I’m not someone who cares about anniversaries or birthdays, because I almost find them to be a sad reminder of how fleeting life is (though perhaps that’s also a good reminder).

Anyway, Tiffany emailed me this morning to remind me that it’s OMAAT’s 12th anniversary today… wow! Indeed, the first blog post was published on February 4, 2008, and the rest is history.

I rarely write about milestones like this. I usually sit down and intend to write something, but then am disappointed I don’t have anything amazing to say, and then just pretend it never happened.

But that seems like a missed opportunity, and today I just want to share one very simple message — THANK YOU!

I started this blog 12 years ago as a hobby my first year of college (I was 17 at the time), and never in a million years did I think this would become my long-term, full-time job.

I can’t even begin to say how thankful I am to those of you who have checked in over the years. There’s no way I could have ever done this full time without the support of you guys.

It blows my mind how many people choose to read this site — the blog gets about as much annual traffic as the world’s busiest airport, so while that’s a weird way of thinking about it, yow! Move over, Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m grateful for all of you I’ve had the chance to interact with, whether in person or in the comments section. I’ve learned a lot.

This industry is my passion, and I get up seven days a week excited to write about it. It excites me just as much as it did on day one. In college I was terrified of the thought of having to “grow up” and get a “real” job. Well, I still feel like a kid, because I get to wake up every morning and do what I love.

Hopefully you’ve at least gotten a laugh or some useful information out of the blog at some point over the years.

Lastly, a special thanks to Randy Petersen for inviting me to blog on BoardingArea when it launched a long time ago, and to Tiffany and the rest of the OMAAT team for making all the magic happen in the background that basically allows me to just spend my days blogging.

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