ALX's Journey, Egypt's Community Power.

• This is a shoutout to all my peers, friends in COHORT13 and to myself :)
• ps. Iam writing to memorize the journey, and to thank the people i owe to.

From an absolute Beginner to a Programmer who knows exactly what she wants, that is the power of ALX.

In this article I am going to thread how ALX affected my life and the new path i chose to walk through, also I am going to express my deep gratitude for every single person who shared me this path, who I, personally, believe that they deserve to be known, appreciated and well trusted.

It all started in January 2023 when someone recommended me this amazing Scholarship, Applied and got accepted to be starting this journey in 20 February, knowing only the fundamentals of HTML, having a look to its road map, wow! this is going to be so Challenging!!, it was like jumping into a deep sea, with no life guard, till I met their community.

first of all i wanna assure that 'In this life, what you give in forward, comes back to you in mercies/hands that left you up, even if it's not the hand you gave at first'. - my favorite perspective

i remember in the first days after being accepted, not knowing what to do or having a guide to tell me the right steps, I searched for their road map and started looking for resources to study what i'll face, just to be ready, as i thought it would be so hard for me to keep on for more than a month if i wasn't ready! , but unfortunately i took the wrong path - or i thought that - , as i had no idea about vi, Emacs, git and GitHub, bash and those highlighted topics mentioned in the first sprint, so i took too long time in studying each one of them to be proficient in, not leaving it for the tasks, i thought that this is the right thing!, then started to write notes to my peers -who i knew in the first community i had- to help them, step by step, it turned into meetings to discuss things way more than the topics mentioned before, and the useless effort i thought i was doing - especially when i started preparing for C language :) - started to be meaningful, it is amazing to help! even in small things.. I am writing this just because i owe every hand that was lifted to me to this effort. and to again assure ' IT IS ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE' there's no individual success, it's a cycle.

Till now the journey didn't start yet!! it was only the preamble.

ALX was not only an educational journey, it was a fighter builder, a high skilled programmer founder and a soft skilled person motivator . the curriculum they provided was exceptional , the staff they had was very friendly - it was very normal for us to be able to contact any of the team, anytime, including the amazing CEO Julien Barbier , to discuss any problem or to suggest something too! they were always there listening to us, there was a link between us - as students - and them - as founders - all the time ! that's something amazing for sure.

at the beginning, everyone was asking in denial, how would they ask to have a 70h/week for this program -12 months program- , but for me, it made sense, as i was realizing it's targeting those who has no relation with tech, but i was a little bit disappointed when i began to contact people and found out, ohhh! they all are techies :D what will i do among them with my half playlist of html! :D especially when it came to the "Buddy Team", OMG i can't even count how much rejections i faced when i was telling the peers i am a totally beginner and my field of study had no relation to tech! IT WAS INSANE - and guys, who ever reading this now, please don't do that with anyone :D, i was very disappointed actually, never thought of giving up but i felt like I'll be alone, but naah! i met the Amazing, supportive and leader Mohab Mohamed , he was the fuel for me to keep my spirit up! supported me, guided me in my path, beared my unstoppable questions and fears, BELIEVED i can, and never stopped supporting me, from day 0 till the end, I am so grateful that in this world there's people like Mohab! Thank You and wishing you all the best :)

together we collaborated to help people who are like me!, who needed to feel they can and they are not alone! yeah it was the start of everything :).

Now, Starting the tasks in ALX was very funny somehow :) for the first couple weeks they focused on our soft skills, technical skills, and to encourage us to build bonds between each other as students in their ORG, it was a fresh, lovely start, dealing with their amazing sandbox - i do believe i was one of the top ten who kept using sandbox for every task during the journey! i was in love :). - dealing with git and GitHub, with CMD and vi/emacs ! this was so exciting as first steps in this path, TILL i met C language :D my freak friend! come on guys, we need 70h/week with C? no sir we need 70h/hour for C :D i can't even count the continuous days i kept awake just to understand! why would any one start his tech life with C! BUT it is a blessing that i knew its worth later on!, the C tasks were very challenging, can't say i was able to manage or understand all of them, but the idea was behind that i seek to know what is this and what it is for! the Power of Understanding what is under the hood for everything! Starting with C and the kind of tasks for it -especially with their uncompromising checker, made for us - the students of ALX - care more about the performance of any program we are working on, the memory, the runtime , the quality of the code .. etc, seriously i met some people - i'll talk about later - anyone should be proud and afraid of working with because of the accuracy they gained and always seek for because of ALX! they won't let you play with the code without having the best possible result!

