Twenty-Five

Essays, Personal,

Today I am a quarter of a century old. To be honest I never thought I would be this old, it was a number beyond where I could imagine or visualize but the last few years have just gone by in a blur and here I am, 25 years young and finally able to rent a car without paying an age penalty.

Following up from the open source resolutions, here’s what I’m going to aim for this year in no particular order:

  • Learn a language where WP has a big impact (probably Spanish).
  • Take more videos, post at least 2 a month.
  • Post 10,000 photos in 2009.
  • Post at least one book a month I’ve enjoyed.
  • Don’t try to do everything myself.
  • Redesign Ma.tt! (And get back up in the search engine rankings for “Matt” on Google.)
  • Post more personal stuff. (Like this.)
  • Spend more time working with and coaching other young entrepreneurs and startups.
  • Donate to 5 Open Source projects that touch my life daily.
  • Learn to make/prepare one food item a month.
  • Launch, launch, launch! (Real artists ship.)
  • Get people to capitalize WordPress correctly, and stop using the fake mis-proportioned W. 🙂 (Here are some correct ones.)
  • Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame.
  • Reinstate WordPress Wednesdays and make it easier to do an amazing photoblog with WP.

(Hat tip to Boris Mann, Benji, Niall Kennedy, John Roberts, Titanas, Network Geek, Avinash, Kirb, Julie, Mark Jaquith, and Kabatology for the resolutions.)

This is the seventh year I’ve blogged my birthday: 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, and 24. If you had asked me 7 years ago where I would be today I couldn’t have imagined all of the amazing things that have happened, the incredible people I’ve met, and the communities that I’ve become a part of. Thank you. Here’s to the next 25.

All birthday posts: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40.

229 thoughts on “Twenty-Five”

  2. Great goals. I recently hit 25 a few months ago, and I’m still feel its impossible that I’m “that old” (and 30, 35, 40 will only come sooner),

    Good luck on the goals, learning a second language is great. Visiting WordPress blogs in Spanish has really helped me keep it up for me. My goal in 2009 is to work on my Spanish again so my accent sounds native again.

    Reply

  3. Matt,

    Happy Happy and so hope you had a great day. All the best for 09 am sure will be a good one, Was a pleasure meeting you last year and hope to see you again in South Africa in 09.
    Cheers mate,

    Chris
    p.s peeps born in Jan are the best! (mines on the 17 🙂 )

    Reply

  5. Congrats for the century quarter! 😉

    Glad to know you (possibly) gonna learn Spanish, we’re a lot of people running WP.

    With the redesign, what a about an iphone friendly version?

    Cheers

    Reply

  11. Printing photos of people is an excellent one. I printed some photos of mine taken over the last year, and I definitely want to a) print more and b) take more print-worthy photos.

    Happy Birthday, Matt!

    Reply

  15. Happy birthday Matt 🙂

    Or should I say “Feliz cumpleaños Matt” :p (You’ll understand it somewhere in the next 365 days :p).

    I loved that one about the picture, it would be nice to get a framed picture from someone I know. So go for it.

    Reply
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  21. Felix compleanos, Matt. In the spirit of learning a new language (Spanish), here’s a link to the happy birthday song, Las Mananitas, that we all sing down here in Mexico on these special days:
    http://www.pvscene.com/?p=237.

    Even if this link doesn’t show up in the comments, go to it and receive the wishes.

    I thank you from the bottom of my heart for WordPress.

    Reply

  22. Happy Birthday!

    I have a friend who takes photos, and then prints, frames, and gives them to people. She’s already given me a group picture from New Year’s Eve. I take lots of pictures but rarely print, so it’s a real treat. Your resolution is good and will be appreciated.

    As a loyal WP user, thanks for all you do. Have a great birthday!

    Reply

  23. “Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame.”

    That’s my favorite one.

    You’ve accomplished a lot of impressive things in a relatively short amount of time. I hope I can say the same in 2 years.

    Reply

  26. Happy Birthday Matt! 😀 – I’m not that far behind you, just about 7 and a half years! (As I’m only 17!) – So still a kid really, but into this kind of stuff, and love WordPress!

