Last year I decided to use my knowledge and skill-set to contribute to opensource projects. The barrier to entry for most known projects may seem hard. But there is the easier route of springing into documentation fixes and don't get me wrong, documentation is arguably as important as the code itself; I wanted to jump into more technical areas.

After going through various projects, I found an issue in the FreeCodeCamp Github repo. I decided to go for it. It was a test fix for one of the challenges in the curriculum.

Luckily, I found many other similar issues and I started pushing out fixes one after another. My effort was noticed and I was made a moderator of the project. I also was fortunate enough to push some upgrade fixes for Openssl in Node.js's repository.

if you are interested in the details of what I was helping out with, please checkout these entries from last year:

1. My First Open Source Contribution
2. I Became a Moderator for FreeCodeCamp
3. I Contributed to Node.js

My opensource effort spanned 2-3 months after which I had to take a pause to focus on my personal life.

At the end of 2020 I was pleasantly surprised that I was listed in the top contributors of FCC for the year.

I believe that using your personal time to give back to opensource tools and platforms is immensely rewarding. Although we have already passed the first quarter of 2021, I plan on springing back into Opensource and taking it further into other projects.

Last night, I was able to push another upgrade fix for Openssl on to Node's repository. I hope it gets through and that would help mark a nice re-entry into the wonderful world of OSS.

If you guys need help with finding a project to contribute to, I suggest you to look at these resources:

1. awesome for beginners
2. First timers only

Goodluck!