As an ICT student, I spend a lot of time learning programming concepts and working on assignments. But learning how to work with other developers is a different experience. Hacktoberfest encouraged me to explore that side of software development and think more seriously about open source.

When I first started learning Git and GitHub, there were so many terms to understand: repositories, branches, commits, forks, and pull requests. I could remember the commands, but understanding how they fit together took more time.

Exploring open-source collaboration helped those concepts make sense.

Git became more than a list of commands

One of the biggest lessons for me was understanding why version control matters.

Git keeps a record of changes, which makes it easier to understand how a project develops. Branches give us space to work on a change, while commits help explain the steps we took.

I also began to appreciate the value of a clear commit message.…