It just sort of happened
One of my 2020 goals was to be more active in the local dev/test community here in Utah. One way I achieved that was by joining a Slack workspace. I introduced myself in the #general channel, mentioning my passion for Cypress. Not 5 minutes later, the channel coordinator sends me an enthusiastic DM and soon enough I committed to giving an introduction to Cypress at the local Meetup.
I’m just geeky and shy and I like to code...It’s not like I had a grand plan where I weighed all the pros and cons of what I wanted to do—it just sort of happened.
– Marissa Mayer
Hungry for knowledge
There was a really great turnout the night I presented and afterwards I stayed to chat and meet people, not realizing at first that there was significant interest in Cypress but not enough local support. As the night drew to a close, the idea of hosting a class or workshop came up and it was like a feeding frenzy as others within earshot gobbled up the idea! Since I'm not one to approach projects haphazardly, I carefully considered the time commitment, got support from my wonderful wife and got to work.
I'm hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter.
– Jay-Z
Down the rabbit hole
The first night of the weekly workshop fell on my birthday, 11 February (don't worry, I still celebrated!). There were 40 registered attendees on Meetup and close to all of them made it to the packed classroom at Bottega. I had no idea how many weeks the workshop would last since this was my first foray into such an adventure. What I knew for sure is that I would commit a night per week for as long as I could and as long as there was continued interest.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
– Morpheus
The peak of instruction
As topics became more advanced, it seemed like the majority of attendees had enough knowledge to get far more experience on their own with Cypress than the two more months with me in a workshop setting. There was still plenty of engagement to make the workshop valuable for everyone but I was also starting a new job and felt it was best to take a break to focus on settling into a new role.
Understanding leads to independence and to freedom
– Vanda Scaravelli
A break to discover and evolve
In that time, I got a software company on their feet with end-to-end testing (with Cypress of course!), the Cypress product continued to evolve, I continued to master my craft, and I bought a domain to host high-quality content.
Since last year, I've been steadily active in the community and most recently, I've been getting requests to relaunch the workshop. I initially intended to start back up in the summer, but I wanted to get a few ducks in a row first - like revamping the workshop content and launching my own site which I've been wanting to do for a long time.
Maybe we can meet again
Further down the river
And share what we both discovered
Then revel in the view
– Brandon Boyd
An invitation
If you're very new to Cypress, a seasoned 10x hacker or somewhere in between, you're invited to join my upcoming workshop. I hope we can meet and learn from each other. Head over to the Fall 2020 Weekly Cypress Workshop page for more details.
Let's do it. It's go time!
– Tommy Callahan