Thanks for the constructive criticism! When I said surreal I didn't mean the hikes, I meant the way they took me into their inner circle and treated me like just another team member as opposed to just a temporary intern. I'll have to run a spell checker, no real excuse for that. I can only draw from my own experience when writing the blog, so I just wrote about how I felt while going through it. As "inauthentic" as that might sound. Also Goldman wasn't my first paid SWE job, I've had previous jobs where I've had to write production software and my thoughts on Open Source are my own, through my own experiences. I'm not simply regurgitating a position.
I have to agree with the 'adorable' comment, me being someone in his 50s and wishing I could have had the same experience. While I, too, thought that the blog started a bit uneven, it was cool that you then focused on the technical side and finished on the successful project conclusion and the human connections made.
Whether the friendships end up lasting forever or not, what I can tell you is that you'll never forget how you felt on that 7am zoom call or when you got the invite to return later. That excitement is palpable to me as a reader, in the same way that it will be to you as you advance in your career and look back.
