15 years ago, July 1, 2003, I got a surprise in the mail. An envelope with this sheet of paper welcoming me to the Microsoft MVP program for the things I had done in the community in the past year. Believe it or not, this first award was triggered via Microsoft Academics because one of the things I’d been doing with INETA was working with college students.

With that piece of paper fresh out of the envelope, I jumped in my car and drove 15 miles to the job site where my husband was working on a roof, made him come down from the roof so I could show him. I was that excited and surprised. Even if the letter had not been completely out of the blue, had someone contacted me to fill out a form as the MVPs do these days, I am confident I would have been just as surprised and excited.

I’ve been honored to be awarded every July 1 since then for various things I do to try to shorten the learning curve for other programmers by sharing what I’ve learned. I don’t take the award for granted. I just follow my heart and do what I want to do and if it happens to be what they are looking for when the assessments are being done, then I’m grateful for that particular recognition.

I know it was a hard week for a lot of long term MVPs who were not being re-awarded this year and for the MVP leads (aka Community Program Managers (aka CMPs)) who made personal calls to each and every one of those MVPs to try to let them know as gently as possible. Given that, I’m extra grateful to continue to be part of the program for the July 2018 – June 2019 period.

  Sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss my conference & Pluralsight course announcements!