I have always liked to help others. Years ago i got a tip from a instructor at a IT course i was attending that Twitter was a great way to consume IT news. I started following a couple of people, and quickly saw how they interacted with others and assisted with problems others were having. I was still at a early stage of my IT career.

A couple of years ago when i got into automation, i also started to interact on Twitter, browse trough the TechNet forums and started to write some blogposts. After a while i discovered the Microsoft Techcommunity forums, and started to actively interact there. I found it motivating to see that people found my answers helpful, and the motivation did not stop when i got awarded as the member of the week.

It was first when i started to work at my current employer i really started to engage with the community. Probably i was a bit influenced by my two co-workers that was both Microsoft MVPs. I started to post 3-4 blogposts a month and write on Twitter every day. I was able to go to conferences where my colleagues were speaking and see how they were interacting with people. I met people face to face that i only had seen on Twitter.
I started to send some session abstracts to conferences, even though it was way out of my comfort zone. Why would I, as a introvert want to stand in front of a crowd and speak? I had not done public speaking since i was in high school, but i wanted to challenge my self.

Around Easter this year i got my first session abstract accepted. I was for Experts Live Netherlands. My first ever tech speaking session was even going to be on my birthday. After i was finished in the Netherlands, i got a urge to try this more. I really enjoyed the interaction with people and other speakers.

Shortly after this i got two sessions accepted at PowerShell Conference Asia in Singapore.  Before going to Asia, i went to Microsoft Ignite in Orlando. What an experience this was. I found a really good mix between going to sessions and hanging out/speaking to people at the community area. I got meet some of my Twitter heroes, and started to see people i had met at other conferences before.

Only 14 days after coming back home from Orlando, i went to Singapore. Here i got to interact closely with people from the PowerShell product team at Microsoft, and even mr Snover himself. I had a chance to talk to people like Jeffery Hicks, that had created the videos that i learned PowerShell from. You can read about my trip to Asia here.

One week before i was going to speak at my first usergroup in Norway, i got a notifications on my phone while out shopping with my family. I took the phone out of my pocket, and saw a email from Microsoft. It said that i had been awarded as a MVP in the Office Apps & Services category. My hands were shaking and i felt enormous joy. I felt this as a acknowledgement that my contributions was good enough to make a difference.
Of course, this email didn’t come out of the blue but it was because I had been nominated by another MVP.

Now the really hard work comes, to keep up with interacting and sharing quality content. I really look forward to contribute even more with the community and get the chance to communicate closer with some of the product groups at Microsoft. Last and most important, i want to thank everyone that have supported and helped me on my way in this journey!