When­ever I take a step back to reflect on the past two years, I real­ize with a great sense of accom­plish­ment how far I’ve come, and with a great sense of humil­ity how lit­tle any of it had to do with me. These 24 months have been trans­for­ma­tional, after a many-years-long period I will for­ever metaphor­i­cally remem­ber as a “cross­ing of the desert.” I knew the hard­ship would end one day, cul­mi­nat­ing in an abun­dance of rich expe­ri­ences and oppor­tu­nity, but I never thought I would count so many blessings.

Indeed, I have been blessed by the help of a great num­ber of peo­ple, many of whom are listed below. The peril of this exer­cise is, of course, that I will inad­ver­tently omit dear friends, for which I apol­o­gize in advance. Clearly more peo­ple deserve men­tion, and it is my own fail­ing for not includ­ing everyone.

My per­sonal inter­est in this post is in look­ing back years from now to remem­ber the moments and peo­ple that made it all pos­si­ble, that kept me moti­vated, and that made the jour­ney worth­while. There were some low points, for sure, which I choose not to dwell on so as not to cast a shadow on the bril­liance of those who made it so great.

Can a few short words or a sen­tence fully express how you’ve impacted me? Of course not. But you have made it bet­ter in many ways unmentioned.

In alpha­bet­i­cal order but in no small mea­sure, thank you:

• Adri­ana Queiroz – for lis­ten­ing and for hold­ing my hand
• Ale­jan­dro Cor­peño, Roberto Brevé – for an excel­lent Web­Conf last year and a sub­lime visit to a spe­cial coun­try, Honduras
• Angelique Swann – you are an inspi­ra­tion, for your ideas, your energy, and your smile
• Bill Roy, Susan Kel­ley – for you have held me up when I have most needed it, on many occasions
• Bruce Turkel – for sage, sage advice, for inspi­ra­tion, and for the pos­i­tive push now and then
• Car­los Miller — for speak­ing truth to power, respect
• Chris Full­man, Peter Imbres – speak­ing at SXSW was a big, unex­pected highlight
• Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells – for the friend­ship and for the invalu­able rela­tion­ships brought by Social Media Club, AdHoc­nium, and SMCEDU, and for your never end­ing ideas
• Chris­t­ian Altaba, Henry Gazay, Liz Gazay – for you have opened new doors and set me to sail on an excit­ing new path
• Cyn­dee Wool­ley, Mol­lie Page Grif­fiths, Amanda Marie Eyer – for believ­ing in me early on, when I was still find­ing my footing
• David Meer­man Scott – for being a like-minded inter­na­tion­al­ist who gen­er­ously gave to our local community
• David Sper­oni – for being the true friend you are
• Eric Oet­jen – for think­ing way out­side the box, brother
• Flo­rian Seroussi – for our occa­sional behind the scenes com­men­tary and for step­ping up at Mobile Mon­day when we most needed you
• Fred­erico Kler – my cousin, you are an inspi­ra­tion to me
• Gary Bahadur, Pad­mini Pandya – a nice friend­ship evolv­ing to a busi­ness rela­tion­ship through a chal­leng­ing book, thank you for invit­ing me on this journey
• Grand­mother – you raised me through my ado­les­cence and teens, and I will miss you. It’s still too early to fully appre­ci­ate your loss, but I moved back from Europe a few years ago in part to recon­nect with you and make peace. Thank you for the heart­felt conversations.
• Hugh MacLeod – for shar­ing uncan­nily wise advice and for your con­tin­ued friend­ship. Rock on.
• Irina Pat­ter­son – for being all heart
• Jason Inasi – hello, my co-author, it’s truly a plea­sure to learn more about you
• Jean-Michel Caf­fin – con­grat­u­la­tions for an excep­tional CCEF con­fer­ence this year, and thank you for includ­ing me in the program
• Jeff Sass – for the laughs and for the friend­ship, it’s a plea­sure to see you every time
• Jens Horne­man, Ale­jan­dra Betan­court – you both rock and I am over­joyed by your smiles. I miss Milou, though.
• Jes­sica Kizorek and Erin – I’ve watched you change and grow and it’s won­der­ful to see. The future is yours to grab.
• Julia Wake­field – for being awesome
• Kim Grin­feder, Rich Beck­man, Sam Ter­illi, Yves Colon – it’s an honor and a priv­i­lege to teach at the Uni­ver­sity of Miami, and I have you to thank. I know you’ve gone out on the line — it’s not lost on me and I appre­ci­ate it.
• Loic Le Meur – thank you for agree­ing to speak at Social Media Club and for an out­stand­ing LeWeb, which blew my mind with its mul­ti­ple TED-like moments.
• Marc Michel, Silja Chou­quet – that work­shop was fun, thank you so much. There’s lots to do …
• Maria de Los Ange­les – for the con­ver­sa­tions and for the friend­ships. You know.
• Michael Tange­man – the true force behind Mobile Mon­day Miami, we miss you sorely. Thank you for your integrity and pro­fes­sion­al­ism, it has been a plea­sure work­ing with you.
• Nick Dominguez – for out­stand­ing design and for step­ping up on short deadlines.
• Par­ents – the main rea­son I moved back, to spend more time with you, for bet­ter or worse – I try my best. Thank you for all you do.
• Paul Kruger — for being a stead­fast friend through thick and thin.
• Patrick Bar­banes, Stephen Malagodi – the pic­ture above says it all, doesn’t it? What an out­stand­ing Cri­sis Camp Haiti. We could have done more. Mea Culpa, perhaps.
• Richard Men­n­eveux – the French Web lives on, and how. Thank you for some great conversations.
• Roy Lin­de­mann, Andrew Storer – no more raclettes, for sure. Just fondue.
• Robert Mur­ray – remem­ber that night out­side Tobacco Road? Thank you.
• Saulo Pas­sos – you killed it with Noki­aTalks, thank you for includ­ing me. It was amaz­ing meet­ing up with 100 South Amer­i­can bloggers.
• Seth Elliott – good con­ver­sa­tions and a bud­ding part­ner­ships in many areas. Look­ing for­ward to next year.
• Social Media Club: Yvette Ferry, Chris­tine Adolf, Agustina Prigoshin, Ulises Orozco, Denise Jacobs, Jay Berkowitz, Mur­ray Izzen­wasser, Toby Sreb­nik, Angie Mon­cada, Neil Bar­dach, Matt Cham­ber­lain, David Suarez, Jes­sica Jurick, Michelle Catin, John Prieur – it has been a plea­sure and an honor to work with each and all of you. You have sur­prised me, you have made it awe­some, and you have made it fun. Thank you for your patience, too.
• Social net­work friends – really? Really. Every sin­gle day I look at what you’re up to, on Twit­ter, on Face­book, on Reader, on Flickr. You show me new things. You blow my mind. You inspire me. You make me tear up. You send me a word of encour­age­ment. You chas­tise me. Build me up or tear me down, you are always there. And I am never alone. It’s self­ish, per­haps, but you make me better.
• Steve Roit­stein – latin music with a kick. And kick-ass food. And a big heart. Thank you, mi vecino.
• Tonya Scholz – you’re a true badass. And you’re lovely. Thanks for look­ing out for me.
• William Plasen­cia, Jami Reyes – you are so thought­ful, you fill me with peace.

When I look back at this list, I am espe­cially hum­bled by how much each of you helped me along the way, as well as by the num­ber of you who helped. If in two years, so many of you graced my life, I can only won­der what of the 40 pre­vi­ous years?

It’s no small epiphany to say I’ve found new mean­ing in John Donne’s quote:

No man is an Island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the Con­ti­nent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promon­tory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man’s death dimin­ishes me, because I am involved in Mankind
And there­fore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
It tolls for thee.

John Donne, Med­i­ta­tion XVII