during the 3-month sprint with C, we've been through a lot of challenges, but the 2 most challenging ones were PRINTF() implementation, and the shark SIMPLE SHELL or hell, I consider myself lucky as for those 2 projects i had two amazing partners, as for me, i was still can't recognize C well, it was kinda hard for me! so having a partner like Rachid Amhouch for the PRINTF() project was powerful, though he frustrated me much :D! but can't deny how he kept a time for me to discuss the whole process, the steps and to visualize the best way of thinking to achieve what was asked from us and pass it, he was and still an amazing partner and a good friend i have. and when it comes to the amazing partner! who can consider himself luckier than me for working with the Cohort star Emad Anwer for the `Simple Shell`, remember when i said there's people you should be afraid and proud to work with, Emad is the 1st one in that! I can't express how grateful i am for him! without him i wouldn't have been here today with C13 , he supported me and my absence during this project, was keen to make me understand the process step by step, was dedicated to make it as simple as possible and handled many things with me, he is a great partner for anyone, a hard working, highly skilled software engineer.

well, sprint 1 is over and so I am, the difficulties i had through these 3 month - in my study and my life - were in some point unbearable, Deciding to defer was not an option for me, it was a must. But let's be back again to the point i mentioned in the beginning, what you give in forward, comes back in mercies , yeah! when i decided to take that step, i remember having a lot of support from the first ones i met, telling me not to give up and that i can handle it! even some of them started encouraging me in my study! studied with me, provided me with resources, supported me, followed up my progress, made small projects with me, changed my way of study and had been there for me during the whole first month in sprint 2! even some of them been with me in meetings for 6 and 8 hours to make sure i have a better understanding of some topics i missed in C and well prepared in Python with its OOP, DSA ..etc! - Amira, Fatma, yasmin, heba, ahmed, mohamed and yassin!- I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS -to be updated with their profiles- . and of course with some help and encouragement of the lovely A Team, especially the Yousefs :)

Sprint 2 was a great sprint, it was my shining one because of these people, was very confident, trusting I can handle it and believing more in myself, meeting projects with a strong heart, especially C projects, remember my first Solo project in C! STACKS and QUEUES hey guys it was a battle winning for me, my first unbelievable victory on C - with some help from Sarah Hassan my amazing Sarah :) - no one can beat me now! i told myself :) then collaborating with the amazing Yousef Abodawoud on Sorting Algorithms then started my amazing collaboration with Momen Morgan on AirBnb Clone v1-v4 :) most of the other projects i was deciding to work SOLO, my reasons were strong somehow :/

Sprint 3, ohaa here we comes to JavaScript, when i started learning HTML, i had many fears from JS because of the 'what next' comments i had about finishing html and starting css , js, but hey! we are in ALX not after all of that! Java Script was easy as eating a CAKE! yeah dear this is the power of ALX, in the first days of 3rd sprint i've been to the NTI to study MEAN stack, not knowing anything about javascript, mongoDB, angular or Node, But AGAIN the power of ALX comes!, I was teaching them!! :) talking about DSA, going through everything method in JS to explain and discuss what could be under the hood and how they're working! hey guys! with an experience of about 5 month in programming, and no experience in JS at all! I managed to handle 4 lectures of the Course, is it normal? it is not for me, and won't even happen without ALX! my instructor even couldn't believe i had a less than 4 years experience :). managed to contribute in my First full stack Website, managed to have my FIRST FREELANCING OFFER and all of it with, 6 month in ALX.

