Happy and healthy people behind WPML and Toolset plugins – Part IV
September 6, 2021
Do what you love, and love what you do! Here at OnTheGoSystems, we encourage people to use their yearly scholarship allowance to pursue things they like doing during their free time.
The program helps our coworkers discover new talents and develop new skills that they might not have tried if not for this program. It also gives us the opportunity to be more social when working remotely.
Here are some ways OTGS members have used their scholarship benefit recently.
Online Courses During Lockdown
Andrés Cifuentes from the WPML Support team decided to go to the Frontend Masters academy. Andrés shared his experience with us.
How did you choose Frontend Masters for your scholarship?
With all the current restrictions, it is hard to find an outdoor activity available all the time. That’s why I decided to use my scholarship and take some new courses.
I’ve heard from many fellows that the Frontend Masters academy was a good choice, so I decided to give it a shot.
How do you think the scholarship adds value to your life outside of OTGS?
Following these courses motivates me to continue learning and trying new things in life. I love asking myself, what do you want to learn now? Play guitar, really? Let’s give it a try. At least I can say I tried it.
I’ve learned Portuguese, guitar, and photography. It is amazing how many things you can do with your scholarship. It is like a new opportunity to learn something new – just choose it.
Reawakening a Forgotten Skill
Marcel Tannich from the WPML Support team took advantage of his scholarship benefit for his hobby piano classes. “The scholarship program helped me start playing the piano again, visit classes, improve my music theory/notation reading skills, and gain skill in playing the piano.”
Why did you choose to take piano lessons?
As a child, I had 7-8 years of piano classes in a music school and for years, I wanted to improve my knowledge.
Being a child, you learn songs such as “Yankee Doodle”, “Old MacDonald had a farm”, “Jingle Bells”, “Für Elise.” As a huge fan of 70s rock music, I want to have a higher level to play the songs I like. My goal is to be able to play chord progressions such as 12-bar blues, classic rock & roll, and finally, play typical “Hammond” organ sounds and learn to groove! :)
How do you think the scholarship adds value to your life outside of OTGS?
When I put on my headphones and start to jam around, I don’t think about anything else – I just enjoy the moment.
Music, in general, is a lovely hobby and has profound effects on emotions and your body. It’s the perfect hobby to relax and stress management after a hard-working day. I also try to stand at this time, so I also have some positive effects on my body as well.
I searched for something off the screen and music is an excellent valve to get off stress, improve yourself, and be happier.
Physical classes also give me a reason to get out of the house, which in the last months is a welcome difference. A hobby makes you calm, happy, and more relaxed, and this will reflect your personality and the results of your daily work.
Workouts That Are Far From Boring
Otto Federico Wald from the Compatibility team used his scholarship for fitboxing. It’s contactless boxing training. “You hit the bag for 8 rounds and do some functional training between them. I needed to do some physical training and I found this gym while most of the other training I tried seemed boring.”
How do you think the scholarship adds value to your life outside of OTGS?
It pushes you to try new things – things that you would not try if you don’t have this help and motivation to do.
Some years, I choose to use the scholarship for coding related training. Although it has paid off, I think it’s better to use it for activities that are not related to work at all. Even further, for activities that you would not consider otherwise.
Risk-Free Photography
Ivan Larionov from the Proxy team used his scholarship for his photography hobby.
“It was always interesting for me how people create great photos, so I used the OTGS scholarship as a chance to look at photography, understand how this works, and probably get some skills. There are some which I created with some help from my wife – she cooked the salad and helped me with the arrangement.
How do you think the scholarship adds value to your life outside of OTGS?
The scholarship is a great choice to try something new without any risks – I can try something which I would never try if I paid for it myself :) I would never attend a photography course without this.
Having such support allows me to easily choose some things. There are too many things to try, but most of them require money. This sometimes works as a barrier – I would like to try something, but not sure if I really want that.
To be continued…
This article is the fourth part in our series of articles on what our company members do with their scholarship funds. You can see the previous parts as follows: Part I, Part II, Part III.
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