    One of these days, I’ll have to have a little read back through some of your blog posts from years ago. Any you’d recommend I take a look at, as there’s quite a lote of ’em! In fact, this might be a nice idea for a post itself. What do you think?

    Looking forward to many more years of WordPress updates, improvements, and successes! It’s a joy to work with, and I’d love it to be taken to the next level.

    Enjoy the day!

    Thanks
    Mark

    Reply

  38. kudos on your bday and life in general, im a new member in wordpress, and i like to read real life books (blogs), but dont know if i could be an author of my day to day autobiography, so i wanna congratulate the fact that u can and also, awesome background, it looks so colorful.
    p.s. i speak spanish and i can help whenever u need it.

    Reply
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  41. Happy Bday Matt. Yeah I remember turning 25 and thought it felt a bit odd. Now I am just a few weeks past 30 and it feels like it went by even faster.

    Make sure you take time to enjoy life! Oh and ill try to help with the Matt rankings with a post and a link to ma.tt sooner or later.

    Reply
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  45. Pingback: GFMorris.com » links for 2009-01-11

  46. Happy Birthday Matt! Like what you said earlier, you’re now on version 2.5 hehe

    Btw, it was nice meeting you at WordCamp. Hope you have fun on your special day and God bless!

    Reply
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  56. Happy birthday, Matt!
    Learn a language where WP has a big impact – actually you can take Chinese into consideration too 😉

    Reply

  58. Thank you for the gorgeous WordPress, projects like this make life easier and even happier by providing such a beautiful piece of software.
    Cheers and happy birthday! 🙂

    Reply

  59. Wow wow happy birthday Matt. Can’t believe you’re only 25 considering everything amazing you have done!!
    You’re more than right to choose Spanish. It’s one of the most beautiful language in the world! Feliz cumpleaños. Looking forward to more of your personal blog posts.
    And it’s perfect if you can make photo uploading on WP easier 🙂

    Reply

  61. Feliz Cumpleanos Matt !

    Suggestions for learning Spanish…
    1.I really started to learn Spanish when I picked up a little book at City Lights in fall of ’66…The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca… poems on facing pages..one page in Spanish, facing the page in English…. you learn how to express from the heart… here is an Amazon link
    /www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-Federico-Garcia-Lorca/dp/0811216225
    Neruda, et al work as well

    2. Whenever you travel in Mexico, Spain and Latin America… carry a dictionary, get away from gringo hotels restaurants and hangouts… make a fool of yourself (and you WILL make some very funny missteps) People will laugh a little, help you… and love you for trying

    3. Listen to music in Spanish… so many artists, so little space to make a list… Cafe Tacuba, Molotov, Calle 13, Orisha, Ricardo Arjona… just getting started

    4. If you read a book by Garcia Marquez or another author whose native language es el Castellano, get the version in Spanish and keep your dictionary handy…it’s work, but so is learning to play the sax or write code like it’s poetry

    5. If you are unattached, the best way to learn is to get a profesora (or sleeping dictionary)…in other words, a girl friend from whichever part of the Spanish speaking world…you will pick it up really quickly that way….

    Reply

  63. Happy Birthday Matt!
    I hope you achieve all your goals in 2009 plus more.
    I turned 25 this past October and realized just how fast life goes by.

    Enjoy!
    Jeana

    Reply

  66. Don’t try to do everything myself.

    I struggle with this, too. I’m particular about how I want things done, and I calculate the likelihood of someone else doing it in that exact way to be near zero. So I do things, or they don’t get done. It’s frustrating because you end up spending a lot of times doing things that aren’t furthering your life goals, or a lot of time stressing about all the menial things that need to get done but you’re not doing.

    I’m trying to do better, starting with hiring a housekeeper.

    Reply

  72. Happy Birthday Matt! I’ll be turning 23 in a couple weeks and agree that I never thought I’d get to this age…I feel old.

    Regarding 10,000 photos: I think that’s a lot. And as someone who takes my fair share of photographs, I think your placing quantity over quality. Personally, I’d rather see 1000 good photos than 10k okay photos. Even better, 100 amazing photos.

    Why do you want to post 10,000 photos?

    P.S. Thanks for WordPress!

