NAIJAHACKS??

Hello World,

Ages it's been, no doubt.

NAIJAHACKS2019

For reasons here and there, both valid and invalid, we've been off this space for a while, oh, maybe just a little while longer than that, okay then, a whole lots of while!! Here we are, back!!

Guess what? Go wilder, why not stretch your imagination a little more than you are already?

You're somewhat close now.... No, no, no, not exactly that! I didn't get married! na wa, someone cannot breathe a little without our ring watchers screaming down one's throat husband!husband!husband!! lol. Well, I'll just spill the bag's content already..

So yours faithfully's become a programmer. No, you're not going senile, you heard/read right. I know from where to where, from being a political scientist to software engineer? I Know.

Yours faithfully now spends unimaginable amount of hours doing nothing but staring into the computer screen and typing, no, not articles, or blog posts, or even poetry to be delivered on stage as spoken word but codes! Long, dreary, stretching lines of almost never-ending codes.

Meanwhile, apart from the normal meaning my introductory phase "hello world" connotes to every other individual, it holds more depth and nuance to an average programmer. You just have to pass through a series of "hello worlds"; does not matter if you are that much of a cheery person or not! Oh you didn't know? Ga e ju ese... Ask around (Don't judge my written Igbo language, don't judge, be nice abeg).

On a very good day, I'd write about how the winds of the universe blew me across the path of programming I'm currently threading, and absolutely enjoying. But now, I'd return to line nember 3, yes, NAIJAHACKS2019.

NaijaHacks is Africa's biggest Hackathon. Alright, I know, which one is hackathon again? Let me help out a little. A hackathon is basically an event which runs for a short period of time, where developers, designers, coders and bunch of other people come together, form teams, ideate and build/code/develop their idea or something which solves a specific problem.

Fine, we're on the same page now, NaijaHacks is Africa's largest, nope, not a large, not one of the largest, but Africa's largest hackathon, and yours faithfully was privileged to be a part of it.

How did I even find myself inside NaijaHacks? Got wind of it from a fellow code-writer (lol), and I applied. Yes, applied online like about almost a thousand other people did for the same course (not like a course of study, but you know, purpose).

NaijaHacks2019 was purely online for the about seven days it ran, and then a DEMO day for selected teams.

Imagine, yours faithfully ditched her default conservatism and reservedness and went a-hunting for team members to join her team on the very first day of the hackathon, and since then, till at the point of the publication of this blog post, it's been completely mind-blowing (maybe, there really is some amount of hope for our little ms. "I dunno, but I really am not impressed by all of that show.." afterall).

From the beginning, we were made to take compulsory courses on series of life-hacks, personal development courses like leadership, team-work, ideaton, business, etc. We didn't just do courses, we were awarded certificates, I mean real-time certificates!

Almost the peak of it is that each and every single skill learnt in the cause of the courses (pun intended) actually came into play during the whole process.

Were there times when I wanted to give up, like I no dey do again, yes. Were there times when I felt like ditching my team and running solo solo solo if only for the singular reason of maintaining my sanity, heck yes!

But did I? No! Why? I am guessing the lessons and wisdom inculcated into my person through those seemingly random courses I took.

Long story cut short, I was able to lead my team, and yes, we got selected for the DEMO day.

By the way, it's going down tomorrow (17-12-2019) at Zone Tech Park , Gbagada. I wouldn't be shocked to see you, you and you coming to cheer yours faithfully as she unveils her solution for one of humanity's problems.

I would not dare end this already-too-long blog post without acknowledging NaijaHacks for the amazing platform to network with great minds in the tech industry, provide solutions to world problems, and not forgetting winning great prizes while at it!