Joining Steem, The Blockchain~ Part 2

On 09.25.17 at 15:10 I became a Steemian. On 9.26.17 at 03:06:03 I wrote my first post on the blockchain and my life has not been the same since.

My 'Introduce Yourself Post' was filled with dreams. Really it was filled with fear that I would be found out and asked to leave. True to form I started out with what I thought were the worse things about me for the blockchain. I didn't hide that I had no illusions of the quality of my posts that would be forthcoming.

I did have a plan. At the time I joined Steem I was very into the game 'Hearthstone'. I would spend hours playing the game. When I wasn't playing Hearthstone I watched others play on a Twitch live stream. I was not an expert by any means but I could hold my own most times.

What does a bit above average player do when looking for something to blog about? They make a brand new Hearthstone account, set up their own Twitch account, learn to live stream, edit videos, and blog about what it would be like if you were just starting out playing the game.

Just reading the above makes me laugh and smile. I had no clue what I was doing. Most times I still don't so really not a whole lot has changed in over a year.

I told myself I wasn't going to spend any money on that account. Card games, just like Steem Monsters, cost a ton of money if you want to be the best. Saying that, at the time there was a killer deal when you started out for $10.00 US. You got a single legendary card and another fifteen packs of base cards of five cards each. This way you at least have a few cards to chose from when you are a newbie to the game.

My second post on the blockchain was what I called and still do a 'Snook Ramble'. It was a post about kindness and how my life has been surrounded by such kind people when I need it most. The post has one very bad photo of my laptop that I still use when visiting my Mom. The post has no formatting, dividers, Bitmoji's, nothing to make it pretty. That post makes me smile looking at it too.

My third post was a very short video of me trying to explain how to play the game 'Hearthstone'. I watched the video today and cringe. I had not learned how to edit videos yet but that wasn't going to stop me from trying. The post had 4 sentences in it and one very bad video. I'm now sitting here typing with a grin on my face from ear to ear thinking about it.

You see I had nothing to lose by being on Steem and so much knowledge to gain. Everywhere I turned was something new to learn. Some days I was too exhausted to do anything except reading posts and leaving comments but even by doing that I learned. I saw how people formatted their posts. I saw such a variety of everything under the sun on Steem. I could not learn fast enough all I wanted to be able to do or try.

I had no illusions of being a great writer or gaming vlogger on Steem. There were so many people already posting content that was beyond anything I could ever do. The thought of not being me never entered my mind. At that time in Steem history, people I knew were making hundreds of dollars on their posts. I was so happy for them. The people I knew that were making that kind of money really needed it in order to survive everyday life.

I was happy for me also. I was making 0.047 SBD/ about $0.12 US per post on average and I didn't care. What I did care about was I had found a place to be me. A place to try new things. A place to learn about the whole world in which we live.

I could make mistakes and it didn't matter. No one knew me on the blockchain called Steem. No one cared if I didn't make anything on a post. I had the support of my son and friend. I was slowly meeting other people the longer I was here. I could not have asked for any more than that and I didn't.

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