The Djangonaut Space rocketship has completed half its journey around the planet, and we're nearing completion of the fifth week of this spacefaring program.
Notable activities
- My second PR (#17787) got merged: Fixed #35143 -- Accessibility improvements to debug error pages.;
- I took on my first complicated ticket that we're still discussing with accessibility team members: #35189; Accessibility issues with collapsed fieldsets in admin forms;
- I made my first Django Forum post: Generator tags for HTML meta elements;
- Navigator Thibaud Colas gave us an introduction to web accessibility testing;
- Carlton Gibson gave a fantastic presentation called Know Your Limits: On Surviving Open Source;
- I asked questions about Django contribution etiquette and found it complex (I am currently unable to formulate a TL;DR for you);
- I started helping others on the Django Discord server more, which is fun!
Crashed back to earth
When Djangonaut Space enrollment opened, the subscription process estimated that we would dedicate an average of four hours weekly to the program.
I got a taste of contribution in the first two weeks of the program and rocket-boosted into my second PR. By the time we reached our third weekly meeting and my second PR got merged, I had spent more time and energy on the process than was good for me.
I was also spent partly because I felt like I hadn't delivered my best work (which was an exaggerated feeling due to Impostor Syndrome taking over).
Thankfully, Thibaud (our team navigator) rightfully reminded me it was OK to take a break, and starting Wednesday, I took the rest of week three off.
The following week, Carlton Gibson gave an enlightening presentation on surviving open source. While we discovered that this man had missed a career as a motivational speaker, he gave us tips on balancing life, health, and being a contributor.
Carlton also shared this link with us: Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day.
I feel like the words of Thibaud, Carlton, and others in the Djangonaut Space Discord server (private) helped a lot in finding balance in this process.
Django is not just a regular small project either, and it takes time to settle in; there is no need to feel guilty about stumbling around.
Anything else
Many things have happened behind the scenes. While we don't see everything the other teams do, it's nice to interact with fellow members during this experience.
Many are blogging; some have even taken up blogging because of this program and are releasing their PRs.
There is one blog post in particular I want to highlight: Django-knot: Community & Contribution by Priya Pahwa.
Learning space puns and analogies is essential to the Djangonaut Space program; Priya took the assignment and launched it perfectly.
The Django community gets praised for being wholesome and supportive, and I regret not getting into it earlier. Although the Django Discord server is still too chaotic to handle sometimes, I'm coming to terms with it and am participating more.
I still have no regrets about joining The Race for Djangonaut Space.
Music tip
In honor of love, space analogies, and relaxing guitar solos (RIP David Andersson), listen to
"The Last of the Independent Romantics" by The Night Flight Orchestra.