Marc's journey into contributing to open source began with a desire to give back to the community that he enjoyed so much, despite initially feeling unsure about how to start and what value he could provide. His experience in Python programming and curiosity about contributing led him to discover codetriage.com, a platform for finding open source projects in need of help. However, it was a podcast featuring the creator of a local package, who encouraged participation from contributors of all experience levels, that truly motivated him. After reaching out to the creator with an initial vague email, Marc realized the importance of clearly communicating his skills and intentions to be more effective. This led to receiving helpful guidance on how to get involved, prompting him to further educate himself on open source contribution through YouTube and exploring the project's issue log. This experience taught Marc valuable lessons about the importance of assessing one's skills, being concise in communication, and understanding the dedication of core developers who balance open source work with their full-time jobs.