As I was strolling around my feed, I came across [this contest](https://steemit.com/busy/@anomadsoul/contest-the-blocktrades-scholarship-or-win-support-for-a-full-month) by @anomadsoul and @blocktrades.

At first, I was debating with myself about the reasons as to why or why not I would enter.
The 'why not' was pretty huge: I have translation posts that get upvotes from utopian, and I have had the ongoing support from one very special lady and another few special people (to me) with a little more SP than average. So there I was 'thinking myself down' and trying to come up with reasons why I shouldn't deserve the Blocktrades scholarship...
Fact is: there are many awesome Steemians out there, who work effortlessly to create quality content, help others, spend their time working on projects on this amazing platform and so on.

So why me?

I can only tell you what I do, and who I am. I live and breathe Steem. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones who made it to Steemfest twice, but it cost me blood, sweat and tears...this last Steemfest quite literally. I've been living of Steem nearly full-time, until a few weeks ago that is, now I am keeping everything I earn right here. I have been working as Language Moderator with DaVinci, who work on the translation part of open source projects for Utopian. Besides this, I am also translating the project Node.js, which is not a small project, to say the least. Since almost the beginning of my time here, I have been part of @familyprotection and later also @ecotrain, two of the greatest communities here.
Then, last month, I became Ambassador for Fundition, another great project to spend my time on. And after Steemfest, I am now also looking to see where other projects could fit in my schedule.
As you can see in my profile, I am not a big fish by all means, but I am always trying my very best to create quality content,help others where I can and really connect with the people here. I've only ever powered down once, which was small change for last year's Steemfest. But this last Steemfest, I've made myself a promise: become a dolphin within the next four months. Not just for me, but also to support others.
And I'd be lying if blocktrade's upvotes wouldn't help me get there faster.
(And @anomadsoul's right: I had my first blocktrades upvote a few weeks ago, it is a great thing!)

The things I'm working on, and the plans I have are outlined in this post:
https://steemit.com/roadaftersteemfest/@misslasvegas/steemfest-afterthoughts-a-time-for-change-plans-for-the-future

My thanks goes out to @anomadsoul and @blocktrades for organizing this contest.

Thank you for reading!