A Decade in Review

Wow, what a decade! We’ve seen quite a bit of change in our world (9/11, a war or two, minority as President) and I’ve had quite an eventful decade myself. Here’s a quick list of stuff I can remember off-hand that’s happened in the last 10 years (order not necessarily linear, more stream of thought at time of writing):

• Visited France
• Graduated high school (I know, many of you are going to hate me for being this young)
• Visited England
• Visited Canada (term “visited” is loose here, basically drank and ran amok as only college kids could)
• Graduated college (Go ORANGE!)
• Got my blue belt with stripes in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu
• First job in IT as a desktop tech
• Ran first 5k
• Attended first Tampa Bay SQL Server User Group meeting
• Met the love of my life, Jessica (aka @thenovicechef on Twitter)
• Did a hell of a lot of growing up
• First major job change (current job)
• Got a dog (to be followed by a few cats)
• Started presenting on SQL Server
• Passed 70-431 to get my MCTS: SQL 2005 certification
• Got married!
• Started blogging/Tweeting
• Presented at first major SQL event (SQLSaturday)
• Started volunteering for as many PASS opportunities as I can
• Helping to organize SQLSaturday #32 for Tampa (it’s on January 23rd, register now!)
• Accepted an offer to co-author a book on Policy Based Management ( Apress.com )*

*Thanks Colin for reminding me!

I’m sure I’m missing quite a few things but man its been a crazy 10 years! In that time I’ve done a lot of growing up (insert jokes on my age here) and I’m grateful for everything that has happened and all the people I’ve met along the way. It’s been quite a journey and this is only the beginning. This last year alone has been absolutely amazing what with celebrating my 1 year wedding anniversary and all of day-in-day-out interaction with the SQL community. I’m shocked about how fast these last 10 years has seemingly flown by and I’m looking forward to the next 10! Hopefully you guys will still be along for the ride as I continue my adventures in blogging and blowing up your Twitter feeds.