Score a Special Gift: Tell Us How Open Source Has Changed Your Life! 👇🏽

[McKennaR]

Tell us how #opensource has changed your life for a chance to win an extra special gift on us!

Here are some ideas for sharing:

• How did you get started in open source?
• What has open source taught you about yourself?
• What new aspirations do you have as a member of the open source community?

Tell us about your journey, the friends you’ve made, your favorite jobs or projects, or talk about the camaraderie that has made the open source community feel like home. We want to hear it all! One lucky winner will be chosen at random on December 15th. Can’t wait to read through all of your amazing stories!

Your Pantheon Community Team
@sparklingrobots, @katie.richards & @McKennaR

[McKennaR]

While I don’t count towards this extra special prize, I figured I would kick things off!

Prior to coming to Pantheon, I worked at a healthcare organization as a digital & social media strategist. One of the main reasons I had chosen to work for that organization was because I loved the sense of community & togetherness healthcare offered—or so I had thought. Unfortunately, my experience there was quite the opposite. I sat in a 2ft cubicle, alone every single day. And let me tell you as an extrovert, this was very challenging & depressing. Don’t worry I promise this story gets better…

And then I stumbled upon Pantheon. I didn’t know much about the organization, outside of the fact that they were one of the best web hosting platforms around. Being new to the open source space, I was nervous to accept the position. I kept thinking to myself “I am not a technical. I am not a developer. I am not going to fit in.” But man was I WRONG! Guys, open source changed my life for the better. Everyone in the open source community is so warm and welcoming. For the first time in years, I feel like I fit in. I was told the open source community was special—and let me tell you, it sure is.

Excited to continue to learn & grow in the space. Thank you all for making the open web such a great place

[doug_pantheon]

I was building my own CMS (like lots of folks 10-15 years ago) and discovered WordPress and Drupal. Changed the entire trajectory of my career. Made me a better developer, and connected me with so many great friends too.

[amyjune]

Open Source (esp. Drupal) has really changed me. I am a hospice nurse by trade and needed something different, but still, be meaningful.

I am fortunate enough to have a sponsor like Kanopi studios that has me actively give back to OS as my job…I knew I like to teach, but mentoring is such a wonderful boost to my self-confidence. I love seeing folks move forward with contributions after taking a workshop I have helped with.

Traveling to many camps (both WP and Drupal) has really expanded my network and helped me understand how everyone has different strengths. This has helped me with how I teach workshops and I now have a deeper understanding of how everyone’s voice helps move mountains.

[brittany.huntzberry]

When I first started my journey into web development, I sort of knew about open source. It seemed more like a vague thing at the time that I didn’t see myself capable of doing. Like everyone else, I did consume open source pretty heavily, I appreciate all the technologies and tools out there for those that don’t have a lot of resources to use proprietary software.

I started working professionally as a web developer and was officially introduced to Drupal. I knew about CMS and WordPress but didn’t dive deep into development with them before. My experiences started to lead me closer to the open-source community surrounding Drupal specifically. It started to appear clearer and less impossible to involve myself in the community and contribute. Still intimidating, though! More of an internal turmoil rather than the community being uninviting. Like, thinking things “Oh geez, I don’t feel like I belong here. What can I contribute? Am I able to add value?”.

Plus, I didn’t have a lot of support from my workplace to spend time giving back to the Drupal community. I had to pitch in on my own time, which is tough! This year, 2020, has been full of turmoil – but I was able to attend events that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend in-person! This let me get more deeply involved in the community and catch up with the state of Drupal. Introduced me to some big opportunities and changes in my life as well.

Now I have support to give back to Drupal more openly, freely, and improve myself as a developer. I want to become more knowledgeable, give back to Drupal, and help others along the way making the same journey. I also would love to explore other open source communities, but that seems super far away for me right now!

[CodeChefMarc]

I have been using open source software like WordPress and Drupal for a long time, but I think what really made me think and feel different about it was when I attended my first BADCamp. It was there where I actually got to meet some of the people responsible for maintaining parts of the core code and it dawned on me that these are just regular people like me who love to code and contribute. It was then when I really got open source and how it can give back to the world. By connecting with people.

Since then, I’ve attended many BADCamps and my first DrupalCon a few years ago and my love of the community has grown and grown. I’m just starting to dip my own toes into contributing and it is exciting to give back.

[dgorton]

I’m pretty sure my answer doesn’t count for a special gift either, but thank you @McKennaR for nudging us all to share our stories.

I started using Open Source web tools back in the early 2000s. My day job was using closed-source tools but I started playing with Open Source in the evenings. That eventually grew into moonlighting as a volunteer coder for organizations, followed by paying clients, followed by starting off on my own, growing an agency and, eventually joining Pantheon.

The last 20 years of my life would have been completely different if I hadn’t discovered Open Source software. While my initial involvement was largely because of the free cost of the code, over time I discovered (and was blown away) by Open Source as a community. The first major open source event I ever traveled to was in 2008 at DrupalCon Boston. While I’d been to local meetups and camps, that gathering was amazing. I was deeply inspired by all the people who were working together, generously, earnestly, focused on making better tools for us all. I knew that I wanted to do the same.

While I have contributed some code over that time, I think my most important contributions have been around organizing, sponsoring and mentoring others. And I love that I continue to have those opportunities as part of my job here at Pantheon!

[Avi123]

I have always been interested in coding, as it is related to logical reasoning. After graduating from school, I was looking for opportunities to hone my programming skills. Wordpress is amazing as it allows one to see the process of building websites, and it is free!
I love Wordpress!
And, I may have found my community as well.

[McKennaR]

Yay, thanks for sharing! What an inspiring story! We are super excited to have you here in our community & are looking forward to growing alongside you as well.