During my time in college, the most memorable thing for me was the starry sky. It was not only a significant part of my college life, but also the beginning of my journey as a programmer.
I wanted to give back to the starry sky what it had given me in terms of technical knowledge and inspiration. I hope to continue this and provide better resources for the next generation. However, when choosing a path, it is impossible to predict how difficult it will be.
I have summarized my journey in the starry sky over the past two years, almost like keeping a diary. I wanted to record this precious time and hopefully provide some help to future generations and those who are confused and hesitant.
Two Years Ago#
On the night of the recruitment fair organized by the school, I walked into the crowd with the idea of joining in the fun and seeing the girls. I declined the invitation from the student union and avoided the student volunteers, but I couldn't avoid the starry sky. The starry sky was the only organization at the recruitment fair that focused on internet technology, so I joined with the intention of learning. After two simple trainings and two assessments, I successfully became one of the thirty students selected out of over two hundred. I was proud of myself at that time. (I still remember how anxious I was every time the assessment results were about to be announced, constantly checking my phone.)
After getting to know each other, we started our extracurricular activities. Due to the school's restrictions, our extracurricular activities in the starry sky mainly involved playing games. My senior brother told me that our extracurricular activities in the starry sky were known as "getting a girlfriend through extracurricular activities" (but I never saw anyone getting a girlfriend through these activities). I was hesitant, but he told me:
Senior Brother: People from other centers will also participate, and there are many girls in those centers.
Me: I'm ready in my starry sky uniform, when do we leave?
At that time, I thought to myself, we are already college students, what's the point of running around and playing games in school? But in the end, our team had the most fun and even won a prize, a box of snacks hhhhhhhhh.
After the joy came the weekly self-study tasks and the teasing from Xie Feng.
"Look at you" (referring to a pig)
"What kind of code are you writing?"
"You added a task!"
I hated it. When I become successful, I will definitely fight back.
Once you plant the seed of change, opportunities will quietly appear with your thoughts.
That period of time was a time of rapid growth. I went from attending self-study sessions once a week to twice a week. I completed the tasks assigned by my senior brother, while Googling and Baidu-ing like crazy. That's when I discovered platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and CSDN. In the first semester of my freshman year, the school taught C instead of Java, so I was learning both C and Java at the same time. It was tiring, but fulfilling. Every time I solved a bug or implemented a new feature, I knew I was making progress. Although the projects I worked on during the star training camp were not perfect and I stayed up late coding, it was still a great sense of accomplishment to present a product with basic functionality to everyone.
During the summer and winter training camps, I didn't really want to stay, but I ended up staying for a week after the final exams to study in the office every day. I just wanted to relax after the exams. But my supervisor forced me to stay and lied to me that he would be there too, but I never saw him. I was annoyed, I was tricked. But I have to admit that I learned a lot during that time, and it was during that time that I learned about the field of blogging at a sharing session. Plus, everyone was studying, so I didn't feel like playing around.
Stepping onto the stage of the starry sky, seizing every opportunity, doing what I love with like-minded friends, and constantly growing, it's really cool.
One Year Ago#
The first thing I did when I returned to school was to recruit new members. To be honest, most programmers are not good at interacting with strangers. I guess it's because we spend most of our time with computers and become introverted. On the other hand, people from the media department were constantly interacting with new students, and almost every new student who came by wanted to know about photography and videography, which made the tech guys quite envious. Xiao Zhi probably couldn't stand it anymore and urged us to recruit more people, fearing that the starry sky's technical expertise would be lost in our hands hhhhhhhhh.
During the interviews, it was interesting to see the nervous freshmen. I guess that's how I looked in the eyes of my senior brothers and sisters back then - a young and hopeful person. Although I was inexperienced, I was full of hope and energy. But when the experienced juniors and seniors from the third and fourth years came in, I was dumbfounded. There were spies among us, terminate the transaction. I thought their hairlines didn't look like those of freshmen, how could they pretend?
The last question on the written test asked: What do you think programmers are like? Jian Cong drew a picture in the answer area, with several stick figures together under a starry sky, transitioning from day to night. There was a sun in the upper left corner and a moon in the upper right corner, connected by double arrows. There was a computer below, and he wrote some code. When we saw that simple drawing, we wanted to laugh because we knew he was just messing around. So we asked him what he meant.
Ah, I think programmers are like good friends, working together under the same starry sky, coding and learning from day to night.
Even now, I still think that this not only describes programmers, but also the starry sky. It is the best description of the starry sky in my heart.
Because of certain reasons, I needed to take on the role of CTO, but I guess because I didn't have a clear understanding of the starry sky's development and what the role of CTO entails, the teachers from the school's student union thought I was too immature. However, I have to admit that it was indeed a problem with my own abilities. Afterwards, I reflected on myself and realized that having courage without ability is not enough to achieve anything. I also need to broaden my horizons and vision.
Afterwards, I trained six new members who had more potential than I did when I was a freshman. They learned quickly, and one of them even had previous development experience before joining. The younger generation's growth also brought me pressure. I hope they can learn more in this year, so I didn't stop my own progress. By chance, I came across Xiao Te's blog and the blog of an Alibaba expert. Maybe I could find something useful there? It turned out that there were indeed some valuable insights, not just in terms of technology, but also about the starry sky. Through the words in their articles, I caught a glimpse of the starry sky from years ago, and the starry sky of the present. It felt strange to have a conversation with a stranger through the time machine of their blog, listening to their stories about the starry sky. It felt like reading a story, while experiencing it at the same time.
At that time, I was also thinking about whether I could contribute something to the starry sky based on what I had learned in the past year. Unfortunately, it never materialized and became a regret. On the other hand, the small projects I worked on while learning front-end development went online unexpectedly.
Being in a management position is tiring. Besides learning new technologies, there are also many trivial matters and disagreements with colleagues from other departments. But through these clashes of ideas, I have learned something, and it's also satisfying to see those little juniors scolding me while doing the tasks I assigned to them.
The pursuit of improvement is endless. We should make use of the resources in the starry sky, create what we want to create, enrich ourselves. This is not only personal growth, but also mutual achievement.
Now#
In response to the organizational reform promoted by the school, the starry sky, as a university-level organization, is coming to an end. I should be one of the first people to know this news. On September 4th, we had a meeting for university-level organizations and were officially informed of this news. In the afternoon of September 4th, I walked around the office alone, bidding farewell to this place full of stories and vitality. Afterwards, we had a meeting for the management team and the centers, and finally decided on the path we would take. The Starry Sky Student Innovation Center is preparing to transform into a studio.
Since I have chosen to follow my heart, I must be prepared for the worst.
In the following month, I ran around, asking teachers from the School of Computer Science and my senior brothers and sisters about the establishment of a studio and the ways to join the entrepreneurship park. Unfortunately, there were no good results. I gradually came to terms with it. Xiao Te once said, "When we win, we celebrate together; when we fail, we fight together. Unity is the key to success. Without unity, nothing can be achieved." If everyone is willing to take action, I believe many problems will no longer be problems. Taking action is the key to solving problems.
As for what will happen in the future, it's uncertain. I hope that the starry sky's members will continue to pursue their passions and actively work towards achieving their goals.
Focus on the present and the future will come.
That year, we looked at the starry sky
With so many brilliant dreams
At least memories will last forever
Like an unchanging starry sky
Accompanying me
In the end, only the starry sky remains
Like an unchanging memory
Accompanying me
The above is the story of a retired starry sky member's two years in the starry sky. I hope this true story has some value for you. The wind is blowing, and it's time for me to leave.