Woot woot! I've been here over a year!

Apparently my one year anniversary on the Steem blockchain came and went without me clueing in. Whoops. Tonight in the Castle, @zipporah mentioned her Steemiversary is now-ish, and we went digging to find out when mine was. Thanks to Zippy, I discovered I started my account on January 6th, 2018.

I’ve been here for a year, blogging my happy little heart out, making friends, making music, writing an outrageous number of poems, and jetting off to three Steem meetups.

Yeah!

Here’s my intro post, in case you want to see how I jumped into the waters of Steem:

Hi! I’m Katrina Ariel: part lioness, rebel for life, author, musician, and yoga teacher. I smile a lot.

Yes, it was a long title. And here's my intro picture with my lovingly crafted, handwritten sign symbolizing the things I thought I could bring to the blockchain, and things I hoped to find here:

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The Highlights

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There’s no way I can tag everyone who has made an impact in my life, but I’ll try to name a handful of highlights from the past year without getting carried away.

There have been so many individuals I’ve connected with via this blockchain. So. Many! Therefore, highlight number one is definitely all the people who have brought more laughter, love, and a sense of belonging into my life this last year.

If we’ve connected, you’re part of that, so thank you!

The communities I am a part of make all the difference. @thealliance, @helpie, @thesteemengine, The Ramble run by @shadowspub, @freedomtribe, @ssg-community, @thewritersblock, @steemusa, @msp-waves and too many others to count. I am soooooo grateful to be part of these overlapping communities.

Open Mic has been especially important to me, and I’ve written more original music in the past 6 months than the last 15 years. I’m also a better musician than ever before. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of making that happen, your encouragement means so much!

This past year I’ve been happier than the three years that came before, and I haven’t had nearly the amount of anxiety and depression that I was dealing with prior to surrounding myself with friends from around the world.

I count myself lucky I chose to dive down the rabbit hole of Steem, and that I kept coming back for more.

I know you’ve probably seen this picture before, but it’s so much fun!

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^{photo: Greg Eymundson/www.insight-photography.com}

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I hit the jackpot in my first week on Steem when I stumbled onto @thealliance.

This happened after I’d been on the blockchain for only a week! Talk about getting off on the right foot. I was adopted into a family of people who cared about me and encouraged me. I couldn’t be more grateful for them.

Here’s what I wrote in my Application to the (Rebel) Alliance:

What do I have to contribute? I’m fun, enthusiastic, I care about the people I interact with, and I write kick-ass comments!

Yep, that about sums me up. That application post made $57!!! And I got a @curie soon after joining Steem, as well. Those payouts went a long way towards helping motivate me, but the comments people took the time to write were the thing that made me stay when my posts didn't even break a dollar, which happened a lot. I didn't care. Either way, I was having fun.

@saffisara, you hooked me in with #haturday, and you're one of the people who has constantly showed up to encourage me. hugglepounces forever!

I was super fortunate that @topkpop adopted me as her minnow a week or so later. I will always be grateful for her generosity, both with SP delegation and with her time. I was saved from running into bandwidth issues, and had a friend to go to with anything for a couple of months. Thank you, Jenny. I miss your Friday night show.

I’d start tagging more people, but that could go on forever, so I’ll stop there and fast forward to more recent events…

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The Meetups

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I’ve been to three Steem meetups in the past year.

One was in Tennessee, one was in Georgia, and then there was Steemfest…

I WON A TRIP TO STEEMFEST!!!

I’m not sure I’ll ever get over that, and my gratitude just keeps on going for everyone who nominated me and helped me get there. Steemit, Inc. flew me to Poland for Steemfest3, where I had a chance to perform live for the first time in four years, and where I apparently didn’t stop smiling.

Prepare yourself for Steemfest pics…

with @llfarms

with @lukestokes

with @luzcypher

with @meno

with @nathanmars

with @reggaemuffin and @yidneth

with @roelandp and @yidneth

with @sjennon

with @steemcafe

with @derangedvisions and @gtg

with @enginewitty

with @soyrosa

@yidneth and @hedac

with @yidneth, the @steembirds, @edprivat, and @enginewitty... comic courtesy of @blewitt

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That was an excessive amount of Steemfest pics and tags I didn’t intend to do, but hey, it’s my party and I’ll reminisce if I want to.

Plus, most of these never got posted in the aftermath, a.k.a. Sleepfest, which was a thing for about two weeks after I got back from Poland. ;)

And what makes Steem so special? The people. All the beautiful people.

So yeah, I’ve been here for over a year now, and I love it. I really do. To everyone who has been part of this journey with me, thank you!

Peace. @katrina-ariel

Photos mine unless otherwise credited.

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Author bio: Katrina Ariel is an old-soul rebel, musician, tree-hugging yogini, and mama bear to twins. Author of Yoga for Dragon Riders (non-fiction) and Wild Horse Heart (romance), she's another free-spirit swimming in the ocean of Steem.

dragon art: Liiga Smilshkalne

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