One year on Steemit today!

According to my Steemd page, I have been on Steemit for exactly one year. Here is my first year in review.

• I first became aware of Steem watching it on Poloniex. I'm not sure what I was trading back then but Steem was having a major run up, at one time being worth around six dollars.

• A few weeks later I read some article that indicated that Steemit was about to close to new users, so I quickly registered an account just in case I ever wanted to use it. I'm pretty sure that information was incorrect, but it was the motivation I needed.

• I started posting right away and got very little traction other than my introduce yourself post, which earned around $30 worth.

• I read a lot of articles about anarchy. Though not of that philosophy myself, I do find it fascinating.

• I noted that despite disagreements people here were very polite to each other. One commenter might say to the author of the blog post: "I disagree with your conclusion for these three reasons (and then list them), but I appreciate how well thought out your ideas are so I gave you an upvote." People also for the most part seemed genuinely interested in understanding where the other person was coming from, even if they disagreed with their position.

• Very early on I came across a call to participate in what was being called a Science in Anarchy (or was it Anarchy in Science?) experiment. I would get paid if I recorded what I ate and how I felt for thirty consecutive days. You can scroll way back and read all those posts if you want to. Probably the most boring articles I've ever published. And yet I'm told they make an interesting read. I got paid 90 SBD at the end of the experiment, the most I'd earned on Steemit to date. Half of that got powered up and the other half probably went to purchasing Diamonds (DMD).

• Then I took a long hiatus. I think I got burned out from all those eating and feelings logs. I was also starting the new school year as director of my parish's religious education program, and that was an intense year as I launched a brand new (to me) methodology for teaching the children.

• I eventually made my way back here and started posting again. By then I became aware of the difference between those who worked at marketing themselves here and those who didn't. I'm definitely a "didn't." I know what to do as far as marketing goes. I don't wanna.

• This means that I'm not exactly what you would call a Steemit success story--not at first glance anyway. You'll notice I rarely post pictures in my posts (and that's like the number one thing everyone knows to do in order to get noticed!). I don't have a cool signature that brands me, and I really don't do much in the way of formatting. My posts never make it to the trending page and they perform average in terms of payouts.

• And yet if you thought I was a Steemit failure you'd be wrong. It turns out this platform has a lot more complexity than you might think (and it's obviously complex already!). There is not a one size fits all method of making it here.

• I wanted to help the minnows out so I tried a few things like my wantwiserupvote intitiative. The thing that killed me was all the manual upvoting that involved. I just couldn't do it for more than a few days at a time. But the attempt got me in tune with not only my own deep desire to use whatever I manage to accomplish to lift others up, but also opened my eyes to the enormous potential of a network in which you can influence the direction of the rewards pool at no ongoing cost to you. It's actually the beginnings of a new economic paradigm and direction, one in which scarcity is not the underlying assumption, though it's still tricky to completely escape.

• I caught back up with @williambanks, the instigator of the Anarchy in Science experiment. By then he was deeply involved in the VIVA project. I eventually read the VIVA white paper. I noted that he was one of the core developers. Suddenly I wanted to get involved, so I got in touch.

• One of my earlier cryptocurrency holdings started shooting way up in value, to the point where it became prudent to sell some in order to take profits. This just happened to coincide with the big VIVA Crown ICO. I became a VIVA Crownholder. I got friendly with a number of other people who were involved in building out the VIVAconomy, and I fit right in.

• That got me thinking about the whole concept of universal basic income (UBI). The idea is growing on me, though please, let's not put the government in charge of it!

• I did some work for the VIVA project in exchange for a merit Crown, in addition to the ones I purchased.

• Then I got asked to write the @tradeqwik articles. Turns out it was my food and feelings logs for the Anarchy in Science experiment that solidified my reputation as the perfect writer for that role. Who knew?

• That's about the time I got very interested in bot voting. I got myself a SteemVoter account and started automatically upvoting the minnows I wanted to support. This allowed me to vote for them even when I didn't have time to read their work, which once I started the Tradeqwik writing gig, I really didn't. I also played around with following various Streemian trails and setting up ones of my own. Unfortunately Streemian is having major technical difficulties and not working the way it should, and that is the most frustrating aspect of my Steemit journey so far.

• I very recently discovered @minnowbooster and have started delegating some of my SP to its delegate market. The returns are great and it allows me to earn more of a passive income with the SP I have, because to be honest, I don't have as much time as I used to have to dedicate to my own writing, but I still want my SP to be working for me.

• I still want to be a bona fide Steemit whale. The reason is that it would allow me to leverage that position in order to help others improve their lives. Things are working out extremely well for me in the crypto-world, but I live in a world where financial slavery has become the norm. I want to help people break free from that kind of slavery, and other forms of slavery as well. Getting them on Steemit and upvoting their posts as a whale is one way I could do that.

• I'm finally starting to tell a few of my real life friends about my involvement with cryptocurrencies and this cool social networking site called Steemit. During the past year my crypto-involvements went from the status of a fun (but way off the beaten path) hobby to one which is already changing my financial future for the better. It's at the point now where what I know and what I have accomplished can be truly helpful to the people in my life. It's beyond being this quirky hobby that makes me a bit weird.

• For the first time in my life I made a large (as in four digits) charitable donation to an organization that was doing something really cool in my community this summer. Totally funded by my crypto-hobby, and a mere fraction of the total profits I'd taken and what's to come, and yet meant the world to the recipients. I'm already thinking of more ways to bless others financially like that. I'm excited that the VIVAconomy is set up with that very thing in mind. I tell you the infrastructure cannot get built out quickly enough!

So this is my first year on Steemit. My journey here is unique and quirky. I've been blessed here beyond my wildest dreams, and yet it's not been the typical Steemit success story. Or is there really such a thing as the typical Steemit success story?