You may have noticed there’s no Essay this week. This is for a variety of small reasons, some of which involve going fishing. We’ll resume our regular schedule next week. I think this is only the second time in over 4 years that we’ve missed an essay. Later this week I should have a fun …
I Am Cookie Dough
Contributor: Allie Nimmons
I was always told I had to go to college. I was “gifted” so learning came easy and I enjoyed it. From ages 6 to 18, I went to competitive accelerated schools designed to churn out college students. It was a narrow path I’d been set on, without encouragement to explore beyond. Majoring in theater …
How The WordPress Community Helped Me Face My Fears And Do It Anyway
Contributor: Yvette Sonneveld
Your comfort zone is a muscle. If you don’t stretch it, it will shrink. It still feels unreal. Two days ago, I was standing on a stage, sharing my expertise. And not just any stage. One of the stages of WordCamp Europe 2019 in Berlin. A conference with over 3200 registrants, over 2700 attendees. A …
It’s never too late to start the right career path
Contributor: Afsana Multani
WordPress – Life changing experience Recently I had an enjoyable experience with a team of WPTranslationDay4 where I took the challenge to be a Live Streaming Host for the first time. And it was a fantastic talk with Speakers. By the time you read this, I would have experienced my first international talk in WordCamp …
My “Hero’s Journey” Through the Dark Underworld of WordPress Hosting
Contributor: Tevya Washburn
The following is an expanded and updated version of my presentation at WordCamp Salt Lake City 2017. My girls love Moana. Especially when it first came to video and they could watch it every day… or two or three times a day if mom wasn’t feeling good or catching up on sleep from being up …
Ugyen’s Roadmap to WordPress Contributions
Contributor: Ugyen Dorji
འབྲི་རྩོམ་འདི་རྫོང་ཁ་ན་ལུ་ཡ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན། Ugyen Dorji is from Bhutan, the landlocked country situated between two giant neighbors, India to the south and China to the north. Ugyen works for ServMask Inc and is responsible for the robust Quality Assurance process for All-in-One WP Migration plugin. He believes in the Buddhist teaching that “the most valuable service is one …
I Grew Up With WordPress, Then WordPress Saved Me
Contributor: Taylor Rose
I grew up in the 90s and 2000s which was a weird time for technology. Part of me remembers carrying around a case of cassette tapes and the sound of dial-up occasionally screaming from the living room. The other half recalls hacking into my dad’s email from the shared family computer for the first time …
Growing Through Translating WordPress
Contributor: Naoko Takano
このエッセーは日本語でも読めます。 I have spent most of my adult life knowing WordPress. In November 2003, a few months after I discovered WordPress, I gave it a spin on my personal blog. A few months later, I started contributing in the form of translating WordPress core and documentation into Japanese. Today, I make a living as a …
I Found My Tribe
Contributor: Michelle Ames
When I was a kid not a single girl said “I want to be a web designer when I grow up”. Mostly because there was no world wide web. There weren’t video games either, until I was in junior high school and Pong came out. Back when I was a kid, girls mostly thought about …
Broadening My Horizons Through WordPress
Contributor: Eric Karkovack
I’ve been a web designer since 1996. In some ways, it’s hard for me to fathom. Those were the days of Netscape Navigator and table-based page layouts. I wrote every bit of HTML by hand on a seriously-underpowered computer and a tiny monitor. Definitely a far cry from where we are today. I was completely …