finishing the Foundation in ALX was amazing and challenging too, we had to build our Portfolio project, guided by ALX, with my lovely teammates Yousef Ahmed and Salma Ahmed deciding to build a social platform for families FAMILY HUB, experiencing a lot together! going through new technologies, facing hard times and difficulties, managing to product a good structured project due to the outstanding effort from our lovely Salma and the great guide of our amazing yousef, thank you guys for everything :)

finishing the Foundation and Starting my Specialization as a Backend Software Engineer was the perfect ending for this lovely journey, no more stress, no more fear, Iam capable of everything i may face! that's the summarize of this journey, the most amazing part I have to mention first is the exceptional Graduation Project we Omar Salah , Momen Morgan and Ahmed Hany collaborated on, Believe me when i say it is Exceptional. not only because of the amazing project, but for sure because of the amazing mates and - Friends! - :) going to mention all about it later :)

p.s. the power of ALX community not only laying on being a part of your Cohort, it's also to be a part of every Cohort, because of this, i can't say i had only one time task, every task in this scholarship i had it for more than three times, any project i didn't get to handle in its time i was able to recover when helping someone from other Cohort, such like Simple Shell, i managed to handle it three other times with people from different cohorts, no task passed like it's never been, everything is in mind.

NOW Graduated From ALX

how can i summarize the experience!, Iam telling you rn.

from someone in 20 feb 2023 knowing only the basic fundamentals of HTML, to someone in Today knowing 4 main languages - C, C++, Python, JavaScript and TypeScript -, not mentioning the frontend tools :) and welling to learn more! worked and have a solid knowledge with frameworks like Reactjs, Nextjs, Flask , Bootstrap, - needed less than a month to be able to manipulate them :) DevOps, Networking, Scripting and Linux are in the hands .. worked with a lot and a lot of techs that i would - without ALX- need a ten years to be able to work with !

from a ZERO to a HERO me. just because of ALX:), not only a backend software engineer, i can be anything.

any student of ALX can be way more than anyone would think.

well, let's be back to our community, when it comes to community - Egyptian community and arab's community too -, it always comes to mind those Amazing, Exceptional, hard working people => Yousef Abodawoud , Emad Anwer , Abd ElMageed Medhat Seif and Abeer Mosaad "Abu Bata Group"

it all started with Yousef Abodawoud , the one and only, actually, when it comes to Yousef, there's nothing can help! what a great person he is! though he is the youngest between us - as Abu Bata group - , but he is the main reason for all of us -in C13- to complete this program and to be here now! , yousef is a super talented person, highly skilled programmer, with a great mindset and an exceptional personality, his insistence to always encourage us to be available for each other within our group or the whole community, to motivate us to help and to provide different ways of helping .. everything here is because of him! starting from the community we built - as he was the one who seek to bring us together - looked for us - we the most active in helping others - and building the main group to be the main station to build this community, yousef didn't just help us to build it, he also helped us in many many other things, introducing new techs for us, the sites that can help ease the process for us and to always have a reference we come back to.

starting with me, then Abdelmageed - let's say maged- then Emda, and best to the last , our amazing Abeer, together the 5 of us collaborated on providing a notion site

that can be a continuous reference for the tasks we have in ALX, for us in C13 and any other Cohorts that is to come.

with the main responsible on Maged and Emad , the 2 superheros for us, they held a continuous meeting every friday since march till now! to discuss the projects of the week and help people who had issues with their tasks, The skills Maged and Emad had, Especially maged with his noncompetitive communication skills, quick wit and funny spirit, Emad for his technical guiding and support , Abeer for her noncompetitive wisdom, mindset and thoughts, the meetings had a great affect on every single person who attended it in the community! the four of them are amazing, not only as a study mates but also as a software engineers, i do believe everyone of them would leave a great effect on whatever he will contribute with, I am so grateful for you guys! really, you were a great shield for this community, can't even imagine how the things would have gone without your collaboration. :)

Now to the most AMAZING team , who is a Collaboration between Abu Bata Group and the top Best fellows of the community , THE A TEAM.

