 Hello everyone, so I'm Alesha. So today I'll be talking about my journey with Fedora on this great occasion of Fedora Women's Day 25. So let's jump right in. So in my presentation today, I'll be sharing that how I became involved with Fedora, how and what I contributed to in Fedora, what challenges did I face, my takeaways and a wrap. So let's begin. My journey with Fedora actually started two years back. Now I was in my fourth semester when I was in late. I had to do some internship work for after fourth semester in the summer. So actually my college, which is College of Engineering and Technology, which is in Malaysia or Desar, is not quite supportive at all. They don't allow an official internship from college. So we had to look for work from home options. I had very less options at that time. So I was figuring out where I should apply like back then. I got introduced to outreachy Google summer of code. Then one of my seniors actually jumped in and asked me that I should contribute and work in outreachy because the year back then she actually got an internship at outreachy and she gave me some tips and tricks that I should work to get that prestigious internship. So I worked hard and got into outreachy. So my college was not so supportive at all. Then I jumped into outreachy. Now there are a lot of options available at that point of time. We had a lot many organizations and it was a chaotic moment for me because when there are a lot of options available, you're not sure which options you should go for, which one is the best option. Talking to a different organization, one of my other seniors actually suggested that I should work in Fedora. So I started seeing different projects that were available at that point of time. And also along with Fedora, I looked into other organizations like Mozilla. But at that time my college was pretty strict. We had like 75% of attendance and with the bare minimum percentage of attendance that I had to have at that time, along with hustling back and then from college to school, it was very tedious for me to consistently code and contribute to different projects for the initial application. So I took a moment back and I thought that instead of working in a different organization, maybe it's time I should stick with one. I have been working on different issues in different organizations, but at that time I got great feedback from mentors from Fedora. And also they were quite supportive and the feedback was quite fast. So I thought, why not give it a try to Fedora? And also I have so many familiar acquaintances that could help me out with the entire process. That's when I got introduced to Fedora. Now this is the journey that I came across where I got introduced to Fedora. Now let's begin that. What are the steps that I did during my entire journey? Now what are the things that I contributed? Now of course I told you that my journey actually officially started from outreach. The project that I was working into was Fedora Happiness Packet, which was a very close project, like close to my heart project. Because the aim, what are the objectives of the project is what I have believed since my childhood. I have always been supportive of others. I like to push back people to be the best version of themselves. So the total idea was like it was meant for me. But before I jump right into the total scenario, let me share a small story. So when I was contributing to Fedora, Fedora Happiness Packet is specific. There are a lot many competitors and everyone was so passionate about contributing. I was like, oh my God, I'm not able to crack it. There were people that had very good knowledge about the stack and the stack was not that familiar with me. So I was like, I will not get into. And at that point the competition was so high that whenever an issue will come, like every people will just rush back then and comment that they want the issue to be claimed. So there was a lot of competitions. And I was not sure that I'll be able to solve because that was a process that we have to learn during the issue as well. So I actually claimed an issue which I had no idea about like how to solve it. The total stack was unknown to me and it took a huge amount of courage for me to actually solve that. Because at that point with a lot of competition, I was nearly in a point that I will be, I'm not able to do that. And it was quite discouraging for me. So what happened that I consistently tried to learn research because it demanded a lot of work. I had to work into different projects that were not related to FHP but Fedora projects. I had to go into details of this project, know that what is happening in back end and have to implement in the project. So it was quite a task for me. It took me around few weeks to complete that. And by the end of third or fourth week, when I was completing, I completed the task. I said, okay, I have done a good job, but I am quite sure that I'm not able to crack this intention. Because, you know, other people, there were people out there who have solved nearly 10 to 15 issues. And me at a score of two to three, it was like an impossible deal for me. So I had my hopes like a little bit on, but I was not quite confident that I'll get the part. So, like, it was very unsure until the result came out and I got it. And after when the internship started, I asked my mentor Justin that why, like, there were a lot many competitors, like, why I got it. So to reply, like, it was an astonishing reply. Hear me out. He said that, you know, there were not the factors