A year ago, I sat down and wrote 2011 Goals: Bring It On. I wanted to go big in 2011. I wanted to grow. I wanted to experience new things. And the year was a smashing success.

Highlights

  • The people. From the LTD posse to my MADPASS posse to the people I met at the FreeCon in March to all 1,000 people I introduced myself to at Summit (I’ll get the other 4,000 next year)…the best part of my year was the people.
  • Speaking at PASS Summit. It’s that awesome. I hope I can do it again.
  • Starting a user group, and 10 months later, still having it go strong.
  • Running with SQL people at events. This will never get old. Two of my loves, combined.
  • Starting a new job. I love the company, my coworkers, and what I get to do every day.

Lowlights

  • Blogging dry spells. I had weeks where I couldn’t think of anything to write about, or hated every post I started, or couldn’t find the time to write.
  • Not reading enough books, and not reading them fast enough. I have a huge stack of SQL and other technical books in my office. I want to read all of them, cover-to-cover. I barely made it through two.

In Review

Blogging

I wrote 50 blogs in 2011 – 50! The most popular were:

My favorite:

Presenting

If only you could see the silly grin on my face as I’m writing this section. I love presenting. I want to keep doing it. I want to be good at it. I made a concious effort to do so this year. I pushed myself. I contacted user groups; I didn’t wait for them to come to me. I submitted multiple sessions for SQL Saturdays. I submitted to 24 Hours of PASS and PASS Summit.

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I spoke at user groups, SQL Saturdays, 24 Hours of PASS, and PASS Summit. I’m blown away. What I learned from this is that to get good at something, you have to do it over and over and over again. Also, these opportunities don’t just show up on your doorstep. You have to pursue them. Is it scary? Yes. Is there rejection, and times you don’t get chosen? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Attend PASS Summit

I wrote, “This is the year I go and take PASS Summit by storm.” All I can say is: done.

Support Cool Community Projects

I was a SQL University professor. I participated in multiple T-SQL Tuesdays. I helped start a user group, MADPASS. I helped found Tech On Tap. I got to #sqlrun a lot. I volunteered on the PASS Program Committee.

I got to meet a lot of great people doing all of this. I got a lot of invaluable experiences. The community is awesome. I want to keep helping. Let me know how I can help.

Help Others

I hope I am doing this, every single day.

Help Myself

I did not get two certifications this year. I didn’t even get one – I failed the test.

I did write a PowerShell script. I wrote several, actually. PowerShell is really cool.

Have I learned a lot this year? An unbelievable amount.

2011, I Loved You

What an awesome year it was. I’ve had good days and bad days, but the SQL community has been there for me through all of them. I can’t wait to see where I’m standing a year from now.

My advice to anyone reading this: get involved involved in the SQL community. Join a user group, attend a SQL Saturday, blog, volunteer for PASS, join Twitter – anything. Don’t sit and wait for the opportunities to come to you. Go to them. Put yourself out there. You have no idea what is waiting, and how amazing it is going to be.

Happy New Year!

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