So the Facebook Year in Review posts have been going around as well as the Jetpack Year in Review posts. Since it is the last day of the year (December 31st) 2014, I figured that it was probably time to share some of my own thoughts on the year and mention a few things that happened on this blog.
Community
An easy way to sum up my 2014 is the word “community.” Without truly meaning to, this is what I made my year about. My wife and I joined a new community group at our church in late 2013 and it took off in 2014. I love these people and have been able to see their families grow and share in some special moments with them. I’m definitely looking forward to continuing that into the new year.
Perhaps the biggest change for me in 2014 was my foray into the WordPress community. Finally. I’ve been a developer working with WordPress in at least a part time capacity since 2007. I’ve built hundreds of sites using WordPress in those years and have grown so much in both WordPress and development knowledge. But I had never really participated in the community. I watched occassionally from afar, but even that was for a short time in mid-2013.
So on a whim I decided to attend WordCamp Austin and was immediately hooked. I dove into the community on Twitter and began interacting with as many WordPress people there as possible. I also connected with Carrie Dils and through her became a co-organizer of WordCamp DFW. I continue to connect with more and more people on Twitter, in blog comments, and anywhere I can.
Also in 2014, Matt Mullenweg encouraged everyone who works with WordPress to consider giving back 5% of their time to support WordPress in some way. While one of my goals is to contribute to core, I wasn’t quite ready for that in 2014. However, I did join the theme review team in December and am currently reviewing my first theme. I’ve also taken a stab at helping out more on the wordpress.org support forums, although I haven’t been as disciplined as I’d like.
Career
While I moved into a new job in 2013, the role changed dramatically for me in 2014. In September of 2013, I moved my family from the heart of Virginia to Dallas, Texas to join The Richards Group as a front end developer.
But that role quickly transitioned into heading up all WordPress efforts for our company. I guess that happens when you answer a ton of WordPress related questions everyday. 🙂 At my one year anniversary, my boss decided to make it official and made me the Technical Product Manager for all WordPress projects and products. It’s a role that I am enjoying as it gives me some oversight into our coding standards and best practices while also allows me to be a resource for our brand and project managers.
Family
We welcomed a brand new member to our family this year in June. My daughter, R, was born and has been a huge blessing ever since. My oldest, S, has jumped right into being a big sister and all the things that go with.
We had great 2014. There were ups and downs, but overall I would consider it to be a great year. I grew both personally and professionally. I got to do things that I had never done and saw huge gains in knowledge and skill. Next I’m looking forward to 2015 and creating some goals and themes to help measure myself against the past. How was your year?