that the mentors were looking for was not the number of issues that students have claimed. It is like with what compassion you have contributed with what much consistency. And he also knew that it was quite difficult for me to contribute because I was not at all familiar with the stack. Nor I was very professional in all of those. And I what I showed at that time was consistency. And they clearly, they clearly viewed it. And I guess I was kind of like a supportive mentor that I finally got the part. So after our treaty happened, these are some of the words that I contributed during my outreach internship. The major issues with testing, I did some UI UX work. I also integrated a new search functionality, which was one of those major deals during my application period that I just talked into. Now, these are the some of the areas that I contributed, but it was not at all, but it was not limited to this. I had a lot more coming in and and I had no idea about after our treaty got completed. I was invited to flock. Can you imagine like me being a girl who has never went outside my city alone. I was going through a time where I will be traveling internationally and back to alone. It was quite a surprise. Like I never expected my parents to agree because they never allowed me to go out of house because that's quite common in India. For all the women in India, they know that how it is. But when they heard about that, I got such an opportunity. They did not want to be the ones who would not allow their daughter when she has a lot to learn and a lot to explore. So I'm grateful to my parents for allowing me to not get away with such an opportunity. Now, after Flaw 2019, I also mentored at Google Code and I'm just surprised that me picturing myself as a mentor who could have thought that. Like I always wanted to teach, but I never thought that I could be a mentor that I learned enough to be qualified as a mentor. But that happened so smoothly that I am still in awe. I got very quite positive feedback from the students that were in GCI. And I guess that was a turning point in my life where I knew that I could do something. I could teach as well. Then that was a part where I also, sorry for the disturbance, I could contribute to GCI. After mentoring at GCI, I hosted a Fedora Women's Day in my college for the very first time in Bhubaneswar. And guess what? Around 50 plus people showed up. It was like such a surprise. I did not think in my dream that such huge crowd would be so much interested in learning about Fedora and open source overall. And also thanks for the chips and that actually kind of lured them to come into Fedora Women's Day. So cheers to Fedora for sponsoring that event as well. So after Fedora Women's Day at 2029, I will be sure it was such a huge event. I also became a part of different sections of Fedora, mostly Fedora DI and Fedora commerce. These were some of the major chunks where I think that I have contributed to the community. But I guess yeah, this is it. Then during my journey, did I face any challenges? That's quite a point that I sure have faced some challenges because what a journey without some challenges. But just wanted to make sure that all of those challenges were not from their side. It was purely circumstantial and personal. So I told you that when I got outreach internship, that was a pure surprise for me. But at that time I was in surprise too. Not because of outreach, but because of this devastating condition in my state at that time. During March, April around, my state got stuck by the worst cyclone in the history of Odessa, which was funny. Like when the results came out, I did not search that from my mobile phone because I did not have at that point of time any internet connection. All of the entire city was in rick. We had hardly have any basic facilities available to us. We had no water. We had no electricity. Our house was already in a broke condition and I can't imagine how I was able to get back. But it was a very bad, very bad past memory. But with all the support and love of mentors, I was able to get back on the feet and started contributing. Around the first week of outreach, everything got back to normal. Like my city kind of recovered from the devastating damage that the cyclone has caused and things were getting back normal. Not even this, not only cyclone funny had a very impact on me at that point of time. I was also not much familiar with the stack that I was contributing to. So during my internship, all I had to learn and implement, learn and implement. So both of them were quite hand in hand. So for a professional, it would have been an easier job. But for me as a learner, it was quite a heavy task. Most of these times, I'll be pinging Justin at all at very odd times and he will be so much supportive. I can't say how much he had helped me through the entire journey. Also, Yona and Alberto, they're so supportive when I was in bad situations, when I was struggling through funny, et cetera. Also, in addition to this nerve-wracking damages, nerve-wracking stuff that happened to me at that time, I guess I was having this imposter syndrome. When I went to flock, I was so quite intimidated by all of the fellow people who were around me. Every time I had in my mind was that, you know, I'm not quite good enough for this. I have this self-doubts that, am I fitting into the situation? Am I worth this? All these doubts and the first day of flock was me asking this question in my mind. But after I interacted to my mentors, they were like, you know, that