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A caso – Italian for randomly or by chance – is how I discovered WordPress at a very young age. I was only fourteen years old at the time, a teenager keen on discovering my way around the internet on my very first laptop.

A far cousin had introduced me to Microsoft Frontpage 2003 earlier that year, opening my eyes to wanting to have my share in the world of online publishing. To a 90s kid back then, being able to surf through banner ads and websites while using the internet from the comfort of my parents house meant that I am discovering unconquered territory – at least not vastly back in the day. So I took my curiosity to the likes of Piczo, and to free subdomain hosting services that provided very limited resources but let you upload some html & php files and play around databases and file managers.

That was the start of an infinite – lifelong learning curve for me.

Several free – mostly lousy designs and planless content – now forgotten websites later, it was about time I bump into what seemed like, and turned out to be the internet’s gem. WordPress.

I remember feeling like a magician the first time I auto-installed it into my free hosting plan. Look ma’ I have a freakin’ website now!

And so it was, just like the MS Frontpage 2003 and then Piczo days, website after website, and blog after blog, without a clear goal. I was just a teenager discovering and then being led into learning about development languages, local servers, web hosting, cPanel, content management, and of course WordPress.

Years later the interest was still there despite practice slowing down, up until choosing Management Information Systems as a university major, and applying for 2 web programming and development courses that were not available at the time. (I joined a student petition after the college replaced the 2 courses with management ones due to low interest.)

Days have passed, and my web development knowledge was enough to land me my very first commercial website deal before I even graduated: local car dealership and car-doctor like service, of course based on WordPress, back in the day before page builders were a thing. There I was again, discovering magic through custom design, functions, real big boy’s hosting instead of the free branded one, custom fields, and the list goes on..

Over the next few years, WordPress was a money making machine for me, a Lebanon based kid that has just graduated college and is already living the dream. But little did I know about the real good side of it.

Long story short, and after a career shift into marketing and reputation management in different sectors, I bumped into WordPress again, this time from Italy.

But now WordPress’ savoir-faire didn’t make me feel like a magician. Magic was instead felt with being accepted as a WordCamp Europe organizer for the first time. Something I knew very little about and seemed very vague to me back in Lebanon. Even the words flagship event or biggest WordPress event meant nothing to me back then, I knew it was an event about WordPress and many sponsors and professionals attended it. So I wanted to get involved for potential gains and connections, and so did I.

However, the first step towards my mindset shift was the initial Townhall meeting we had in preparation for WordCamp Europe 2024 in Torino, Italy aka my backyard.

It was full of new faces, strangers to me, and not much to each other. Being one of the few first time organizers for 2024, I thought I will have a hard time integrating with these people. But I was proven wrong even before the townhall was done with.

Wow! What a fun bunch to be around! Was the first thought to cross my mind after logging off the zoom link.

A week later I was introduced to my new team, what we like to call The Comms Team led by two amazing gentlemen Steve, who I consider family & Matt of the People (that’s how his number is saved in my phone.) I had the pleasure to work with Hacer, Ruth, Ximena, Jorge, Luca, Mike, Philip, and Val. Learning from every single one of them.

Being the youngest and the newest member of #team-comms, they sure did treat me like their little brother without even intending it. While Mike and Hacer made sure I felt comfortable every time I came to them to clarify a PR related task; which was a challenge I wanted to dive into for the first time; Steve and Matt made sure they paved the way for me, sometimes having to respond to late evening messages or jump on tasks I was stuck at to explain.

But the real shift in thinking was the venue visits we usually do before the event. On pen and paper, these are brief visits to the host city and venue mostly tackling logistics, deals and #team-local related matters. But in reality, they were big family gatherings where true friendships were formed, new memories created, and lots of hugs exchanged.

