okay. Everyone I introduced myself to was kind, asked questions, and was curious to hear my story. In fact, I am glad to have had the opportunity to go alone, despite how terrifying it felt at first. Yes, it is vulnerable making but it genuinely pushed me out of my comfort zone and each time I introduced myself to a stranger it got less and less nerve racking.
- Ask for introductions from the friends you do make. My friend @_havenn introduced me to @indirect and I am so excited to begin contributing to Ruby Together because of that moment of allyship and friendship.
- Ask your guide and/or new friends what talks they suggest. It’s hard to judge for yourself which ones will be accessible to newbies and which will be too technical.
- That being said, try to attend at least one talk that feels overwhelming, intimidating, or too techy for you. I attended a session on building a compact garbage collector and although a lot of it was over my head and my list of unfamiliar jargon to Google seriously doubled in such a short amount of time, but I now have a basic understanding of the subject! I have notes that I’ll be able to return back to in the years to come once I have a deeper knowledge on the topic. I won’t cower in fear of stupidity if the subject is mentioned at a meetup or in an interview. I can now hang in a conversation, not fluidly, mind you, but sorta kinda of 🤓
- If you can and it sounds to you, run the 5k! It was a great way to see the city from a different vantage point and was a great opportunity to informally network/expand my circle of new friends. Thanks for being my running buddy, @jeff_sacks
My retrospective:
I walked into this experience with zero expectations. I had never met anyone who had attended the conference before. Even after receiving the scholarship to cover the cost of my hotel, airfare, and the conference itself I was hesitant to attend. I was terrified of missing three days worth of curriculum @ Ada. Bootcamp life is hectic enough and three days can sometimes contain what feels like three weeks worth of knowledge and information. Even today, I missed an intro lesson on JavaScript on the browser and JQuery and literally thinking about that right now is causing me to break into a nervous sweat as I quite literally have no idea what JQuery is or does. 😳
But I can catch up on my school work and I will. I wouldn’t change a thing. This conference was so incredibly worth it. I learned about sweet gems, cool projects, and job opportunities. But more importantly, I met SO MANY totally epic and amazing individuals that even after only three short days I happily now consider friends. I cannot wait to follow their coding lives and journeys in the years to come. I am confident that so many of them are going to do great and groundbreaking things. Plus, I cannot WAIT for my next RubyConf.
Thank you again to @jessrudder, @stephanieblack, @_havenn, @thejonanshow, @geeksam, @jeff_sacks, @zspenser, @jtu, @betsythemuffin, @rabbiGreenberg, @EventsDoctor, @CodeAndData, @valeriecodes, @rkofman, @sarahmei, @chloecondon, and Ali, Yuna, Katy for making me feel like I belong in this community. Each of you demonstrated what advocacy, allyship, and friendship look and feels like. Thank you @aphoenix, @allie_p, and @KinseyAnnDurham for organizing the Opportunity Scholar program. Your work is invaluable and I am beyond appreciative of all that you do.
