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title: The Battle of Open Source
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As someone new to software development, contributing to open source projects can seem daunting and downright terrifying. 
Learning software development has been an unexpected journey that I have had the pleasure of taking. Having the support from
my family members and friends has made the journey less of a challenge, I'll admit, it has not been an easy road. I've hit many road blocks in my path, even so, I keep challenging myself every day. I’ve read many articles suggesting that, as a junior software developer -  it is important to contribute to open sources. I've searched the innerwebs for an open source project that I felt I could tackle easily.

The harsh reality of it is, that most of the open source projects out there are not quite as easy as I imagined they would be. GitHub in general has been a challenge to learn, and I feel like I learn something new each day, I am looking at several "beginner friendly" open source projects  I've come to the stark realization that it is going to take much more time than I had thought to be able to contribute code in an open source projects. 

## Lessons Learned

Even though the above paragraph might seem a little off putting, do not fret. Yes, Open Source Projects are nothing to take lightly - its  a serious business. Take your time, read the documentation or readme's, do research, and never ever give up or stop learning. No matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned developer there will always be something new to learn.

## Here are a couple of articles to keep you motivated:
* [I made my first open source contribution within 200 days (and how you can too)](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/i-made-my-first-open-source-contribution-within-200-days-and-how-you-can-too-4d5bdbd63fad)
* [Making your first open source contribution](https://opensource.com/article/17/5/making-your-first-open-source-contribution)
* [My First Open Source Contribution](https://medium.com/ifme/my-first-open-source-contribution-68c86de88af9)