well, this is the team you should think twice before you doubt anything about them, amazing skills, great personalities and exceptional impact :)

starting with my Friend , Sarah Hassan the faithful girl, amazing programmer and the absolute most hard-working person I've ever met! Sarah for me is my shield during this journey, her unceasing support and help, no one helped me - in A team - like her! she is the hand that was lifted to me during my hopeless, the supported mate, the study partner.. i am NOT forgetting anytime you asked me to study with you, making sure i have a well understanding of everything, discussing and suggesting ways to improve myself, always there for me supporting my decisions and guiding me whenever you could, you are one of the counted i gained from this journey, thank you for everything. <3

Mahmoud Hamdy finally i can say The Youngest in all the Cohort :D but can you believe that the youngest is the smartest ? yes he is, Mahmoud is an exceptional highly skilled software engineer, his skills, knowledge and abilities are noncompetitive ,a great friend for anyone, supportive and knows exactly how to be a hand in the right time, You will be the best version of any software engineer that anyone would look forward to.

Yousef Ahmed the Organised Clean Coder :D, without your unbroken support, it wouldn't have happened! , you supported me in many situations that i can't count, always offered me a hand in any hard situation I've been through even if you don't know what it is! your guiding for me, supporting and being the first and may be the only on in A team who made me feel that it's okay to not understand or not to be okay enough! it was the first encourage i got from you ! not mentioning your amazing skills, we will need another article then :D thank you yousef for everything, this is for time :)

Abeer Mosaad from day one we met Abeer, her wisdom, knowledge and excellence were clear and net, you can see it coming from the screen, a great great great talented SE Engineer who is very good at everything! letterly everything! her presence adds us a great value and she can't even recognize that! her thoughts and amazing growth mindset, you can't even till how young she is! a supportive, collaborative person, wishing you all the best our Amazing Abeer :)

Abd ElMageed Medhat Seif the killer :D the actions handler, the community extender and the talented cultured Frontend SE :D with the continuous support from Maged, we, all of us, managed to get through all of this to here, whether for gratitude or for intransigence ;) the supportive maged, you just have to through the idea out, and maged will make it an action, his keen to make a valuable community with a specific goal is the main guide for all of us, handling with the guys the meetings to guide the new comers, leaving a good fingerprint on them for the ALX program! well, he is the engine for the ALX community in Egypt, no one can deny this.

Salma Ahmed the great tester, the exceptional skilled coder with a clear vision of how everything runs, try competing her! it is a lost battle from here :D salma is an amazing person with a great personality, she is a great value for anyone who could be lucky enough to work with her! I am so grateful for sharing a project with you, learnt a lot an i will keep learning for sure, thanks salma for everything.

Mario Nageh our meriooooooo :D the reverse engineering architect, the talented SE, with his great presence between us, he added a great value with his vision on everything he put a hand on, amazing mario :).

Omar Salah the only one person Iam regretting that i didn't collaborate with from day 1, though he was in C12, deferring in Specialization, but he had a great affect on me, Omar is an amazing person, his skills are noncompetitive, soft and technical skills, his personality too, working with him in a team was a pleasure for me, his patience and keen to afford a good environment we can work with was unbelievable, his insistence on sharing every information he knows with us, to make the path easier when dealing with new techies, it was a great experience and a perfect ending for ALX because of him, thank you for everything, my friend.

Momen Morgan the amazing frontend developer and SE, can anyone compete him? i dare you! the supportive partner for half of the year, who supported me much and beared and shared with me the bad luck, momen has a great communication skills, a responsible person who finds a way to solve any problem, a highly skilled frontend Dev who can hanlde any situation with React, it was honor for me working with you !

Alaa Ayman and Jailan Fawzy both of you are the most amazing and hardworking I've ever met!, I never felt I was alone because of you both!, you dedicated hard working, strong well and good manners were a great motivator for me, can't skip without thanking you for everything :)

and the best to the last, Hüsam Mahmud the best part of ALX, my greatest support, the Study Partner, the Problem Solving motivator, The one who shared me the suffering in many things, the yelling and the joy, the loyal friend of the path! no words can describe how grateful I am for your existence sharing me this path, studying together, working on projects together, plan handling together and building the vision together, thank you Husam! no words can describe how grateful i am, dear friend. <3