Steemit being the blogging platform that it is, gives me an outlet to express myself while connecting with a larger community of people. The blockchain serves me well as an original content creator. It is censorship resistant and populated largely by sincere authors who make efforts to keep the community inclusive, making it a safe space for everyone. For me, the fact that cryptocurrency is intertwined with the content per se makes it a complex environment that contrasts with centralized social media, which I also use. It puts things in perspective as far as the inner workings of the new attention economy. If it ever turns into a greater revenue stream, I may one day use it to buy simple things like bread and butter to put on my table. I feel very loyal to this fragile and highly speculative economy.

After all these years, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around minting Steem for content creation. I have read many articles proposing to debunk that for me and I have yet much to learn.

It is easy to find people who want to express themselves but to make it here, you also need to pay attention to other people’s ideas. I am thankful for the artistic value that I find here every day, it helps keep me interested. I see a lot people delegating their SP, maybe so it is put to good use if they go away for a while, but for me, I prefer to use it myself. It motivates me to make an effort to connect with people and to learn to be a better writer.

There are people from all over the world on Steemit which provides me with an excellent exercise in fighting the us VS them mentality. I believe that no one is above racism and that interacting with people from all over the world as your peers, helps foster healthy relationships. To be exposed to people from other cultures changes my life for the better and as a community, we focus on what brings us together. When I don’t understand the language of a post, I see a beautiful picture on Steemit; and I feel like I can communicate regardless of that barrier. Many steemians even have paragraphs that are translated to English, talk about creating value! It feels good to get to know each other like this from my vantage point as a gay man. I try to keep in mind the oppression that I face because of my sexual orientation where instead of judging a culture or a religion because it is not inclusive enough, I look at the people one by one, their values, their tolerance etc. The last thing I want is to create the same kind of oppression that I face.

The dark side of Steemit we all know. The spammers and the accounts who downvote without good reason. I of course down want to taunt anyone, so I’ll just leave it at that. We live in fear of being unjustly downvoted or harassed. Everything at a price. I feel like there is a lot of jealousy involved so you need a thick skin!

We are entering a new era, sacrifices must be made to compete with other social media giants towards mass adoption, arguably the only thing that will give Steemit longevity. The beauty of the Steemit interface as opposed to others like Partiko is that it is non-addictive by nature. However, things are changing and our mental fortitude is going to be put to the test. Be vocal if you want your dreams to come to life, make yourself heard, wether you blog from a personal, a proffetional standpoint or both. Someone is listening... maybe?

My dream is to be able to make enough revenue here for pocket change when I retire, many years from now. We will get competitors with their own cryptocurrency but my dream is that we stay on top. Not so that I can become rich but so that I have enough to live.

That is a lofty ideal but it helps me blog on, discovering countless other content creators all as passionate as me if not more. I have a tremendous amount of respect for you guys. @roundbeargames thank you for your support, thanks to you, I feel like I make a dent in a competitive world. @carlgnash, I admire your tenacity. @veryspider, you are hilarious, laughter is the best remedy. @vikingventures, your imagination knows no boundaries. @chelsea88, you are extraordinarily resourceful, you are constantly reinventing yourself, I love the art that you make, especially the vortex ;)

I also want to thank the people of Aceh and it feels as though, many are currently joining from Venezuela at the moment, welcome. The more, the merrier.

And everyone who helped along the way.

Thank you for the 900 followers, thank you!

I hope that together, we stay motivated!

Thank you for listening to the ramblings of an old fossil like me. I could go on and on, what can I say, this tech gets me all excited. Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed and the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories must be ceded.