Two Months on Steemit!
Holy cow! It's been two months!
I realized this morning as I pulled up steemd.com that I've been on Steemit for 62 days which I'm rounding out to two months. That caused me to reflect a little bit on the journey so far and I have to say I was a little shocked at the revelation. You see, to be honest, I was a bit skeptical of Steemit when I first looked at it. I figured I'd try it out, have very little "success" with it and move on. But I DID want to try it. It's also worth noting that every effort I've made to blog consistently in the last 20 years hasn't lasted more than a few weeks.
A little coin can encourage a lot!
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I got my acceptance email and I wrote my first post. But my introduction post earned a little bit of loose change and I thought "maybe this can work". I mean, I saw other people making $15 here, $20 there and I wondered if that could be me. I started chatting on steemit.chat and made a few friends. And then "IT" happened. I wrote a short story that had been itching my brain for a while and at the time it made over $100 in upvotes (SteemDollar has lost value since then, but still a very nice amount). It was at that point that I "ACCEPTED" this is real!
It's about community, It's about content!
At the same time I was beginning to talk to and follow more people on chat and thru the comments on posts, and I found that this was a different kind of community. I could see a very clear dividing line between the Steemians that pour their soul into the platforms and the ones who are just trying to treat it like a marketing campaign you would see on Instagram (💩💩💩 "who wore it better?" 💩💩💩). On the chat channels I'd see people asking how to "make it" on steem and the answer to me seemed obvious. Put content on the platform that people actually want to view - that brings value in the form of education or entertainment, and do it consistently.
Trying new things
Steemit has given me a platform to try new things. For instance, prior to this platform, I had never publicly written or published fiction. I've very much enjoyed interacting with Steemit's writing community, participating in the #fiftywords challenges and writing short stories. Another activity that I've taken up was live streaming on DLive. I decided to try it on a whim, and found that I enjoy streaming not only games but programming as well. It's really fun when few (and I only see one or two) people get in the chat and start interacting. It's been very fun!
I'm Sold
So with all of that said, I found that I do enjoy posting here and the community is SUPER encouraging. I don't think this is something I aspire to do full time, but I do enjoy following other people's lives and sharing my little adventures on here. I am VERY happy to be a part of the Steemit community.