it is my birthday

1 year ago exactly, I came sprawling out of the Steem woumb a crypto infant. So much to learn, so much to do. So naive.

I spent about three weeks preparing my introduction post, and I think I scratched everything and started over at least three times before I was happy with it.

When I finally posted, I got about a third of a dollar worth of upvotes, and a couple of spam messages. And I can't honestly say that I wasn't disappointed even though I was prepared for exactly this.

BUT I also received one real reply on my hard work, and that was from @steemmatt. My first acquintance on the steem (or any) blockchain, whom I now consider a friend (though our contact is rather sporadic due to my lack of posting).

This one reply was what I needed to feel welcome here, and it did make my hard work feel worthwhile, that one intelligent person actually read what I wrote and commented on it. I have on multiple occasions thought about all the newcomers that put in similar amounts of work in their introductions as I did, that never receive such a reply, that maybe even isn't read by anyone, and how disappointing it must be for them.

I've always been the type of person that prefer a few good friends around me, rather than many acquintances. This has clearly reflected on my life on the blockchain as well. I guess I just don't have it in me (or want to) be someone who's constantly networking and cultivating relationships. Problem is (as I've come to realize), that this is sort of a requirement to have any type of success here. That's my experience and perception anyways.

Note that I'm not complaining about this fact.

So yeah, in a monetary sense, my steem account has not been the raging success I imagined it would be when I first started out.

After about 5 months of posting, I stopped writing my own posts, and replaced that with participating in @steemmatt's Fitness Challenge. I went from never having exercised before to exercising 3-4 times a week, which I've kept doing since that. This was without a doubt thanks to this challenge and the people participating in it.

The main things I really liked about the challenge was that we all supported each other with upvotes, training tips, and encouragement. Some of us became friends (or at least training buddies) which for me was really cool, and inspired me to continue.

Due to personal matters for the host and a massive lack of vote-support, the challenge eventually came to an end. I still find it strange (bitter and stupid) that no whale or dolphin ever wanted to throw their weight behind this project, cause it was a really good project that inspired people to get in shape in a very positive environment.

For me, the challenge ending meant that a) I don't have an arena to interact with the fitness community anymore and b) nowhere to spend my voting power. So out of l laziness/convenience I just started to spend my voting power on my acquintances and friends from the challenge. My voting can hardly be called curation, but at least I mostly read their stuff and all my votes are still manual.

But perhaps more importantly; even though I'M not making any money here, I'd like to help these good people to make some at least.

So that's what Steemit is to me now, and that's what I'll continue to do here.

What did I just write? I had no plan for this post other than posting something (anything) for my steem birthday. If you made it this far, I salute you.

Ps: I also want to give a shoutout to @thevillan and @dj123 that have provided me with various insights and tips on my journey here, and also a special shoutout to @comedyopenmic which I think is a really awesome project.

Until next time.