happens. That happens to every learner or starter who gets here, but you will get a hang of it. You know, with all those love, support and encouragement, I was able to give my first talk. My first talk in an international trip, that went Budapest. I guess that seems a joke for me, but trust me. It was like, I can't even share the experience. You know, I am quite short of words to express what I felt at that time. So that's me blabbering a lot and going out of context, which I don't tend to. Okay, let's come to the slide presentation. So this is what are the challenges that I faced during my internship and overall my Fedora journey. Now I have my takeaways as well. Now the takeaways are huge and I thought like a single slide could not encounter all of this. So I thought I should classify them into broader concepts. So these are us here. I had the best learning experience and the best internship ever. Trust me, I did not do any internship before outreach. So I had no idea that what goes inside, working in a team, what our weekly calls, how to cope up in a team. You know, get track of what I have done because there are two people that were working on the same project, how to work with merge conflicts, what was good. I knew some idea about good, but the total merge or solving merge conflicts and other things were quite hectic at that time. But I learned a lot, trust me. I couldn't imagine myself learning all those things if I wouldn't have gotten an outreach and had that amazing experience back then. Second and most important one, supporting and a friendly community. You know, I would not say it's community, it's more of a family. Anytime I would be having any trouble in my personal life or in my professional life or need any reference or any help, I can freely ping any of my mentors. They are so much supportive. They are so much open. They give so much insight, feedbacks that I don't think anyone who has been a mentor can be so friendly to a person. So I'm quite grateful for having a great community and a family. Third one and most important one, it's the Floor 2019. Oh my God, I can't share the experience. I have already talked a lot. I'll not expand it more. I'll just show you some of my best pictures of that time. Yeah, okay. I'll stop reminiscing about the past and I'll just end my slide. So thank you everyone for having me. Feel free to contact me. You can tag me in Twitter by FreakyMotor of your name. Just ignore the part. You can mail me and say hi or whatever you want. If you want to have a deeper insight of what are what did I do in my internship? What was my journey? How was the FWD 2019? I organized. You can get all those inside descriptions in my blogs that is present under author Alisha Papu. Thank you everyone. Wow, that was amazing. How's my audio right now? Yeah, it's fine. Okay, that was amazing. I had no idea that you were doing all of that. Sorry, I'm witnessing some glitch. I guess your voice is actually not clear. Could you check that? How about now? Yeah, yeah, it's better. Okay. I had no idea you were going through that at the time of your outreach and internship. And I think it's just a testament to like knowing, like we don't know what other people are going through in life ever. And that is why it's so important to treat people with kindness and empathy. But I'm impressed with the strength that you had to say, yeah, I'm going to keep doing this internship even though things are really like I have no electricity. I have, you know, like, and you were really, you know, kind of getting out of the basics of survival with your family. You know, all those 15 days that I had cut out electricity, we were spending our nights in open. Yep. Yep. That's, that's a crazy experience. I think it made you stronger. And definitely did. So wait, I am not seeing any questions in the chat right now. But I was curious, like you mentioned that your intern, your universities weren't supportive of internships. And I was just curious, like, what was the reasoning for that? I guess they prioritize attendance over having an industry experience, I guess. You know, if they will allow three months internship, people will be missing classes, which actually they don't want. That's why they ensure that no one gets a legal sign written by the college that you are allowed it to have three months of internship. And most of the industry will want that. That's why that's a great, like, you know, important phase, important part which led us not to have a real life experience before landing in one. That's, that's an interesting take a full interesting philosophy on it. Okay. Well, I'm glad that you, you know, you have the wherewithal to branch out and and and look for that for yourself. To another question, what was it? Oh, what, what is the state of happiness packets today? Well, actually, I'm not quite touch and happiness packet, but I guess I might have some pending tasks, I guess, because I was so caught up in different like university. I just recently graduated and then I got this job, which I am currently working into. But it is deployed in. It is not actually deployed, but it was meant to deploy in Malaysia. I guess the deployment is something that we are looking to, but it's quite maintained apart from that. Can you give us just a brief overview of happiness packets because I know that there's people here who don't know what it is. Yeah. So happiness packet as a project, it's quite similar to the happiness packet laid by another organization where actually we speak and appreciate others. You