My Hackathon Journey of Growth and Connection

I started this story on the morning of day two of the hackathon, with the previous day completed and one day still ahead of me, and I felt I had already won.

In the days leading up to the hackathon, I had several doubts about participating. However, I realized that the fear of missing out was overcoming my apprehension about entering a new space with unfamiliar people. So, I went and found a welcoming environment and friendly collaborators. I even saw people I knew, and after chatting with them briefly, I pushed myself to say hi to new faces and created a team with people I didn't know.

The first day started with a team-building activity and my first scavenger hunt. We had fun and eased into conversations, finding similar interests, and each person's strengths began to show. Then the ideation started, and I faced my fears again, speaking out loud and defending my ideas. A step that might seem small to many, but for me, it meant a lot as someone whose native language is not English and who sometimes comes across as shy. But on this occasion, I wanted to practice my presentation and collaboration skills, and so I did.

After the first half of the day, we lost one group member, but this didn't stop us from continuing to work. At the end of the day, we were tired but we had arrived at an idea, we were kind to each other, we challenged ourselves, and we had fun.

Now, that's why I said that I feel like I already won. I look forward to seeing all the other people's ideas, but I'm also ready to step up to help my teammates if they need me and push myself again to present our idea to a wide audience. Small steps that I celebrate like a big win!