2010: A Year of Foundations
I decided I was not going to recap 2010 in a blog post, but I changed my mind. This has been a very, very active year for me. It all happened fast, and I think the fruits of it are yet to come. That is why I say it was a year of foundations -- on many levels.
Professionally
I got a little more out of my comfort zone this year. I started the year out speaking at a SharePoint Saturday event in Indianapolis. It was by far the largest professional group I have spoken to until then. Although I have played guitar for and spoken to much larger congregations, this made me a little more nervous. It was an unfamiliar audience with a very broad degree of experience. In August, the jitters went to a whole new level when I spoke to a breakout audience more than twice the size at devLINK (with a major head cold) immediately following Tim Huckaby's keynote address. In addition to getting more comfortable with speaking to larger professional audiences, I gained some great experience in how to prepare presentations and engage audiences.
In the second quarter of 2010, I was awarded the INETA Community Champions award for my work in the Microsoft community. My focus is on SharePoint, but I work with other products as well. My community work this year included leading the Evansville SharePoint Users Group, hosting a local SharePoint 2010 launch, speaking to other user groups in the mid-west, and speaking at the two regional conferences listed above. Online I was active in the Microsoft TechNet forums and the SharePoint Overflow forums. I taught classes, beta tested products, beta tested exams, earned new certifications, and even did a little writing (which you will learn more about in the future).
Our company grew. Our clients (the best clients in the world) seemed to have a productive year. We reaped a lot of fruit from our hard work, but again, I think most of the fruit remains to be seen. Much of 2010 was laying the foundation for great things in 2011. I'm looking forward to a great year professionally -- more stretching and getting out of the comfort zone.
Personally
Personally, I could go on for days. I love my family. My wife is a rock -- one of the pretty kinds. Karen is such a hard-worker and so supportive of her family. My kids are starting to come to their own. Jaelyn is on the student council and got some great roles at the community theatre. She started playing tennis in addition to soccer and has taken a real liking to it -- she'll be a force to be reckoned with. She still has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard, and she never misses a beat on the piano while she's singing. Jenna made the cheerleading squad and is having a blast with it. She's a power forward on her school's basketball team and plays on a great traveling team. She loves hanging out with her friends and enjoying a good laugh. I don't think I've ever seen a kid catch on to things so quickly -- from technology to board games to sports. She even caught on to math a little better this year. I've much to be proud of as a husband and father. We had a couple of great road trips -- hiking at Shawnee and kicking back at Cedar Point, Marblehead and the Kalahari in northern Ohio.
I started playing guitar again after a several month hiatus. I play frequently with a group of great musicians at Bethel Memorial Church in Princeton. I organized and coached our community's first girls junior high tennis team. It was a foundational year there, too. Many of our girls learned to play tennis for the first time, and next year they'll be very competitive. I started coaching basketball at the grade school again -- this time as assistant for a good friend. I love working with the fifth graders and seeing how much better they are at the end of the season compared to when they started. In addition to the above, I somehow became president of the Junior Titan Soccer Club. I'm honored to do it. There are big shoes to fill there, but we have a great soccer community and my kiddos love the game.
My incredibly gifted and hard-working brother-in-law Darvin (affectionately known as "Durr") retired from the Army just days ago after 20+ years of loyal service. Darvin has sacrificed for his country -- home and abroad -- including several tours to Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. I appreciate the sacrifices Darvin and his family have made, and I wish him a blessed retirement/next chapter of his life. I'm also proud of my little sister Lana who decided to go back and get her teaching degree. She aced college and her student-teaching assignments. She's going to be an amazing teacher!
Conclusion
I honestly don't know how we squeezed it all in. My head was swimming at times for sure. Time off at the end of 2010 has been great for clearing my mind and renewing focus. Even by my own standards I've taken on too much, but I'm not willing to give any of it up at this point. I'm blessed to be a part of all of it.
Looking forward to a great and ambitious 2011! It's going to be exciting right out of the gate. Hope your 2011 is blessed and productive as well!
