In August 2024, I merged my first PR in the Palisadoes Foundation. It was a small PR that updated a dependency. Worked on 2 more PR the same month, one more related to updating a dependency and another of automatically adding labels to the issues raised.
Then things got harder when I tried to work on medium-level issues, such as updating the setup script for configuring the Talawa-Admin and API. However, I understood that I came in my second year of college, and I am learning how to work in open source, as I had only created personal projects in my first year, and things are really different when you work on real-world tech projects. So, slowly I learned and merged those 2 PR.
I spent the next few months fixing the long-broken Docker configuration. This became a hate-love relationship with Docker. It took me 2–3 months, but it was worth it. Side by side, I also worked on UI features.
By then, it had been about 5–6 months of contributing, and suddenly it was GSOC application season. It was February, and my end-sem exams were also approaching. Still, I couldn’t stop contributing. That month was hectic — I was fixing issues, talking to Peter, having late-night meetings on deploying a site for Palisadoes, and balancing exams at the same time.
I was sad because we couldn’t get a fully working deployment ready before the application, but we learned so much: why silent failures were happening, how GitHub workflows weren’t catching them, and that frontend-backend connections (mainly CORS issues) were the biggest blockers. Though I felt sad, I was happy that Palisadoes still made it into GSOC, and I was one of the first to congratulate them.
I was happy then and applied to GSOC as a mentee. Things were going fine, my results for end semester exams came, and by god’s grace, I passed in all my subjects. Much motivated to keep doing what I am doing. I took a whole month or more than a month to make 3 proposals for GSOC 2025. All of them were for Palisadoes. I made sure to keep reviewing it with my mentors and updating it. I was highly motivated to make it to GSOC 2025.
Much-awaited, then came the results, at night. And I was scattered and heartbroken to see that my name was not there in the final list of selected mentees. There was nothing I could do or say. People who made it this year were all my friends, and I was really for them. I was just sad for myself.
I realized that there must be more people like me who would be broken after this result. And I started talking to such people on social media, wrote posts for them, and shared my experience. Trying my best to make sure they don’t feel alone at this time.
I am overjoyed to say that whoever I talked to during that phase later got an internship soon from the same organization they applied to in GSOC.
Now comes the final moment. I was also wondering if there is still a chance I can intern with Palisadoes. And one evening, I found a text from one of the mentors that you have been shortlisted and you have to make a proposal on this topic, and if your proposal is good, you will be selected for an internship with Palisadoes Foundation.
This Journey has not come to an end, and I am thinking of writing another blog to share my Internship Journey.
So, if you enjoyed reading till now. Stay tuned for the next blog on the Internship Journey at Palisadoes, too.