It was then when I also met, for the first time, my fellow local and Italian community members from different teams: Eleonora, Laura, Cristiano, Lorenzo, Piermario, Stefano, and a long list of lovely people too many to name here, who deserve a paragraph of their own. Back to the global #WCEU community, I had the pleasure to meet the leads of the 2024 version: Wendie, Juan, and Takis’ cardboard cutout. Not forgetting Michelle, Patricia, Carlos and Pascal (Casier, who I like to call signor IT.)

Being a Turin resident, living a few steps from all the action, while seeing most of these folks sacrifice their money and time – taking long flights that sometimes got cancelled, long drives, having little sleep – to ensure they cover every angle in preparation to the event, cut any doubt in my head that I was in the right place, with the right people, doing the right thing.

Skip ahead to June 13th, I couldn’t contain my excitement and happiness to what was a first for me. Everything seemed perfect, smiles and happy people everywhere. Connections were heartfelt and didn’t mean anything of material value. I knew I was there to learn and help make this event a success, but I couldn’t but feel like I was in a big family get-together.

The city center I commute to everyday for my daily job was now buzzing with people I could tell feel the same as me. As around 3000 attendees and roughly a hundred dedicated volunteering organizers took to the streets of Torino, you could tell someone is here for WordCamp by their swag, and you knew a simple smile and hi there exchange was inevitable 99% of the time.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on several podcast sessions for Nathan Wrigley of WP Builds, for whom I have a deep admiration. And it was no less than a enriching learning experience from both his guests and himself. Moments later, I was having lunch in one of the tracks with tireless blogger and author Fernando Tellado, or as one of our Spanish guests called him “The Godfather of the Spanish WP community.”

The friendly and warm exchange with Fernando was followed by a devastating notice that my contract – set to expire by June 30 – will not be renewed. It almost spoiled the remainder of the day but I knew it was both a test and a sign. An auto-test, deeming myself jobless but not hopeless, doing all I could to find alternatives, from sponsor booths, to seeking the event’s job board, and not ending with going back home at the end of the day to apply for jobs instead of allowing grief and despair to take over me.

But could I have done it without having these people around me? Who showed solidarity and made every call or attempt possible to help figure out a way to help me. My team leads introduced me to key connections at the event, local team members tried to find me a job in the local landscape, while others spread the word in their circles. One thing I was sure of, it will end on a good note.

For the first time I wasn’t scared of the unknown. I felt the authenticity and sincerity in every good luck wish I received. Knowing for sure they did that without expecting a dime in return. And that was my sign. I want to do the impossible to lift myself back up and stick around these people.

Morale was really high in the next day, and the afterparty exposed it. I knew giving up or blaming myself were not options. So I danced the stress away with awesome people. Until it was time to hear the touching words of Steve, Matt, Philip, Philippe, Wendie and the rest. Some of which I hugged goodbye and promised to see them in Basel.

After losing my job last summer, and the tragedy of my home country – where my family resides – being devastated by a war to which I lost innocent family members and friends, many were surprised to see me on the ground in Basel last week, and were jubilant when they knew I am in a better place now. Little do they know they played a huge part of me keeping it together. But that’s the truth. Being alone in a foreign country and worrying about losing family at any second, then living to see this worry become a reality, was one of my most traumatic experiences – if not the most.

But I will repeat what I told Matt & Thom (who were leading the #comms-team for 2025 before passing the torch to Wendie and Luca) when they gave me permission to go on a lengthy indefinite break: I don’t want a break, being around you folks is enough for me, and enough to bring me back on my feet.

To all the lovely people that I met along this journey, to the ones I already mentioned, and to those not mentioned. To my new fellow 2025 colleagues in the comms team: Brin, Elli, Kasia, Lena and Nick; thank you for being there and for being part of this.

You made it easier and more memorable, and I am grateful.

This, and only this, is what this community is about.

If I wouldn’t proudly be a part of this, where else would I want to be? To this, and with this, I start a new chapter of my journey, the kid that once felt like a magician for publishing random content on free-hosted WordPress, is now back to tell the world not only his story but the stories of the cherished community he is glad to call home.

Hello, world! ❤️