The Open Source Lab has treated me well. I came here bright eyed and full of wonder, fascinated by the racks and racks of servers we had in the data center. Fascinated at the treasure trove of artifacts held in the back room from conventions passed, old CDs labeled “Fedora 10” or “Ubuntu 8”. That scrap of paper on the wall of an IRC log with Linus Torvalds.

I may have been infatuated with the aura of the OSL, but the what made it all worthwhile were the people. Justin, Chris, Anthony, Lee, Jack (whose goodbye is below), Taylor, and Lance were the first people I interacted with and they really left an impression on me. They guided me along pretty heavily in the beginning since I had almost no idea what I was doing. I had been programming for a good portion of my life, but I had very little server knowledge and only half a year of Linux experience so it’s safe to say I was out of my element. They were kind and patient enough to hold my hand as I learned.

When the school year came around I faced some new challenges. At that time I was taking senior design, which was the most difficult thing I had done up to that point. Everyone at the OSL was understanding and supportive. They expressed their grievances about classes and I joined in about Operating Systems or midterm reports or exams. It made that struggle a little more bearable. They were incredibly helpful too. I asked everyone so many questions that I was afraid they would tell me to just google it, but they never did.

The best thing about OSL is the community, because without it we would just be another hosting provider. I would like to say thank you to Pam for keeping this place bright and cheerful and for helping me when I needed it the most. Thank you Lance for being patient with me and for working closely with me on important projects. Thank you Samar for working so closely with me on OpenStack Taster and for making me an integral part of the development process. Thank you Justin for always being willing to answer my questions, even when they could have just been answered by the man pages. Thank you (in no particular order) to Annie, Aileen, Spencer, Andy, Jerry, Bailey, Jason, Hunter, Mohamed, JJ, Travis, Hannah, Cayden, Levi, Cody, Taylor, Chris, Anthony, Jack, Lee, Amanda, Jeffrey, and Morgan.

You all created a wonderful environment to learn and to grow as a person. Good luck to you wherever you go.

End of line.