Hello, Steemheads!

I have been thinking about this challenge for quite some time and finally I have the strength and time to sit and write about it. I have never authored a challenge. This will be the first one.

Steemit has been a lot of good things to me. I love being here. I met wonderful people in here. I have been helped here, in many ways. I am grateful for the people who helped me, the little upvotes, the resteems and everything. I make sure to show them back that I am grateful and I do the same thing with them, I upvote and resteem their posts but sometimes, I wonder if I can do more than say thank you and little pokes of Steem.

One thing I love about Steemit is I believe the platform gives you more when you give more. I know not everyone will probably believe me on it but I do. When I started, I delegated my very small SP to some communities that are helping minnows. The idea in my head was I wanna help minnows so I will help these communities. Surprisingly, these communities upvote me and helps me back because I have delegations with them. Same with some services that I help, they give me more, like there is always an ROI for me whenever I do help. These are few of the reasons how I make it here, somehow. Despite having just a few friends. I gave so I was given back.

This challenge will be about GIVING BACK. Steemit is so beautiful in my eyes. It is not perfect world in here, trust me, I know, and we can sit down and talk about it over coffee and we will be needing more cups of coffee if we do. Hahaha! But I am a person who would choose to sift good from all the bad and the ugly and everything else. I love it here because of the endless possibilities it can offer you, for as long as you CREATE. Like right now, I am trying to CREATE a challenge. And I want this challenge to change a life or lives.

I do not know how this will go, if this will help in anyway but the intent on my part is to give back and for people to know how to give back. Because many times, there are things that can be done but people do not do. One of them is looking back and giving back. Sometimes I feel that a thank you is not enough when a person helps you. Sometimes I feel like if a person helped you at some point, specially when that point you were desperate for help, you can never repay the person with just a thank you. I think they deserve more than that. I think you need to build a relationship with that person and I think you have to think back to the time how they helped you in that time of need. People need people. If at one point you needed the person, probably in another point he/she will need you, too, anyhow. Sometimes, I wonder what problems could other people have? Can I help them? Despite my lack of many things can I help someone else? I do not know if others function like this, but I do. And thus, this challenge has been going on in my head.

In Steemit, there are people who help many others, like community builders, the whales, the many other people who you see around helping others, uplift others. I wonder who helps them. I see a lot of relationships in Steemit, sometimes symbiotic or an exchange. But sometimes, I don't see that. I wonder who helps those who helps. Surely, they too need help and some of them have problems, but then are there people who look back and help them back?

Why am I doing this? Because why not? Because it can be done, but why aren't we doing it? It will always be good to look back and give back than not doing anything, than just saying thank you, right?

These are the foundations of this challenge. I want you all to look back and think back who helped you here in Steemit and give back to that person. There will be 2 things to be done in this challenge.

1. Dedicate a post to the person or persons who helped you most in Steemit.

2. If you can afford it, give him/her any amount from your wallet as a token of gratuity. No amount and no need to say how much just give back.

If you want to know who helped you the most in Steemit with regards to earnings and upvotes, you can check: http://steemvp.com/

My own dedication post is below, this is my idea of a Give Back Challenge.

---

Dedication Note

A lot of people has helped me in Steemit. In fact, in autovoters, I have quite a number of people who auto-upvote all my posts. They are the reason I try, I try to be good, I try to be better, I try to be significant, because they trust that I will post something of value. Some time ago I have made a post thanking all of them. Then after that, I have been thinking about how to give back to those people, and that's why I have my contests. My daily contests are fueled by that idea that I want to give back anyhow to the people who make me grow. I am grateful that since its inception 70-100 people join my daily game which helps people with small amount of SBDs. Other than that, I also make sure to upvote them using my autoupvote curation via steemauto. I currently have 82 people there listed and voted by that bot at 25-30% daily. I know this is too low and the upvote is close to nothing but that is all I can do with the little SP that I have earned since I started Steemit.

I have also made relationships with the people that supports me in Steemit. Evidently, one of them is @surpassinggoogle. He has been good to me since day 1. He is like a big brother from another mother. Recently, we have had the chance to talk to each other because of the Discord Talk Show and I was able to hear some stories about him from him personally. About the sleepless nights, the struggle with taking care of his his dad who is ill, his duties in Steemit and all that. Very impressive man to be doing a lot for people despite the struggles that he has. Yet he never fails to help people, and I don't just mean a few but a number of people from all over the world.

I have this funny conversation with my Steemit bestfriend @cadawg, this was our very first Discord convo last January and surprisingly I mentioned @surpassinggoogle in it. This really makes me laugh, how I sound weird in here. It is obvious that I still do not have an idea who @surpassinggoogle was. Honestly, I just knew a little about @surpassinggoogle this May.

He has helped me a lot this is what http://steemvp.com/ says about my account and his:

I choose to dedicate this post to him because I think it is time to give back to him in this time. He is so busy right now because his dad is yet again in the hospital and struggling for his life like his mom did before she died some months ago. I know this is a sad time for him and as much as I want to comfort him or be a friend to calm him and just give him an embrace to make him feel that he is not alone, I cannot do it because I am far and so many limitations. But I owe this man a lot here in Steemit. I want him to feel that I am a friend and I am a friend in good days and I am a friend in bad days like this, too.

Give Back Coin/Token

GIF made with Giphy
An amount will be given to my MVP @surpassinggoogle from @mermaidvampire as a Give Back Gratuity Token.

---

Dear @surpassinggoogle,

Thank you so much. Just hang tight and know that you will win over tough times like this. You and your dad are in my prayers. God bless you, always.

Love and Peace,

@mermaidvampire