This is a submission for the 2024 Hacktoberfest Writing challenge: Contributor Experience

The first time I heard about Hacktoberfest, I was still in college. My boyfriend suggested I participate, saying it would help me improve my coding skills, support the open-source community, and—

"Hey, there's a free t-shirt, too!"

I'm not gonna lie, I love some free stuff 😅

I’ve had a GitHub account since 2015, but I wasn’t using it consistently or effectively. It was Hacktoberfest that truly taught me how to use it properly.

Since 2018, I’ve participated in the event every single year. It’s always fun and, at times, full of surprises.

One year—2019, I think—I was working on an issue in a repository and realized that the owner was Brazilian, just like me! Yet, we had been communicating in English the whole time instead of our native language. 😂😂😂

Then there was 2020, when my t-shirt got lost in the mail due to the pandemic. I reached out to the organizers, but by the time I realized it was missing, it was too late to get a replacement 😔😭

(Unfortunately, it never arrived—the shirt in the picture is my boyfriend’s.)

The t-shirt from 2022, though, is my favorite so far. The design is on the back instead of the front, unlike previous years. It’s got ✨ glitter ✨ and pastel colors that look amazing against the dark gray and black fabric. It’s so pretty that I still haven’t been able to bring myself to wear it! 😊

In 2023, we didn’t get a t-shirt, but we did plant a tree 🌱 in our name, which is also really cool. My tree is a Markhamia lutea, and it’s planted at the Project Usambara Biodiversity Conservation in Tanzania. Check it out —it’s going to be beautiful in a few years!

The Holopin badge is another nice alternative to the shirt or the tree. Here’s my collection:

Over these seven years, I’ve learned so much. Not only have I improved my coding skills (as I initially expected), but I’ve also developed a stronger sense of community. As developers, we often forget that coding alone isn’t the only way to contribute. There’s so much we can achieve and learn by working together.

What about you? How has your Hacktoberfest experience been? Share how you got started in the comments!