Hey everyone! @SumatraNate here!

In this post, I want to share the meaning of my Steem ID.

Background Information

I joined the Steem community on June 2, 2017, a few days after starting a leave of absence with my employer at the time. If you have been following my Steem blog, you may have heard me talk about the depression I was experiencing when I joined the Steem community. My family and I were experiencing a lot of changes, and to be honest, I was not handling those changes very well.

My family and I had lived overseas for more than 10 years. And during a trip back to the United States, I felt like we needed to move back. This decision was very challenging because it meant I would be leaving a job that I enjoyed very much and my family would be leaving the place we called home. We lived on the island of Sumatra, which is one of 17,000 islands in Indonesia. So when I joined Steem I decided to put Sumatra in my user name.

Writing Steem posts was like therapy for me. Creating content helped me feel productive and gave me an opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings during a time when I felt "worthless."

As the years have gone by, my family has slowly adjusted to life back in the United States. It has been a growing process, and I am grateful for the members of the Steem community that have supported me along the way.

No one calls me Nate in real life

My wife calls me Nathan. My mom calls me Nathan. My dad calls me Nathan. Everyone offline calls me Nathan.

But Sumatra Nathan did not sound very cool (in my opinion), so I shorten my name to Nate for my Steem username.

And the result Sumatra + Nate = @SumatraNate.

But what is the importance of a Steem username?

When I first joined the Steem community, I did not really understand the difference between Steem and Steemit.com. I thought they were the same. Boy was I wrong!

A Steem username is much bigger than a Steemit.com user name. My Steem username allows me to:

• create content
• interact with other community members
• financially support other community members
• make financial decisions
• make investment decisions
• explore a growing number of frontend interfaces
• obtain a growing number of tokens
• find new recreational opportunities (shoutout to SteemMonsters)

To me, my Steem username is like a key that can open up many doors. And something amazing is that it will be able to open up doors that have not even been built yet.

Final Thoughts

My Steem username has personal meaning. It explains a bit about my past. It provides me the opportunity to share my present with other people. And it will create new opportunities for my future.

I am very grateful for the day I joined Steem. I am very blessed by everyone who has supported me. I hope you feel my support as well. And I look forward to sharing many more adventures with you all.

Thanks for stopping by!
@SumatraNate

I was prompted to write about my Steem username because of a post from @floridasnail. If you want to learn more, click here