know, many times in our community or in our work culture, we came across people who we want to openly praise for, but we don't know. We are not quite comfortable in saying that face to face. Only we have is that maybe some information like their email IDs. So it's kind of a way where we can openly speak out and see praise, say good things, you know, all the positive things to a person through email. We can be anonymous. We can be, we can show ourselves like through the email ID. It's a great, you know, platform where we can spread positivity in short. Okay. We have a question from the chat. What advice would you give to your past self before you started your open source journey? Don't be so nervous, man. You are worked and, you know, even if there will be so many difficulties, we'll get through it. And, you know, you have so many people out there which you can seek help from and there's no need of having imposter syndrome because they are quite familiar with it. So just be there, just seek help if you need. Don't shy out and stay positive. That is awesome advice. I was going to say that for anyone, any time, any place. So thank you for giving that, that parole wisdom. I just wanted to ask what, where are you? You mentioned you're starting a job and I'm curious, is it in tech and what is that job if you want to share a little bit with us? So I am currently a developer associate at Accenture. So I'll be joining them like if pandemic could not have happened. I could have joined like two to three months back, but the joining is happening kind of late. So I joined a few days back. I am in a developer position. So I'll be undergoing some training where I will be assigned different projects. I'm not quite sure which area I might land into because it also depends on the test that I'll give in a few days after. But I guess there are a lot of opportunities waiting for me. Brad, congratulations. Thank you. And wish you luck in the new job and just know that it takes six months or so to really, really get a grasp on things. I know, you know, when I started new jobs in the first month or two, you know, you have those moments where you're like, what did I get myself into? But I know you have a strong belief in yourself that it's very well founded, but still best of luck. And I don't have any more questions. I don't see any more in the chat for now. So I don't know if you've been watching the other sessions, but we're we have a script that if you would like to read would be awesome. Maybe you could stop sharing your screen just so that the video takes up a little bit more of the screen and then I'll copy and paste the text. So the idea here is that it's similar to the Budapest video. The first part is in your native tongue and whatever language you would like. And then the second part is in English. I'm going to mute myself. Go ahead. Do as many takes or whatever you need to do. So I guess I'll be going with Hindi. Okay, let me see. Namaskar. My name is Alesha Makhanti. I'm from Bhubanesh and Odisha. I speak Hindi, English. So we are from different countries. We speak different languages. Our culture is different, but Fedora makes us one. We are Fedora. Mute, mute. How about now? Okay, better. So the second part, I was actually hoping for in English. So the part that's specific to you, like the hi, my name is and this is about me. And then starting at we are from different countries, that would be in English. So you want to try once more? Okay, so you mean to say that I'll speak all of this in English, right? No, so you'll say hi, my name is Alesha. I am from India. That part in your native tongue. Okay, okay. Do you remember the Buddha best video we made? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the first part is about you in your native tongue and then the second part will be in English. And we'll mash, we're going to mash them all up together. I'm going to mute myself again. Sure. Namaskar. My name is Alesha. I'm from Bhoomneshwar Odisha. I speak Hindi, Odia and English. So we are from different countries. We speak different languages. We are of different cultures. But Fedora unites us with open source. We are Fedora. That was awesome. Oh my gosh, these sessions bring me a ton of happiness to share, you know, stories like these and continue to build our support network of women and non-binary folks in Fedora. It's definitely really important. So I just want to ask that how's your cat? I have seen. Yeah, she's doing okay. She has good days and bad days. She's 16 and she has kidney disease and she's hyperthyroidism. So honestly, I just spoil her day and night. I have beds for her in every room. I give her my food. I just give her all the attention I can and try to make her comfy. So she's okay. I can call her dog. I can call her over and say hi, but she's not going to come over for us. Maybe she'll say hi a little bit later on or maybe she'll come to the social. Sure. Thanks for asking. What's her name by the way? Miko. Oh, that's a sweet name. Miko. Yeah, she's my sweetheart. Her and I live together and it's just me and her. We've been like besties during COVID times. It's been such a different experience to live alone. When most of the people I talked to were like, I'm cramped up with my entire family. Or I'm cramped up with my kids and they're driving me insane. I'm like, I'm just all alone. What's going on guys? It's a different thing. But anyway, thanks again for coming and sharing your inspiring story. I will hopefully see you around later today and I'll jump off. Bye. Bye everyone.