    Reply

    1. For me the photos are mostly auto-biographical. I don’t do a great job right now of highlighting the good ones, of which there are usually only 1-2 per album.

      Reply

  77. Happy birthday, Matt. Thanks for WordPress. As the senior citizen said to you at Wordcamp2006, you are one very impressive young man.

    Not so young any more 🙂

    Reply

  78. Did no one else catch up on that this was Matt’s birthday?

    Happy birthday Matt! Still a young guy, but very, very successful.

    You’ve done some amazing things Matt, quite a few things to be proud of.

    Reply

  80. Happy Birthday, Matt! As a result of Automattic I owe you so much that you’ll never even realize, and yet all I can give you is a birthday greeting here and in my Weekly WordPress Roundup.

    Thank you! And Happy Birthday once again!

    Reply

  81. Congratulations matt!
    “If you had asked me 7 years ago where I would be today I couldn’t have imagined all of the amazing things that have happened…”
    I wish you that in seven years from now you will write this same sentence again.

    Reply

  86. Nice list Mat, I have one too, but mine’s from a 30 years person. Like you and others says: I never imagined myself with this age… If I take a look to myself I still think about me as a twenty something 😀

    Nice to know that you are going to learn Español. Now I’m learning mandarin and maybe french

    Reply

  89. Hi Matt, firstly I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY…!!!! Wishing all the best for you!

    By the way, I’m surprising about:
    “Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame”
    Are you realy to do that?
    I’m also very happy if you do to me..:) *I wish*

    Thanks for information about the WP logo.

    On next Wordcamp 2009 in Jakarta, how long do you will stay in Jakarta?
    Will you visiting Bali island or Lombok?

    Its many beautiful place in Indonesia, I hope you can enjoy your trip, and I can see your beautiful picture from Indonesia in this blog.

    Cheerz..

    -Evi-

    Reply

  91. Happy Birthday Matt!!!

    I’ve blogged about my birthday for five years now, 22 till 26. Would love to see an update post on what you did today 🙂

    Reply
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  93. “don’t try to do everything [yourself]” is most important. It will let you do more things for your relatives, friends, colleagues and by yourself.
    Happy birthday, Matt !

    Reply

  94. Happy Birthday Matt! Good luck on the next 25, not that you’ll need luck, just more of the savvy and skill that got you through the first. Cheers!

    Reply
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  102. Happy Birthday Matt!

    So much accomplished by only 25! Keep it going and your life is already made huge impact on life’s of others and at this rate I don’t see it stopping!

    Happy Birthday!

    Reply

  106. Hey Matt, congrats on your big 25! Hope you can realize all your goals and you will have another successfully and healthy 25 years and hopefully more.

    Maybe a goal for 2010 would be: Learn an additional language, this time German 😉

    Hope to see you at WordCamp in Germany!

    Reply

  109. Happy Birthday Matt! I remember being 25 five years and thinking what I would be doing five years from then, working for myself was number one on the list.

    Thanks to WordPress, and You, for contributing to that dream.

    Reply

  112. Happy birthday, Matt! Thank you and all your team for this really great work you’re doing.

    Good luck with your resolutions. Especialmente con la primera 😉

    Reply

  113. Congrats on the milestone. I promise you that your next 25 will pass a lot faster than your first. I know. I’m heading toward the finish line on my third 25.

    Reply
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  119. Well, Matt, congratulations! Without you the ying yang woulb be a chaos.

    I had the pleasure to meet you in WordCamp Argentina 2008 (I was the kid), and it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. Thanks for all you’ve done, and… keep on track!

    Code is poetry. Matt is the poet.

    Reply

  122. Hey, thanks for the “hat tip”!
    Hopefully, you’ll remember that this site was “Photo Matt” once upon a time and be motivated to get back into sharing your photography again this year. It’s so easy to lose our passions as we get older and get caught up in the race to get more “stuff”. Besides, you go so many interesting places, there have to be lots of opportunities to take pictures!
    Have a great year!

    Reply
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  130. I am amazed at what you have already accomplished by such a young age. It’s a wonderful thing how the accelerating rate of change in our knowledge, our technology and our access to information have expanded the opportunities for everyone with the will to create and achieve.

