Django Girls Workshop!

So it finally happened!😍 Django Girls workshop finally happened in my city. I don’t know why, but I have developed an affinity towards the Django Girls community. Maybe, because the last workshop that I attended was so beautiful!

Back in 2016, I was doing my internship at this startup called Oizom in Ahmedabad. My tech lead Jimish was one of the organizers of the Django Girls Ahmedabad workshop. It was my first time attending the workshop. I was originally supposed to attend as a participant, but he suggested that I should come as a coach instead, since I was already familiar with the basics. I was super excited, being a coach has its perks. I met some pretty cool people there, received cool swags and had so much fun! I was experiencing it all for the first time, and it just made me happy, so happy! Moreover, I got an opportunity to teach someone and teach something that I loved.

Ever since then, I had this desire to organize one such workshop back in my city, Bhavnagar. But….I never gave it a try.(Why do I do that!😕) I thought money might be an issue, I thought I would have to arrange all the money, which I had none. Stupid🙄!

But then, someone did, someone organized the workshop. One of my friends, and my super junior at college, Yashashvi did it! She, along with Dharmit and Prachi, managed to organize the workshop and one hell of a workshop! They managed it all — getting funds, getting a venue, organizing lunch and snacks, getting swags, and getting everything and everyone together! I’m so proud of them😃.

So it finally happened on the fine day of 18th March 2018. Around 50 participants attended the workshop, most of them were college students — many of them were guys, few of them college graduates, and one of them was a lady, I won’t call her old, but she was the eldest of us all there, she reminded me of my mom, in a way she was younger than many of us(I wonder if I’d be that active when I’m their age🤔). I also met an old school friend at the workshop, which was unexpected, but good.

Anyway, diving into my experience of the workshop, it was quite good. I was the coach to 3 ladies, Rudri, Riddhi, and Chandni. I was much confident about teaching Django than I was the last time, but…. I didn’t do as good as I expected I would. I was a little disappointed with myself as a coach. There were so many things that I wanted to teach my students, I wanted to teach them about git, about open source, about Linux, ah… I wanted to teach them the whole django girls tutorial, and do it all nice😕. But, I panicked! I do plan on meeting with my students, later on, to teach them the remaining things, but only time will tell! But I am happy about the things that I actually taught, I think I did well. Besides my students were good, but I should have taken their different paces into account and planned my teaching accordingly. Guess, that’s something I should remember for my next workshop.

It was pretty good — getting to meet other coaches, few of them were old friends, and few of them — well, let’s say that I was aware of their existence. But I got to know them during the workshop, and all of them were super cool😀

One other reason that made me happier and was cherry on the top of all that I mentioned above, was people — coming up to me and asking me about my GSoC experience and getting advice from me. Cracking GSoC was a big deal for me, it is my biggest achievement till date. Although, I feel like I should get past that achievement, and on to the next big thing, but anyway it’s always nice to talk about it!😁

So, all in all, it was much much better than I had expected it to be, I do hope that my students understood what I taught them and I hope that I inspired them. At the end of the workshop, people thanked each other, there were speeches, and everyone was grateful for everyone, but I didn’t know how to convey my regards. I always get all nervous and say stupid things🙄, so I avoided saying anything then. But this post is my regards, my way of saying thanks to Dharmit, Yashashvi, Prachi, and everyone that was a part of the workshop. I’m grateful that I know you guys.