Where did two years go? The blink of an eye, but also, I feel about 12 million Steem years old.

 
      Last year on my Steemiversary, I wrote a post that I ended up falling madly in love with. I came back to it over and over all year. It somehow took this crazy span of time and crystallized the lessons and the emotional investment in sharing and working here and all it took was scrolling down the page to feel it all again. It became this little totem; good days, bad days, work days, play days — all days, one day. That pretty blue marble is still turning. I'm still here. You might be still here. You might be brand new today. While I believe whole heartedly to always seek a focus on gratitude, to take all these sparkling shards of lessons learned from then to now and to turn them over the bright light of introspection shows me there's been a lot more than just that over the past thirteen moons.

We came through some really convoluted, hard to navigate stuff, as a blockchain, and as people.

 
      There's a lot we need to fix. This last year has been one that has seemed to throw up wall after wall and left us fumbling in the dark, and each one that we hit has brought as much uncertainty as it has innovation. That used to worry me... where the fuck we'd actually be when today finally got here. But after seeing how many people are still finding beauty and are driven to build and create and share, or all those who are finding ways to iterate to become better, I remember why I want to keep being a witness and a creator and a curator and a friend. So thanks for that.

There have been some incredibly bright lights that have arisen, and seeing how little I posted over the year has given me a chance to analyse why that is.

 
      Looking at how much Steem was a focus is only half of it. I did a lot of work on learning to take care of myself and value the less crazy moments, which has been a norm since diving into the blockchain world.

      Little things have become big things, big things have become little things. I've had huge shifts in my perspective. I've had an entire ecosystem full of people who have showed up to hear me talk or tell me what they think, because they value that I'm listening or communicating. That is mind boggling, and probably the most important thing that I have to remember every day, because value — whether you agree on it or not — is assigned for a reason. Everything has edges to it, and being here and accountable has taught me that you often have to soften those edges on what you take in and what you put out to make sure you're doing the best job you can in understanding or conveying a message. Every now and then, being raw and unfiltered and honest about what you are and what you want is even more important. So thank you for that.

With all of the love and the fun and the beauty and the investment in the people and tech, inevitably, my heart has been crushed.

      Getting as involved as I have here, as with anything, has opened me to some serious disappointment. Anger. Frustration. There are times when things seem so completely, agonizingly surreal that we've thought about giving up. And yet... the blocks roll on. The ideas keep flowing. The hopes keep hoping. The complainers keep complaining. All of those things stem from passion. So thanks for that.

The amount of people who have grown from an avatar to a friend, coworker, frenemy motivator, or flesh and blood inspiration makes my head spin.

      Continuing that trend of connecting the digital to the real is an important part of all of... whatever this is, I think. This next year I want to do more of that. I want to see where intersecting these two takes my personal development, Steem development, community development. It turns out I love broadcasting and being a dj and writing silly scripts and teaching people and learning how to make blocks do the beep and the boop and the thing. I want to hug so many of you while drunk and we spiral around this marble again and again, powered by whatever drives each of us internally. So thanks for that.

More than anything, I marvel at how fast it all went, but how it's all frozen here for me to look back on.

      Permanent, transparent, unchanging, and immutable. My actions on this platform speak for themselves, and the experiences locked here in my words speak for me. Beyond the unshakable friendships and the unknowable potential, remembering that each time I record here it suddenly belongs to the whole world and belongs to a change in the way we approach entire components of our lives, I am glad I have stayed. Wherever you might be in your journey here, remember why you began exploring in the first place. It is wholly because of you — us — the creators, the consumers, the investors, the developers, and the dreamers.

So thanks for that.

 

These photos and words are my own work, inspired by travels all over this pretty blue marble of ours. I hope you like them. 🌶️

 

Hi, I'm Crimmi. I run a top 20 STEEM witness with @followbtcnews. Please reach out on Steem.Chat or Discord any time! If we haven't earned your vote, please consider SteemTipper, our community work, and STEEM.Chat — vote for followbtcnews if you feel we're doing a good job.