A few years ago I got bored and decided to write a blog. For some reason, I chose to use WordPress.com, which I had never heard of before, instead of Blogger.com. I don’t remember why I made that decision, or how I even found out that WordPress was a thing.

Of all the random decisions I’ve made, few have seemed so trivial at the time, and made such a big impact on my life.

For these last few weeks we’ve been talking about all the #wpdrama, and how to move forward from it.  It’s an important discussion that we must have. There will always be examples of people in our space doing things that seem shitty.

But we can’t let it trick us, those who make up the WordPress community, that we are in fact awesome. We spend our time figuring out how to empower ourselves and others to tell our stories, make a living and keep writing cool shit, with a mantra of “add value.”

For the most part, the people who rise to the top of this community, are those who not just figure out how to add the most value, but how to get paid for it.

Sometimes I forget why I got into all of this, and that doesn’t matter. I’ve stuck around for two big reasons. That — the idea that everything we do is creating something free, that helps ourselves and others — is the first.

The other is that programming is a fascinating rabbit hole that I don’t want to find my way out of. But that’s not my point.

My point is that we’re all human, and therefore are flawed and imperfect and could be better. We’re a big community, and statistically speaking some of us are not going to get along. That’s fine. In the grand scheme of things, what we have accomplished, and will accomplish is incredibly awesome.

I’m proud to be a part of this community, even when things are not so shiny.

I’m also very grateful for everything this community has given me. From the bottom of my heart:

Thank you. Ya’ll are awesome.