July 1st 1999 was a day that forever changed my life. It was the day I joined Sun. So today this is exactly 10 years ago... I thought it would be nice to share some thoughts because of this.
I joined when the "dot com boom" was at its highest. I remember Sun NL alone welcomed 20-30 new employees each month for several months in a row! (I also remember I was too late at my second interview because my oldest son was born between my first and second interview and I overslept... my manager-to-be at the time grinned, left me with the account manager of the team I was to join and returned a few minutes later with a teddybear wearing a Sun T-shirt. So much for a first impression! 
)
Two years later, the dot com bubble had imploded and many people were made redundant (this is one of the best understatements in the English language I know of). I must have done something right because I could stay... which made me a Happy Camper because I already had become sort of addicted to Sun.
In the years following I had the change to develop myself towards a more in-depth, specialized pre-sales consultant. I did a lot of different things: HA specialist, being responsible for part of our local lab, Solaris,... this was also the time where two major things happened. First I was given the opportunity to join the "Datacenter Practice" (that has now sort-of evolved into the Systems LOB). And second, I was asked to become Operating Systems Ambassador for Sun NL -- a role I still have and love.
Looking at the more softer skills I learned to present and became to love that too. Maybe it's because my father is a teacher, but the combination of understanding complex technical issues, mapping those towards the meaning for a particular customer, and explaining that combination to people is what I like best. And the many sales trainings I got do help here too! 
So here I am today: 10 years older but (as I feel it) at least 25 years wiser. And all this because of the fine people that work at Sun, the many opportunities I got, the challanges I had to overcome and most of all: because I feel valued at Sun, with the freedom to be who I am.
There will not be another 10 years at Sun for me. The main reason being that I expect Sun to become (part of) Oracle ... Real Soon Now. I sincerely hope I can ride this new wave as well. I will do the best I can. And at the same time I do hope that somehow the "Sun spirit" and "Sun way of things" will survive and continue to exist within Oracle. Ideas like the Sun Microsystems Online Tribute surely help here!
One last paragraph. I do want to say a big Thank You to everybody at Sun that I've ever met, worked with, disagreed with, helped, trained, learned from and argued with. Together we make Sun what it is. You're all in my heart.
What tomorrow brings? I don't know. For me, it will be another working day at Sun, with new challenges, new customers, new experiences. I'll keep you posted!