For a moment, my worst fear was being realized. Okay, maybe not my absolute worse, but it felt bad. Back to this in a moment.

I was in attendance at the PowerShell Summit North America 2015, when I already knew I wanted to return to the 2016 summit. It was the first day and probably only 10 minutes into Don’s welcome. I met so many great people; I talked with and enjoyed the company of many talented and like minded individuals. I heard amazing speakers. It really was as great an opportunity as I thought it would be. If you’re reading this, and you’ve been, you know. If you’ve yet to go, then trust me, you’ll want this experience, too.

I asked my lead at work if I would be able to attend again this year, and what I heard was that  our budget may not have any room in it for a return trip. It wasn’t a sure thing in either direction. With doubt in mind, I was excited to see a contest by PowerShell.org. They offered a Free 4-Day Pass to the summit for the best article submitted for their TechLetter. After reading a forum topic on a PowerShell-related forum, I decided I would borrow the idea and write about my proudest moment in PowerShell — using constrained endpoints to reduce account elevation — and send it in.

Waiting for the January PowerShell.org TechLetter to show up took forever. As all submitted articles were due by the end of November 2015, December turned out turned out to be a long month. In addition, the TechLetter doesn’t usually arrive until mid month. I didn’t really think I had a chance. It’s not like I wasn’t going to check, however. Well, on the early morning of Tuesday, January 19th, half asleep, I opened my inbox and there it was: the January TechLetter.

Unbelievably, it said I had won. Oh, God. My first thought was disbelief (I kept having that thought), followed by feeling bad for everyone else that submitted an article, and didn’t win. I’m certain there were plenty of articles that were great, and I’m sure I’ll get to read them all in upcoming TechLetters — getting an article in there alone, is an honor in my mind. I’m still mystified that I can write about PowerShell and have it deemed worthy for the community.

So, my fear was that I might win the 4-day pass and still not be able to get the financial backing of my employer. A short time after my morning shower, I wrote an email, and later got on the phone with my lead (as I was working remotely that day), to tell her the news. Well, it was a few days later, after a night where my wife and I determined they wouldn’t fund the summit on my behalf, that I got the good news. I was going to be able to attend!

I get it’s the second go around for me, but I’m still quite excited. The venue location is going to be great (likely better than last year), and the content is going to be top notch. I want to do BBQ with Dave again, and I’ve got to have dinner with Josh again (Warren F. — are you going to be there?). This is going to be just as, if not more, rewarding than last time.

So, join in if you can. I’m glad I get to be there; it feels like it was a close one.