One year on Steemit! What an amazing ride! I should share cake!

A few minutes back I was looking at my own wall and realized that I have been here for a year now! 

Who would have thought I would make it so long? Not me because it has been a roller coaster year for me to be honest! Not because of Steemit but my life behind the screen! 

How it started. 

About a year ago a close friend of my started to talk about a platform where you could earn some money and of course I got curious. So I went to google and did a search and ended up finding steam irons and steam trains and thought it was all just a BIG JOKE! Of course I was googling the wrong words ( After a few minutes, okay maybe a hour! )
So after looking at a new iron thing I finally found the right place and I made an account! 

img credit : Google

@poeticsnake was born! 

Why did I picked that name? Because for 8 years I had been doing some roleplay writing on (( Coughs)) Facebook and my creation ( Char) was a snake. Next to that I was very busy writing poetry and I wanted to share those poems here on Steemit. 

However, I ended up sharing anything but poetry for a while! (( hands up or the snake will shoot you! Pew pew... You are slow! )) I started to share my drawings and because I got loads of support for them I picked up my most beloved hobby again. I doodled for days and days on end and shared all my work here. The reactions and support made me feel like I was and still am in heaven! After a while I also started to share my paintings and I made a few how to posts as well. One of my best was how to draw a fish tank and when I look at that post it still makes me smile from ear to ear! 

Img credit: Me myself and I LOL

I started to connect with a lot of people but the most wonderful one still makes me smile a lot and that is @fyrstikken. I lovingly call him the HUGE cuddly VIKING! Because of the chat and radio (SteemSpeak, On discord) he created, I learned so much about Steemit and coins that my ears sometimes still itch! Because SteemSpeak I started to connect with more and more steemians. I honestly think that it's because of them there that I got a great start on Steemit! I got voted on by whales and really felt amazing!  TO THE MOOON!!!!!  I am seriously very thankful for all the help I got when in need on Steemspeak and from @fyrstikken. 

I started to get interested in bitcoin etc and started to build up a nice, yet small wallet and I still enjoy finding out more and more about crypto! For a noob like me its a hectic world but so far it brings me a lot of happiness! Of course I made mistakes, because I like to push on buttons! (( hands up or the snake will steal your shoes! Tooooo late again! darn it! Thank you for your shoes! )) So I might or might not have sold and bought some shitcoins on my road! I also might or might not have given money to a person who said I can send it to your paypal! ( I am such a badass for trusting people! NOT) But in the long run I made my own mistakes and I learned my lesson the best way possible! For now my wallet is small and cute and I love it! 

I am not English! 

It's hard to write in a perfect way on here if you are not English! I am Dutch and English was not such a strong language for me at school. But during my time here I think it improved a whole lot! I know I make mistakes here and there and I should use a app or anything to take them out but I like to learn by doing it all myself! If I don't understand a word in a post I search until I find the answer. I learn by reading lots of posts and writing as much as I can. 

Voting!
I like the voting here on this platform. Most of the time I vote low because I want to vote on more than 10 posts a day. I want to reward as much writers and creators as I can. I am now in a voting trail as well ( @frontrunner , have a look if you want to know more. Frontrunner is created by @fyrstikken and @inertia ) I keep a good track of my voting power and also vote manually because I really enjoy doing that! 

img credit : Google

Flags! 

The one item here on Steemit that will always confuse the living daylight butterflies out of me eyes and brain for that matter! The flag is here and to be honest it scares me! I can honestly say that I never flagged a post but I have muted a few users, ( two or thee I think... Annoying pricks! They don't get cake! )) The fact that I don't use the flag is because I like to share positive votes instead of negatives. I do however understand that some deserve a flag! -_- I am against abuse, stealing work etc! Spammers need flags as well..... I just don't have them on my list so far! I have been flagged, I have no idea why but I never made a problem about it. As long as there are no written rules about the flag people are free to use it as the please! Maybe, it is time for some rules? Just a thought! 

Flagwars.... They need to stop! In my eyes ( I can understand it but... :(  )) its painful to watch! 

Good content! 

I read every post I vote on and I write every word I share here! During my time here I have seen many posts and debates on good content! But what is good content? In my eyes you can't please all the readers on here and what is good for one might be a shit post for others! I am not a blogger at all, I am just a creative soul who enjoys to write. Do I think my own content is good? I am not sure, I just write about things I love. I share pictures of my art and hobbies and at times I try something new. I do believe that my posts have become better during my time here but I don't see myself as a Good Content creator. I made the trending page a few times though in the past! A feeling I will never forget! 

And then... I had to step away from the platform I fell in love with!
My life took a stressful road and I could no longer focus on anything. So I took the hardest step and posted that I had to leave Steemit. I said my good bye because I was not sure if I would return. In the hectic time I  was away from here I lost my dad and before that my mind was so full I really needed to work on myself.  Things started to look brighter again and I opened my laptop and logged into steemit. 

img credit : Google

WOW, that moment! 

Steem was stronger then ever and my wallet here made me almost faint! Sadly I did loose a lot of followers and votes when I returned after give or take three months. I no longer get the bigger upvotes and my posts no longer are super high! Does this make me sad? Nope, I have always shouted that I am not here only for the money! Even without the massive votes I still make money and in a way it makes me work even harder! I do understand that I lost the votes and followers because I made a choice! Since I am back I started to gain followers again and I can now say that I am over 700! How wonderful is that?  ( I know you are waiting for the cake, bare with me! I need to write a few more words! ))

Delegate and @minnowsupport
Now that I am here for a year I really felt like I should give something back to the community and I found @minnowsupport and after a talk with @sammosk I decided to delegate some of my voting power to minnowsupport! I really enjoy connecting with all the people behind it and all the others who are on their discord channel. Because I had this great start I wish every newbie and or minnow to know that they are all seen and minnowsupport makes that happen! 

To have a strong network is really the best thing here! 

Am I going to change things?
I honestly don't know. I think sticking to what is closest to my heart, art and creative projects, will make me the most happy. When I write I don't think about making the trending page or hitting the jackpot. I always wrote and always will write from my heart. I do hope that in time I will be able to write more about crypto. But for now my knowledge about it is far from enough to even write a post let alone have a strong opinion about it. I do want to create a few challenges in the future, hopefully with some other steemians. That would be a nice challenge for myself as well. I do want to work on commenting on other posts! But because I am sometimes doubting myself way to much I keep myself from doing it! I am staying myself, shy and sometimes way too quiet but happy! 

I want to end this post with saying that I really LOVE steemit and that I am in for the long haul! 

The cake? Ooh yeah the cake!!! 

I uhmmmm was hungry so I ate it all!