Drupal and why I use it

Drupal is a great content management system (CMS). To understand why I personally use Drupal, you should probably first understand my background. I went to school for graphic design, so I got a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts. This didn't teach me much about how to use programs, but how to think about the design process. Most of the technical side of what I do had to be picked up on my own.

After graduating, I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to do. A couple years of working in the restaurant industry actually helped me to focus on what I should set for my career path. I have created HTML web pages using Geocities when I was in junior high, so I maintained the knowledge of general HTML and began experimenting with building websites and figuring out how to get the functionality that I wanted in these websites. I came to the conclusion that (not being a developer or programmer) that I would forever struggle to get different applications to work together properly - or at least in an acceptable manner.

Then Drupal came along. In the midst of re-vamping a struggling website, a friend and co-worker of mine and I decided that an open source solution was the obvious route to take. Thinking Joomla was the answer, we researched our options and were surprised to hear one of the core maintainers of Joomla suggest Drupal. I had never heard of Drupal before, but we took this advice very seriously. As the months went by of using Drupal and finding out what it can do, I quickly realized the benefit it would give a web designer with HTML and CSS capabilities. Drupal was the answer for me.

Drupal was my personal developer that would provide me these different modules to give my websites the complete functionality I desired! And with it came a community that is constantly looking out for each other and willing to take the time to help a fellow Drupal user out! With the functionality there, I could focus on making it look the way I wanted. I have jumped right in to the Drupal community and never looked back.