2022 – Year in Review

Our first full year in North Carolina has ended. Making the move from NJ to NC was without a doubt a great decision for our family. We’ve settled into our new home and neighborhood, made some great friends, and found an incredible church.

Time to look back.

Faith

We have found a great church in our community. I’ve been able to make friends with Christian men of all ages which has been a blessing. I played on the church softball team in the spring – injuring myself in the first game but getting back into it a few weeks later (make sure you stretch as you get older). I’m serving on the tech team putting my skills to good use at the church and during Sunday worship services.

Family

We have gotten closer as a family this year. Being involved at church has allowed all of us to grow in our faith. My wife continues to home school our children which is still the right choice for many reasons. We did less travel this year, but still managed to get the following trips in:

Virginia – visited with our oldest daughter and son-in-law for a long weekend
New Jersey – visited with my Dad and Stepmom, friends and made it to LBI for a few days
Washington – wedding trip for our good friends’ son
North Carolina – local trips around the state to see the sights

Health

Unfortunately, I did not put much effort into my physical health this past year. It will be a big focus for 2023. Mentally I feel great which I attribute to focus on Jesus and the books I decided to read last year.

Career

I completed one year at Microsoft as a Sr. Customer Engineer in May. When Microsoft’s new fiscal year started my job title changed to Sr. Cloud Solution Architect – Engineering. From a day-to-day perspective not much changed, but I did get more opportunities to lead cloud strategy discussions with my customers.

I renewed the following certifications:

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate – renewed on June 27th
Microsoft Certified: Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty – renewed on July 5th
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solution Architect Expert – renewed on July 25th

I passed the exams to earn the following certifications:

Microsoft Certified: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals – passed on July 27th
Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate – passed on September 27th

A big thanks to those of you that found my blog last year and are still here given that I did not post much content. I hope I provided you with some value and helped you on your Azure Cloud Journey.