How I would love to Power Up and Why I am not.

I have been on Steemit for over 3 months now and it has been an amazing journey.

I was introduced to Steemit by my friend @markwhittam. Mark and his amazing family would come and go from the community in Spain where I have been parked up and he was always so enthusiastic about the Steemit Platform. He spoke about this amazing supportive community online that is decentralized and rewards it's authors with crypto.

So I decided to jump onboard and well I am so glad that I did.

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Of course I was overwhelmed at first, it really seems like an endless sea at times , there is so much to learn, so many different tags, different communities, all these competitions. I wanted to jump right in and have a hand in it all. I wanted to connect with everyone and from there start to use this great platform to bring about positive change. I got super
excited about the huge potential of steemit and and at the same time I was trying to understand how it all works.

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I am a big believer in community and how important it is to come together and actively support one another. To help bridge all the divides that have been wedged between us all, put in place by governmental bodies, and held there by the media, who like to promote our differences as a threat, instead of celebrating them and embracing them.

We are all unique and amazing beings and when we are allowed to step into our full power we can actively bring about change.

For me community is there to find ways to empower people, educate people, share skills and live in a way that moves away from this culture of dominance and control.

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Oh Happy days, I have started to find that community on steemit. I have found this platform where people are open, honest and happily sharing their skills, ideas and dreams. This is exactly what I want to be a part of. I certainly want to help this great community grow. So I joined the #ecotrain, the ecotrain 'supports things that help make the world a better place, including you', it's a community that shares and supports it's members. I have recently joined #teamgirlpowa and I am enjoying connecting with the community on there too.

I would love to be powering up all my payouts, because by doing this I would be investing in Steem, investing in the blockchain. But I have only done this once.

WHY

Well to answer that, I need to tell you a bit more about myself and my life. I am a mother to 3 beautiful girls. The youngest is almost 10 months and she is a force, in the best possible way. My other two are 8 and 5 and they are wild, creative and super adventurous.I live in a wooden horsebox with my partner and girls, on a piece of land in the south of Spain. We have always had enough to support ourselves and to feed ourselves wholesome, nutritious food.

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For me that is a must, to be able to give my children the best food I can, be it some that I have grown or from the wonderful weekly market. All of our finances go on our food. Our clothes are recycled, we are lucky to live close to a boat that was created where people can leave their clothes that they no longer want and take something if they choose. My partner works when work is available. And that is how it has rolled for us for the past 2 years.

Previously we where on the road full time and my partner went busking or we sold food from our bus. The short of it is we always just had enough to feed ourselves and at times some left over for fuel, allowing us to move on. To me it has brought alot of freedom, we have had no ties we were free to roam.

Things changed when we sold our bus and got our present home, our Truck, we realized that she needed some work, so in order to do that we found somewhere to live while we tried to find ways to finance the work. Well 2 years later we still haven't had her fixed, but we did end up in this community, that my children love. It is full of creative people and it is a great place for my girls to be, for now anyhow, but I must admit I am getting very itchy feet to get back on the road.

Last year has been a huge year for me, I learnt that two members of my family were diagnosed with illnesses that have had a huge effect on their lives. I felt very far away from them, even though Spain is not too far away from Ireland, but the reality is that for me to travel with my family, a family of 5, is expensive, especially when you have been living hand to mouth for so long.

But then I got introduced to Steemit and now just when I needed it the most, I have been able to make an income. The payout from my posts have been put aside so that we can all travel to Ireland and visit my family. I would not be able to do this if it were not for the steemit community.

I was very fortunate to win a competition that @kafkanarchy84 organised in December. Because of that I have been able to get passports for my 2 youngest girls. So big thank you @kafkanarchy84.
And big thank you to @markwhittam for introducing me to this great platform, that has already changed my life.

And to everyone else who has supported me

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I have always put my faith in the universe that when I really needed anything it would come to me and I feel so lucky to have steemit come into my life.

I have connected with so many amazing people. I have learnt so much and continue to learn so much and I have found a community that I really want to be a part of.

In the future I will definitely be powering up.