My first pull request was a typo. It changed my career.

A two-character fix to a README in 2018. Six years and three hundred PRs later, the project pays half my rent and most of my confidence.

The path, in milestones.

1. 2018

   The typo PR

   Fixed 'reciving' to 'receiving' in the docs. The maintainer merged it in nine minutes and said thank you. I read the email four times.

   Lesson: The first contribution does not have to be impressive. It has to ship.
2. 2021

   Wrote the feature I needed at work

   We needed a config option my employer wouldn't pay me to build. I built it on weekends and contributed it upstream. Three other companies started using it within a month.

   Lesson: Solving your own problem in public is the cleanest form of marketing.
3. 2024

   Sponsorships covered half the rent

   I moved to maintainer status in 2023. Sponsorships from three companies now cover half my apartment. The other half came from a job that hired me because they used the library.

   Lesson: Open source compounds slowly, then suddenly.