    Thanks for WordPress, which is making my web life easier and more productive.

    Reply

  131. Happy birthday Matt. Not only can you now rent a car without paying an age penalty, your car insurance will also go down. Also, you if you think time flies now, it only goes faster once you hit 25. I’m not sure why but one day I woke up and was in my 30’s. In closing, I like your goals for 2009. Keep up the great work and again, happy birthday!

    Reply
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  137. Happy BIrthday Matt! I’m 25 this year too. I spotted your dip in Google rankings the other day – as photomatt used to be right up the top.

    Reply

  145. Congrulation Matt! This must be a very special year for you – WordPress is very fit and healthy right now 🙂

    I think you should add the 2009 resolutions one more thing – you should attend (and help organize) a WordPress camp in a in-development country as mine – Albania.

    Albania is very near to Italy – a couple hundred kilometers. I tried to attend the WP camp at Italy last year – but I had to wait 2 months, until the Italian consulate employers (the ones that deliver visas) got back from holidays. So I missed it. Again now, you have to ask for a visa 2 months before you can get it.

    Organizing a WP camp in Albania would be great because many other people around Albania who have to get visas to go to Italy or other developed countries would benefit by coming easily to Albania.

    What do you think Matt?

    Reply

  149. Well done Matt. I love the goals and Happy Birthday. It’s really quite amazing to see what you’ve done in your short life. It was a pleasure to meet you and here you speak at WordCamp Las Vegas. Looking forward to all the ongoing changes with WordPress.

    Reply

  150. Wow. That’s really an inspiring list. I like that you have “Post more personal stuff,” as one of your goals. It’s a rare quality to be so warm and authentic in your public as well as private persona. Happy birthday, Matt! May all your hopes and intentions for this year come bounding forth in ways even you could not have imagined! “You’ve got the world on a string…”

    Reply

  154. Well Matt, you survived your birthday. Do anything interesting?

    And as a Resolution you should of had on your list.

    To continue to live your life trying to positively effect the people around you that you can.

    I always love to try and keep that one handy. 🙂

    Reply

  155. Happy (belated) Birthday, Matt!

    Great resolutions, too…. I just hope I don’t have to see all 10,000 of those photos in the WordPress Planet newsfeed! (pretty please???)

    Reply

  156. Happy Birthday Matt! I can’t believe your only 4 years older than me! I knew you were young, but man! lol

    Congrats on the OS resolutions, have an awesome year!

    Reply

  157. Happy Belated Birthday.

    I’m turning 33 myself next Saturday. When I pause and think that – were you to stop at the age of 25 you would have contributed more to the world the the rest of my years combined… well… I have a little trouble breathing. 🙂

    May your 25th year see you conquer the largest goals yet.

    Reply
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  165. When I hit twenty-five, the thought of being a quarter of a century old made me feel old. But at least you have a lot of successes to show for it.

    Belated happy birthday, Matt! 🙂

    Reply
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  168. happy birthday. to bad we are homeless right now, otherwise we would love to have you over for steak. when we are settled in you should jet out and check out the new boren bbq scene.

    Reply

  169. Happy Birthday. You’ve done good things so far, but twenty-five is just a drop in the bucket, kiddo. However, I’m sure you will continue to do well over the next 25 years, especially if you stay focused on the goal that every ‘aging’ person should strive for – senior citizen discounts at Denny’s.

    Reply

  170. A belated Happy Birthday to you, Matt. Inspiring stuff, those resolutions. Makes me feel like I should write some of my own (and stick to ’em).

    The “Launch, Launch, Launch” line is very inspiring. Real artists ship. Got to remember that, this year.

    Reply

  171. 25 is the new 40, so count your blessings. About the Spanish thing… watch novelas. These are extremely campy yet have excellent grammar, vocabulary and diction.

    Or, you know, you can go out there in the Mission.

    Reply

  173. I love this idea and I just might copy it:

    “Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame.”

    Good luck with your list!

    Reply

  174. Hi Matt,

    thank you very much for everything around wordpress. You created more for a lot people than I did and therefore you get a lot respect from my side, but don’t forget to enjoy your life too – there is a lot to explore!!!

