Yes, I know some of you are “over it”…. I’ve been reading a lot of “been there done that” lately.  Well guess what?  This is my first year going to SXSW and I’m practically on the verge of tears that’s how excited I am.  For years I’ve wanted to make it down to Austin and due to financial, personal, work-related reasons, the stars just never aligned for me.

Well world, I am officially here!  This week I’ll be joined by about fifty of my colleagues from Porter Novelli (disclosure: we’re SXSW’s Agency of Record), helping Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis rock out the blogger lounge and TechSet, recording an episode of Capitalize for Dartboston, and connecting with some of my favorite people in the industry.

I’m slightly worried that VIP lists and secret dinners will create a separation between the “haves” and “have nots” or the “influencers” and the “wannabes”. I do not have VC funding or a hot startup to call my own. I am not an online personality nor do I have an upcoming book deal. I do not have a million Twitter followers or a personal fan page. But what I do have is a purpose.

This year at SXSW, I want to celebrate the following:

1. Friends – There are people who I’ll be meeting this week who I’ve known for years and some just a few days. There are people who I haven’t met in person yet, but have written emails and tweets to for months. I want to celebrate friendships that I’ve been fortunate enough to have thanks to this wonderful community. I’m a better person because of them.
2. My job – Do you know how awesome it feels to get to be here because of work?  I take a lot of pride in being able to say that I’ve hustled hard over the past four years to get to this point and to know that I’m making a living doing what I love means everything to me.
3. Serendipity – I ran into @heyamberrae on my flight earlier and we bonded at the airport and over lunch about our similarities, passions, and shared connections. Prior to this run-in, we were just twitter acquaintances who had met briefly at an event in NY. I can now say that Amber is officially on my “watch out world” list and someone who I’m looking forward learning from and collaborating with in the future. This is just one of many serendipitous moments that I hope to have in the days to come. It’s the unexpected, anything can happen, spontaneous nature of this space that keeps me coming back for more every time.

In this vast landscape of social media practitioners, ideators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology titans, to know that I somehow have a piece of the puzzle is something words can’t describe.  And even though I officially haven’t slept for two nights straight, I am so alive, alert, and ready to have SXSW kick off my best year yet.