It's been a year since I signed up for Steemit. The first time I knew about it, I was both hesitant and amazed. I had lots of questions like,

how do you earn with just writing and through votes?
where did they get the money?
what is cryptocurrency and how does it work?

With my first meetup I got to understand how steemit really works. @themanualbot and @fernwehninja explained to us about steemit, cryptocurrency, blockchain and many other terminologies that deepened my understanding of this virtual world. I was more inspired to write when steemians started to share their experiences like @itinerantph's love for travelling, @tegoshei's passion for drawing and animé and @bien's homesteading. I will never forget them saying that we should enjoy writing rather than just earning.

What have I become so far?

I may not have given much of my time to steemit and was not always there in all meet ups. Yet, there are aspects of my life in which steemit has influenced : Social, Travel, Education, Expression, Monetary, Innovation and Time Management.

Social

Meet-ups had been a way for me to set aside the introvert side of me. Though I felt awkward meeting new faces and starting conversations with people I just met, but I thought to myself, it was not such a struggling thing to do. Human beings are natural social beings. We always have the urge to belong to a community, a group or a family.

My first steemit meet-up

Chemical engineering Steemians

Worked with friends during the Steem Summit

Travel

Usually, when I travel, I only look for famous spots and delicacies. Steemit, gave me a glimpse of different perspectives of travelling. Now, I started to look for in a place for its uniqueness. I also made sure to document all the special moments during my travel so that it would be easier for me to share to others who also wanted to go to the places that I went.

Onboard the Indigenous Motorelas of Mindanao

Travel Memories: Chocolates Hills and Where to Find Them ⛰

Education

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or tools to read.
-Stephen King

True enough, if you don't make time to read, how would you be able to read or edit what you have written. He may also meant reading as learning. You can't write something you don't have any idea of such topic. Even if you are tasked something to write without knowledge of it, you most probably research or ask experts on the subject matter.

With steemit, I got to learn more things. Even if I am in the middle of writing something, I still do research to make my post more meaning and verify what I know if it is real.

Top Ten Unique Filipino Holy Week Traditions ✝️ 🙏

Expression

As I've mentioned on my post on confidence project, I was having a hard time expressing myself. Now, I get to express myself through writing in different forms. I got hooked in making haikus and Filipino poems.

Story Haiku # 14: Archaic

Filipino Poetry # 1: Ano ba tong nangyayari sa akin?

Monetary

We can't deny that one of our motivations for posting is to have an extra income. I am proud to say that the earnings I got helped me to bring happiness last Christmas - both for others and to myself.

Celebrating Christmas with loved ones

Relax pag may time

Innovation

There are times that I have that writer's block. I can't really think of something to post in steemit. Steemit made me to be innovative in thinking different topics to write that would be an interest to the readers. I would search on trending topics or latest news.

Sayings Saturday # 2: Winning Today's Games

Fact Friday # 1: The Mocked Scientist

Time management

Balancing my time among work, house chores, writing and other sidelines is bit a challenge. Sometimes one task would require more time than the usual. Though, I was still able to juggle everything.

Time is DEFINITELY NOT Gold..

Why I stayed

With the diving of cryptocurrency, so does the inspiration of some to write faded. To be honest, I for one posted fewer than before. But even if I became scarce in the steemit world, I knew within me, the STEEMIT aspect stayed.

Love lots,

@wandergirl ❤