I had been thinking of participating in a hackathon to experience what it is like, looking at my friends winning some. This was just after I became a certified AWS solutions architect - associate that I found a post by AWS on Twitter. It was the PartyRock Generative A.I hackathon. I was reluctant on whether I should participate or not as I was already preparing for my uni exams and for my German B1 exam (which was another jump) the following month.

My dad helped me go through it with me finally participating, as I thought to myself - I could do this in my free time, at least I'd get the experience of participating in a global hackathon. Additionally, also get a platform to practice my cloud architectural skills through the technical blog I had to submit with the project. I defined my objectives as participating and giving my best. Yep, winning was not an objective nor an expectation.

Who knew what was going to happen.