Being the only junior on a team of five staff engineers is equal parts terrifying and the best thing for my growth

Onboarding doc basically assumed I already knew things I'd never touched, standups are half acronyms I have to look up after the call. First month felt like drowning quietly and nodding along. Started just asking the "dumb" question in the moment instead of pretending and looking it up later, turns out staff engineers mostly love explaining things when asked directly, they're just not used to being asked. Three months in and the gap feels smaller, though I still keep a running doc of acronyms because I will never remember them all.