How I Got Here & Why I’m Still Here - snookmademedoit

How I Got Here & Why I’m Still Here

How Did I Get Here?

I found the steem blockchain totally by accident, after reading a post on one of the forum-based websites I used to visit. It was one of a few sites I’d check on when I wanted to see what’s really going on in the world and sometimes engage with others there, occasionally debating if I had something useful to add.

When someone made a post there about steemit.com, and said we could join and get an account and that we could earn steem cryptocurrency just for writing and posting stuff there, I went and signed up.

At that point in time when I read or heard “cryptocurrency,” I thought of bitcoin as I think most people did. Bitcoin was way up there at that time, but I didn’t understand it and I didn’t think it would survive. As you might guess, I had no interest and saw no value in another cryptocurrency.

That we could earn a “steem” cryptocurrency meant little to nothing, as far as being valuable to me in any universe I could imagine ever visiting, but I did see its value in attracting many people to steemit.com.

Knowing that for a lot of people, their interest is piqued if there’s even the slightest chance of something having material value, I figured there would be tons of people here. That meant that at least some fraction of them would read other peoples’ posts, since they could earn too, by commenting.

One thing was both obvious and exciting to me - steemit had created an audience!

So I thought I would join up and write some poetry and get some feedback on my work. The crypto aspect was really meaningless to me, other than for its value in drawing even more people, constantly increasing the size of the steemit audience.

The feedback on what I posted was the important thing to me, and I expect that it’s also a great value in that regard to many writers who share their work here.

It’s been what I’ve expected and a whole lot more as well. Knowing that when I post something I’ve written, there is a good possibility that at least one person may read and enjoy it, is way up there on the scale of useful feedback from others. That’s the reward I value the most here on this platform. Did I think it’d be easy? No. Does it matter? No. Is it still great? Absolutely!

Why Am I Still Here?

What I wrote about how I got here should illustrate, to an extent, why I am still here. There’s still an audience; albeit less of an audience than when steem was higher in value, but still, it exists. Maybe I was mistaken or I misinterpreted, but I think I read a post recently that said there are still a million people here. If that’s true, it’s huge!

I understand that a lot of people on this platform have steem’s value as their main interest in this, and they contribute in doing things to help make the platform better, with apps and new initiatives that can help the price of steem rise. They’re important too, but the way they view things is probably a little different than people here for the audience view them.

They aren’t seeking an audience as much as they’re seeking a presence. The presence of a crowd of not only creators, but also those whose acts are in support of the platform itself and the value of the steem crypto. Without them the whole thing would die as surely as if all the content creators quit. I don’t have a problem that their concerns may mainly focus on steem’s value. It’s good that they do.

I’m still here because I enjoy what I do here… immensely. It’s

When I joined I knew that I would log onto this site every day. Not long after joining I decided on a plan where I could create and post a new post every single morning. I did that for over a year. My daily morning posts consisted of four poems I would write each day that were based on news stories I’d read and find to be humorous, shocking or outrageous. Poetry had always been what I’d write. I had no interest in prose.

I finally shut down doing the daily poems thing and decided to try my hand at writing something for the dropintheocean tag, which involved a word chosen each week for which we were to create a post. I think I wrote a poem the first time, but then I decided to try writing a fictional story, which I did.

I enjoyed writing it so much that I started writing a fictional story for each week’s word. I had discovered that I really do like writing prose after all. I owe that to steemit, and the fact that I am here purely by chance. It’s one of the best things that have ever been added to my life and growth as a person and as a writer. Since then I’ve been entering and writing stories and articles for contests.

I’ve written more worthwhile content since I’ve been here on the steem blockchain than I ever did or ever would have, without steemit.com. That’s a life value; not something to turn my nose up at. The only way I’m leaving this platform is if it no longer exists. I hope to see it grow stronger and I will be here - just as long as there is an audience too.

P.S. Also, thank you snook for the great help you were a few months ago, in showing me how to make my posts look so much better! :)

Sources for images used in this post:

_{Steemit Mug: Image by francousqui from Pixabay
Crypto Currency: Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
Audience: Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Consulting, Training: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Good: Image by Marsel Elia from Pixabay}