It has been one year (Aug 3) since my mom died. It has been a wild one but a challenging one as well. Not just the challenge of learning how to grieve, or move forward but learning how to grow from this situation and try to turn some of the negatives into positives.

Looking back at this past year, it’s remarkable I was even able to do anything at all, considering in the first three weeks since the event took place, I didn’t even want to feed myself.

I was able to get back into a normal routine and I think being able to focus on work again really helped me put things into perspective. I can’t say I was too productive at work though, because my mind was thinking about a million things…what to do with my mom’s house, where will my sister and I live? Can I afford a mortgage or a downpayment?

Despite all the worry in my head, I tried not to get caught up in all the grown up stuff I had to take care of and made it a priority to have fun, see friends, treat myself to getting my nails done and the general stuff that would make me happy and distract me from all the negative emotions I had.

If I also did not have the support of my boyfriend I may have probably had a much tougher time coping.

I feel I accomplished a lot this year. I was still able to host another WordCamp Toronto, change jobs – which is somewhat of a scary prospect in challenging times and I was able to put on a charity fundraising event in honour of my mom, now an annual event called The Gratitude Tea.

The best thing I’ve learned from this year is that friends are really important. They will cheer you up when you’re feeling down, take you out for dinner to distract you and remind you that everything will be okay. More importantly, life will go on.

I am my mom’s legacy and I know she would be proud knowing my sister and I picked ourselves up after tragedy and continued to look forward. She was a self-made woman and I try to live by her example everyday.

Here’s a video treat I put together for people who knew my mom. It was taken at my sister’s graduation in the spring of 2009. You can hear in the video that my sister is telling me to put the camera away but I’m glad I didn’t listen. It’s the only video I have of her in recent history.

It seems right after the shortbread is eaten, the parties finish, the champagne has been drank from New Years and the relaxing comes to a halt, the reality of the holidays ending hits you in the face with the cold harsh reminder that it’s January in Canada. With warm weather months away it seems kind of depressing, doesn’t it? Unless you have something to look forward to. For me it’s WordCamp Toronto 2010, coming to the Centennial College Student Centre once again. For two days in March (27 & 28), WordPressers unite for an unconference like no other seen before.

Last time we threw a two-day meetup in the traditional sense with speakers, lunch and impromptu get togethers. This time around we are going to try a few new things. For one there will be a networking breakfast, WordPress success stories will be told, a dj will play music in between sessions and a wine and cheese mix and mingle will end the first day, followed by an official after party. One of the greatest challenges from 2008 was getting people to the venue, so this time we are picking you up! Yes, we will have a WordCamp TO bus to pick you up from one of 4 locations in downtown Toronto and Scarborough.

There is just over two months so we need to act fast to ensure this runs smoothly. If you would like to help with this year’s WordCamp, please contact me or visit www.wordcamptoronto.com and fill out the contact form for speaker, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities. 

Looking forward to planning this year’s WCT with the kick ass Toronto tech community!

In between sessions

WordCamp Toronto was a smashing success. Thanks to all the speakers, attendees, volunteers, co-workers and friends who made it so great. 

The weekend was informative and fun and I can’t wait to begin planning WCT ’09! 

I found an excellent blog post about WCT on blogTO, http://www.blogto.com/tech/2008/10/wordcamp_toronto_redux/

If you have anything you would like to share about the weekend, leave me a comment.

Matt Mullenweg - the creator of WordPress, talking about the future of the blog.

Thanks to Mark Jaquith for these amazing photos.

I can’t believe it, WordCamp is only a few days away. It seems like yesterday when we sat down to begin our very first meeting. Who were we going to have speak at the conference? Who was going to come? Now it has become bigger than any of us had ever imagined!

I am über excited that we have incredible speakers at the conference including Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, Jane Wells, his colleague who will be treating us to a sneak peak of WordPress 2.7 and Joseph Thornley, a pr blogging maverick.

There is going to be so much to look forward to including Mark McKay’s Videoblogging session to Mark Jaquith’s session on WordPress security and Rannie Turingan’s session on WordPress Gallery.

I am just as excited as any other attendee at the conference. I can’t wait to listen to each speaker and meet some new people!

More information and registration at www.wordcamptoronto.com

Exciting new details about WordCamp Toronto have started to unfold recently. We are happy to announce that we have confirmed several guest speakers including:

Joseph Thornley – CEO of Thornley Fallis, a full-service communications and public relations agency.

Mike Ellis – Editorial Director, Online Media with Chrysler North America

Brendan Sera-Shriar – Blogging and Plug-in pro

David Peralty – ProBlogger

This is in addition to our already amazing line up of speakers like Matt Mullenweg – WordPress founder and Michael O’Connor Clarke – Thornley Fallis.

There are currently more speakers almost confirmed, I will update the list as soon as I have final confirmation.