tl;dr - i'm teaching a workshop§

i didn't expect to write again so soon, but it never hurts. long story short, i am very ${HAPPY|NERVOUS} to announce that i am giving a full-day workshop at the rust belt rust conference this year. without risking further spoilers, i refer you to the website, but for those interested, whether attendees or otherwise, keep a close eye on this blog in late october.

that all said and done, there are some tangential things i would like to talk about wrt rust's community and this opportunity i have been given.

background§

i attended rust belt rust (RBR) for the first time last year when i was still inexperienced with rust¹. i dabbled with it multiple times before and attempted non-trivial projects, but altogether nothing that amounted to something and, consequentially, no real in-depth knowledge of rust. despite that, there was no hesitation on the part of the RBR organizers and sponsors, especially Carol ${Nicholls|Goulding}. i really didn't have any money at the time, but they managed to cover all costs for my attendance and i'm still very thankful for that.

it was at RBR that i attended a workshop taught by Matthias Endler and Santiago Pastorino that revolved around building a toy shell in rust. this workshop was a great experience for me (afaik, everyone) because of the applicability of the material and its engagement. now, by definition, technical workshops are supposed to be engaging and applied, but this workshop was doubly so for someone inexperienced and looking for a fun, ready, and "realistic" application of rust.

fast-forward to the end of the conference, and i am talking with Endler and Pastorino about how much i enjoyed the workshop and how prior to it i kept failing to find a reason to "really learn" rust. after mentioning how i needed that next "thing" to keep myself motivated and learning rust outside of school, Endler challenged me to teach the same workshop next year.

tbqh, i laughed. Endler asked "why not? you'll have 12 months to prepare." i thought it was ridiculous but less than 12 hours later - on a total whim while i waited to board my plane - i wrote an email mentioning such an idea to Carol. she more than humored my pitch and said to consider myself invited for RBR 2019.

between that email and may'ish, i spent a good amount of time getting better at rust with various little projects. as of two months ago, Carol replied on that email asking if i was still interested in giving a workshop and that her invitation was still completely open to me.

i largely forgot the email and Endler's challenge upon receiving that reply, but what is certain is that my experience at RBR last fall helped begin a greater change in my career (life?) to take a greater focus on my skills as a software engineer, particularly with rust. compared to a year ago, i felt a lot more confident and more invested in both rust and its community; i wasn't sure initially, but it felt like up to that point in time that friends and kind strangers (Carol, Endler, and others) all supported and challenged me to say yes.

... and that's how i got the opportunity to teach my first workshop at tech conference. really, that's all i wanted to say. thank you so much to everyone who made this possible, especially Carol, Endler, the broader rust community, and those close confidants who prodded me to say yes. in the grand scheme of things, it's not all that huge of an event, but these past two years have been personally very tumultuous and uncertain, and it feels like i've finally started to find my ground.

i'll see you all at rust belt rust in october!