I was so scared the first time I attended a WordPress meetup. After working on a project for nearly a month, I was stuck and had no idea where to turn. Many of us have been there, especially when we are starting out. I needed help if I wanted to go farther. My friend Cory Miller has quoted an african proverb about this: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  I had gone fast, but I needed some help to go farther.

Before my first meetup I was an idler in the #wordpress IRC channel and didn’t feel like I belonged. I’d like to say that attending that day changed everything, but to be honest, nothing changed for a while. I went because I was stuck and I had a question.  At the end, during open Q&A, I asked a question that likely wasn’t very clear as it didn’t elicit many responses, but was told that I should post on the wp-hackers mailing list with it. I went home and did just that.

Attending that first meetup made it easier to attend the next month and the month after that.  Soon, attending the meetups become normal for me and I looked forward to seeing Devin, Michael, Kathleen, and the rest of the regulars.  I had found my way into a community.

Looking back on my journey with WordPress, I can’t help but be thankful that on that April day I decided to go far.