What made me stay on Steemit? My #1 reason for loving the platform & favourite short-term Steemit rewards

Steemit LOVE

There are a zillion reasons to love the Steemit platform. And well, you are here, so you probably have some great reasons of your own! I know there are a lot of crypto lovers out here. And people who know about and believe in the technology behind Steemit, or people who firmly stand for decentralisation and Steemit fits their life philosophy.

For me, when people ask me (or I ask myself) how it's possible that I make money with posting and curating here on Steemit - I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. And I've watched those little info videos about how the blockchain works. But it doesn't stick, I don't know, there's just not really a context in my current set of experiences that allows me to give meaning to the whole crypto thing. Yet. Because, a few days back, I decided that even if right now I'm not really a techie girl, there's always the opportunity of becoming one. Like learning a new language, or adopting a new culture, or starting a new sport. Learning something completely different is not only exciting, it helps you reinvent yourself, requires you to be fresh and alive. And I love being fresh and alive ;) and I definitely plan on adding more tech savvieness to my life reportoire!

Still, for me, the underlying technology, the amazing scope of possibilities that it opens up, the world of decentralisation and improved accessibility and everything - they are not what make me hang on to Steemit. They are really cool, like an added long term bonus. Like buying an apartment and renting it out, and after 30 years having the appreciation of the property. The whole planet scale change that the crypto world is bringing about, that is like appreciation to me. Even the value of my account is more of a long term thing, since that value doesn't show for so much now and I do believe building an online presence here will be rewarding in the future. But for me, with most things in life, just the long term promises don't make me very active on a daily basis. And well, upvotes and rewards and comments also don't always work as my fuel, since not every post that I've put my effort in collects the same amount of attention.

So when things are a little slow, what is my number one reason for staying here? What's the immediate pay-off that makes me come back to Steemit every time again?

My husband was working on a house renovation project today. So there's the reason for the real estate metaphores ;)

Different, similar, you and me

The curation rewards make me go back to finding awesome new content all the time. To be completely honest, knowing that there is a (tiny) reward to finding and upvoting great (so far unnoticed) content is really helpful, providing motivation to scroll through the huge amounts of content every day. But as I do scroll through content and look out for interesting topics, posts where people put in their personal efforts, sharing about their passions and/or life experiences or just present information that is relevant to them at that time - I find out so so so many interesting things. Like overwhelmingly interesting things. About life and how people experience it.

I know there are blogs all over the internet. Travel blogs food blogs life hack blogs... But the thing with those is, once you've found a content creator you enjoy you stick with them, and once you're saturated you might not always be on the look-out for more. I have my favourite YouTube creators and my favourite food blogs and I go back to them, just for sake of convenience. Like a favourite place to go and have coffee or a favourite bench to go sit and enjoy some sunshine. We humans are creatures of habit, after all. And Steemit helps us stretch a little by encouraging and rewarding finding new content and new creators.

So what happens is, I stumble across a blog of a Thai girl @rosethiyada who has an au pair job in Norway, after spending two years in my own country Netherlands. Or after posting about my love for Ultimate Frisbee I find the account of @fingersik and get to enjoy his awesome posts on his experiences of playing on the Czech national team. Or @kenanqhd writes an amazing post about his life in China as a Canadian, and I can just imagine a little how it would be since I've spent close to two years living in an Asian country as well. In all these posts, I find experiences I can relate to and which are at the same time very different from mine. I find that all around the globe there are people who I feel connected to, related to, with whom I share one thing or the other. Sometimes age, sometimes nationality, sometimes interests, sometimes experiences. And yet all these people are very different too and the way they share, the words they use, the emphasis as they put it shows me how we each have our own perspectives and own ideas about what it means to live the life we live.

Husband working hard, I had the day for myself. Went to the Rotterdam central library for some coffee and wrote my post from this spot. The text in white on black is from Erasmus, a famous Dutch philosopher, saying something like: 'When I'm out of money, I buy myself books'. I'm sure the guy would have loved Steemit!

Community

People tend to comment a lot on the Steemit community and how amazing it is. I don't know if I enjoy the community in that same way many people do. I sometimes feel that we're all just working hard for more attention. And that's probably part of how this platform works which is absolutely fine, but the fighting to be noticed isn't the most appealing part to me. For me, reading the blogs of all those others out there, so similar and yet so different but then again most of all so similar to me - it's like looking into this big mirror full of faces, all of which resemble mine a bit but also show the potential of what I could be like. All these people who I can relate to and who reflect to me what is also possible in life make me feel connected. Make me feel that at the heart of it all, at our core, we are so very close.

Around a year ago we came back from one and a half years of living at an ashram close to Bangalore, India. My time there was so full of meaning and direction and purpose. With so much clarity that increasing my sense of Oneness with life, with others, with everything is my way to experiencing the deepest richness of life. Being back and finding my way around my own country again has been great, very enjoyable and wonderful, but also a challenge. Sometimes up to the point that I'm facing my day, realise I am 30 now and that I should really get on with finding out what I want to do with my life, what I want to use it for. Then the interesting part is that life is still giving me all these experiences, all these reflections, that remind me of Oneness and how it is the only experience that makes sense. And that even though I'm not at the ashram anymore, not immersed in those spiritual teachings at this moment, still Oneness is growing on me every day. Whether it is through playing Ultimate with my team and finding that flow that allows you to perform as a collective unit. Or whether I'm on Steemit and looking at all those different faces, different experiences, and seeing how they are a reflection of me and how we share so much of what matters.

Tattoo of Shiva's trishul and damaroo, symbol for Oneness or Advaitha, which I have on my right hand since 2014

A BIG thank you

Lol, I think today I got out of bed with a bit of a dramatic streak colouring my mood. If you're still reading this, then thanks for hanging in there with me ;). And allow me to take this moment to say thanks. For this platform, allowing us to meet and get connected. For all of those bloggers and content creators out here who show me again and again how similar we are, how connected we are. And who at the same time allow me to see the world from fresh perspectives, to share in experiences that will probably never be part of my own life. Thank you to all those people interacting with me here, your comments and upvotes, the 500+ people (milestone!) who're following this account.

To me, Steemit is another one of those rare presents that life has in store for us, providing so many layers of meaning in such a simple, practical and yet beautiful way. Even giving me a space where I can share what I wanted to share, on days that my mood is just a little more dramatic than others. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of creating this place, and who is part of the community, and ultimately who is part of the same consciousness expressing in a reality that looks so diverse from the outside and which is so connected if you take a closer look.

What about you?

Do you recognise being on Steemit for a few months, still finding your way? What makes you hang on? What makes it worth your while to spend your time here, what are your short and long-term rewards? Would love to hear how the Steemit experience is enfolding for you and maybe you'll share something that makes us all even more happy to be here!