One says doing thing you love makes it easy doing them. Who thinks cooking is a burden, if nothing makes you happier than buying fresh fish, herbs and pasta and spend the rest of the day in the kitchen preparing your loved ones a mouth-watering diner? Who hates a broken car if you have the best weekend by fixing the brakes while cleaning the engine as well? And who could become tired of walking if that's the thing you love most? You got my point.

Friends often ask me where I've lost myself. Why would I spent my free weekend and my spare evenings writing code, for free? Where did I gone mad?

And still, I find it hard to explain. Ever since I discovered Drupal in 2006 I love it. At the time only familiar with custom CMS systems and never used an out-of-the-box one before, Drupal was a huge step forward. Still being in school at the time, I ran my one-man company Sixcolored in the office next to the guys of One Shoe (which then only existed of two people). They pointed me at Drupal and ever since, almost every website I create, is Drupal-based. In 2008, I've made my first steps in the community. I've visited DrupalJam 5 (the Dutch variant of DrupalCon), attended the D7UX Code Sprint in Utrecht and attended the DrupalCon in Paris. And got addicted. Not only with the software, but mainly with the community. Because what a great community we have!

I can talk for hours about the vibe that lives in this community, but I won't. There are so many examples to give (like staying at Merge's place in Paris when I couldn't find a place to stay, drinking beer in my hometown Utrecht with Drupalers from all around the world, visiting Acquia in Woburn and having lunch with godfather Drupal himself (Dries) in Antwerp weeks later, having wine and a good laugh in Drupal Alley, Paris, and spending time with my colleagues of Sogeti in a holiday-home), but I won't bother you.

Just come and experience it yourselves. As the Drupal saying says “Come for the code, stay for the community”, I'd rather say “Forget the code, attend DrupalCon, try some Awesomesauce and get wasted. Then join chx and go for the code!”

I'm writing this in the train from Utrecht to Kopenhagen, a 16 hour trip that brings me via Koln to the capital of Denmark. To spend another of my spare free weekends among Drupalers nerding about code, Drupal 7 and performance.

I cannot wait until I'm there.