Hello World!

I am Mfon, an Open Source Software Developer. It feels so cool to say that, inserts smiley emoji. I am from a non-technical background with a medical degree and pretty much self-taught right up to this point.

I applied to Outreachy because I saw a couple of tweets talking about open source contributions and I had no idea what that meant. I mean the word open source brought no single thought or image to my head, it was just blank. Outreachy from my first impression, a very accommodating program. The application process made me feel like I was in a space where I will be respected and heard and coming from my background it meant everything to me. I have not been disappointed to say the least.

My core values are Authenticity, Learning and Optimism.

Authenticity is very close to my heart because if you are not yourself, then who are you? With the explosion of social media, we suddenly have exposure to a large amount of information about other people and some of these people we admire. Admiring someone or something does not mean you have to be exactly it or do exactly like it. There are many routes to getting to the same destination.

We are all humans and in our own way unique and different. We bring a special spice to everything we are involved in. Depriving the world of that in the bid to be popular or blend in, is unfair to the world and most importantly to ourselves.

There is this famous phrase that reads, “you start dying when you stop learning” It was said to be said by Albert Einstein. The brain is a muscle and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Learning is one of my core values and a phrase a say all the time is, “I do not know it yet”. There is always a way to get from here to there, there being anywhere you want to be.

Learning is an integral part of our being. It is how our species evolve and grow, it how we have gotten to where we are now. As a human, one should be ready to learn and stay teachable because, this may come as a surprise but you are not always right.

Optimism is how we see life, the lens we use to view the things that happen to us and around us. Is it a rejection or a redirection? A loss or an opportunity to gain another? There will always be something that will not go our way or something that happens that will throw us off our feet.

I feel optimism is the extra magic that keeps life special, it makes each day full of opportunities and what ifs. What if things go exactly the way you planned? What if things go better than you planned? What if today is the day all your dreams come true? Optimism is magic.

It has helped me survive hard days and phases of my life. Life is not supposed to be anything, there’s no structure or rule book for it. It is what you make of it and I have chosen to live a happy life by being optimistic.