When Matz released Ruby 25 years ago, I was still in my mothers womb, only to be born a couple of months later.
To think that something as old as I am has grown with me, becoming better with each release and has literally provided me with my livelihood is just amazing, to say the least.
I have been writing Ruby professionally for 4 years now and over these years Ruby has given me a lot of things that I'm thankful for -
It has rekindled the love for programming in me - I don't think I would've enjoyed writing code and solving problems as much in any other language.
It has taught me that learning and improving are never ending - Ruby gives you the flexibility to create just about anything. It's metaprogramming opens up a new world for you to create and experiment.
Over the years, I have come across people who started their own companies 10 years ago due to their love for Ruby because at that time starting your own company was the only way you could get a Ruby job.
I have come across entreprenuers who have rapidly created companies that solve real problems using Rails in a very short span of time.
I have come across students who grab amazing offers from companies, just because they knew Ruby while most of their peers were still struggling to understand C and C++.
Ruby piques your interest. It makes you feel smarter. It gives you a sense of accomplishment.
It does all the heavy lifting so that you can concentrate on solving your problem.
And more than all this, Ruby has helped me leave my work place with a sense of satisfaction and happiness every single day. For a language whose motto is "developer happiness", it really delivers.
Thank you Matz, for all the work that you have put in to create this 'gem' of a language. Thank you, the community for sticking together, for being so nice to each other and for helping newcomers feel so welcomed :)
For me, Ruby has been a gift. A gift that has kept on giving me everything I could've ever wished for.
I hope and pray that Ruby continues to grow with me. Because I just really, really love this language.
Manoj M J is a software engineer at Reflektive