    Sebastian

    Reply
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  176. Hey Matt,
    Had a awesome time in Vegas, boy do we party hard! Hope your hang over finally cleared, I know my drive home today was rough.

    Sure you got the RSS feed from flikr, if not check out the photos I uploaded.

    -Austin

    Reply
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  178. BTW I will upload the pictures from your birthday night out in vegas tomorrow on flicker!
    It was really great talking with and sharing your 25th birthday with you!

    See you soon,
    Jeana

    Reply
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  181. Hi Matt..!!
    It’s first time for to visit here
    Nice to know that the founder of WordPress is so young.. 😀
    If you see WP in Indonesia you will know how the impact is 😀 *wait…i’m from Indonesia..for the information* so BIG.

    Blog become more that a blog..it’s a rope for b

    Reply

  184. Happy belated birthday.
    Making it easier to do an amazing photoblog with WP sounds great! Can’t wait… I look forward to seeing what you have in store for future versions of WP.

    Reply

  185. Happy birthday! I don’t feel as though I’m going to reach 25, but I suppose it will come someday. 5 1/2 more years…

    Those are some pretty high, but reasonable goals. I need to make a habit myself of personal goals. Good luck with all of them.

    Reply
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  192. Happy Belated B-Day…
    I watched you in an interview in TVOne (one of TV station in Indonesia).
    Hope you’ll enjoy your visit to Indonesia 🙂

    Reply

  193. very happy birthday matt…just now i wachting you on tvone,indonesian tv,,very glad to see u ..so always good luck

    Reply

  195. Dear Matt,

    I watched you on Apa Kabar Indonesia. Cool! Welcome to Indonesia.. 🙂

    By the way, I want to congratulate you a Happy Birthday,,, Your resolutions list is great. Hope it all comes true,,,
    I also want to give you some ideas to enrich your resolutions. Here they are: first, express “I love you, Mom” in a very different way than usual;
    second, since I love family and have a really big family (more than 50 cousins), I always want to make a family tree to find connections in our family. What a surprise to find that I have family connections with someone or some families that I never know before!
    So, perhaps, you can try to trace all of connections in your family tree and see how many connections you have and how good you know them.
    Moreover, by knowing more people connected to your family, you can just start to see if there are any of them who needs your help. Sometimes, we are not aware if someone in our family needs help. So, you can give a hand for them as well as for other fellow that don’t even have any bonding relationship with you… 🙂

    That’s all my idea. Hope it is useful 🙂

    Oh, can i add once more? Since you’ll spend some days in Indonesia, so why don’t you take a look at the beauty of our nation :)? You can visit Bali, Lombok or Jogjakarta. Try our uniquely different taste of culinary, enjoy our best natural views, and share the warmth of Indonesian smile and hospitality,,, you won’t regret it! 😉

    Finally, all the best for you, Matt!

    Good Luck! 😉

    Reply
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  200. You have such an exciting future ahead! I was born in the middle of the fourth decade in the last century. I wish I could see all the progress we will make this century!

    Happy Birthday!

    Reply

  201. Congratulations! I just turned 62 on Jan 5. If I have anything to share with you from the extra 37 years I’ve run through so quickly it’s have fun every day, and make every one count. Even the saddest days can contain a laugh–and they should.

    Great list. Focused on doing good things for yourself and people around you. Not only have you done amazing things in such a short life, you’re obviously a good guy too.

    One suggestion–give stand up paddle surfing a try, even just on flat water it’s such a remarkable sport. I’m having so much fun with it that it seems criminal not to share the stoke.

    All the best,

    Reply

      1. Wow..photoblog within WordPress? I can’t wait to know and use it!

        When that you will announce Matt?

        Cheerz From Jakarta-Indonesia 🙂

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  208. Happy Belated!

    Had a good laugh at this line (as I’ve got a year to go) – “25 years young and finally able to rent a car without paying an age penalty.”

    And I thought this was an awesome idea (I might steal it from you): “Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame.”

    Keep it up.

    Reply
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  220. Happy Birthday Matt. I cannot imagine the Internet without WordPress. My partners Mike and Vishen met you at Necker Island and said you were an amazing guy. I look forward to more great ideas to change the world from your next 25 years.

    Reply
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