11 months ago I logged my first contribution to nostr. As I begun logging issue after issue, nostr:npub1xtscya34g58tk0z605fvr788k263gsu6cy9x0mhnm87echrgufzsevkk5s  mentioned something to the effect of “lol I don’t use github”. 

nostr:npub1yaul8k059377u9lsu67de7y637w4jtgeuwcmh5n7788l6xnlnrgs3tvjmf  reassured me that it was useful to him and other dev contributors to continue the product janitor journey. So I continued venturing further into the unknown to me FOSS. 

At nostrica never have I felt more at home with folk I just met. Got to meet a few fellow Damus and nostr contributors. A mentor urged me to make a decision to stay the course of rent seeking, or continue to do help the mission of freedom tech (sipping a beer in his briefs and glasses from a pool at 2am) sharing valuable lessons from his FOSS journey. 

Through Damus I was privileged to learn from a team of devs & designers. More broadly I interacted with and learned from many, varying FOSS contributors outside Damus. I am grateful for contributing alongside the anti-gulag tech mission folk. 

While I don’t know what the future holds for me, I do know how it feels like to contribute with folk that share the same values, and mission.

This compass is now in my toolkit, and I am using it to evaluate roads walked, and future forks. 

I have begun to understand FOSS through doing and error. 

While not there yet, I aim to achieve my ikigai contributing to freedom tech. 

Most of all I am grateful for having this experience.