Introduction

In this opportunity I would like to talk about how I managed to get to Las Vegas, to the most important event of the year organized by AWS and, in addition, with a scholarship that allowed me: flights, accommodation, entrance to the event, food, Uber bonus and 250 USD in cash for expenses.

Recently I was listening to a podcast by Carlos Zambrano, Colombian AWS Hero, and they asked him how he became recognized in that way and his answer resonated a lot with me: When you do things with passion, the rest comes alone. In this case it’s about joining the dots backwards, as Steve said, because it’s the only way they make sense. Joining passion, perseverance and following curiosity about the things that concern us. Trusting the process and that things will somehow make sense at some point in life.

In 2019 I joined Simetrik, I started studying AWS to be able to continue contributing and growing. In 2020 I applied for the interview at the embassy because “you never know” (I had it for May 2024) and I obtained two of my first AWS certificates. In 2021 and 2022 I applied to the AWS community builders program but was rejected. In 2023 I was finally accepted, I was able to give a course on IAM and serverless solutions for Women Who Code and I was invited to watch the League of Legends World Championship final in Korea. In 2024 I had the opportunity to present a solution with artificial intelligence for financial control at the Bogotá Summit, they accepted my visa and in September I was finally accepted to the All Builders Welcome Grant.

So, how was I able to get to Las Vegas?

• Curiosity: Allowing the things that concern me to guide my process and learn to answer that need.
• Perseverance: Insisting on what you want to achieve and accepting that everything is a process.
• Having a goal: In my case it was to learn to contribute in different ways to the solutions that were presented to me day by day.
• Having a plan: Of course, it is important to know the goal. But without knowing how to achieve it and translating that into daily executables, it is almost impossible to achieve what you are looking for.

So if I had to give one piece of advice to someone who wants to achieve a goal (health, study, work) but only one would be: Trust in yourselves and your processes, do things with your heart. The rest comes alone.

Special thanks to my friends Jorge and Mono for accompanying me and being part of countless experiences that I keep in the “highlighted stories” of my life.