My Curie Story

I was prompted to write this post after reading @limabeing's post, Lima's Curie Story, as well as another post she resteemed which was written by @carlgnash. I'm not a curator for @curie, but I have been fortunate enough to have two posts upvoted by them, so I wanted to talk about what that wonderful experience meant to me.

Me and my Pusheen teddy, Pan Cat, reacting to @curie's overall amazing-ness! I call this teddy Pan Cat because it has the pansexual colours – blue, yellow and pink – on its mane.

First of all, I'd like to explain what my time on Steemit has meant to me so far.

I joined Steemit at the end of January after being encouraged to do so by my partner @charlottefawsitt, who had seen a friend of hers experience great success on the platform. My introduction post was written on the 2nd of February. I liked the idea of posting it on 2/2, as I got a strange thrill out of the fact that both numbers were the same, and I also appreciated the fact that this date would make sense in either the month/day/year format used by the Americans, or the day/month/year format used in my part of the world. There was also the fun coincidence that all of the digits in the year 2018 add up to 11, which can then be reduced to the number 2. All of the numerical factors came together so neatly through my decision to post on 2/2/2018, and I loved it. What can I say? I am weird. 😁

I love using Steemit as an outlet to share my thoughts and perspectives on whatever feels important to me in any given moment. It is very important to me that everything I post on this platform (or anywhere else, for that matter) is truly genuine and heartfelt. I need to be sure that I am putting my authentic joy, enthusiasm or truth into every post I create – otherwise, the post doesn't feel like it will be worth writing. I'm aware that many Steemians recommend writing a post every single day, but I know that if I tried to push myself to write something every day, solely because I thought I "should" do it, the quality of my posts would inevitably decline. I value quality over quantity, every time.

Any time in my life when I have tried to write something purely because I "should", I can feel my own lack of sincerity while working on it, and I'm fully aware that readers will feel that lack of sincerity too.

I do occasionally go through bursts of great energy and enthusiasm – and my output is higher than usual at those times – but I know that for me, posting on Steemit every day wouldn't be a successful long-term strategy. I am committed to staying with Steemit for the long haul – doing anything I can do to help the platform grow – so I am prepared to pace myself and ensure that the quality of everything I write is as high as it possibly can be.

I also need time away from my computer screen and my phone at times. I love to walk in nature: to completely unwind, to listen to the subtle sounds of trees, birds and animals, to feel the sunlight on my face (sunlight is an exceedingly rare thing here in Ireland, so when it shows up, there's nothing for it but to go out and soak it up! Numerous studies over the years have shown that most people living in Ireland suffer from some level of vitamin D deficiency, despite the fact that most of us are as pale and pasty-faced as you can possibly imagine 😂). I need plenty of time to do nothing more than ponder and allow ideas to slowly take shape in my head.

The artist, poet and academic @tessaragabrielle – who has become one of my favourite people to follow on Steemit – expressed similar sentiments in a thoughtful piece where she outlined what her first month on Steemit has meant to her. I also whole-heartedly recommend an earlier post she wrote called Reclaiming My Time: Introversion and Authenticity on the Blockchain.

The reputation I have garnered on Steemit to date rests almost entirely on the strength of just three posts:

my introduction post

a post I wrote on Alex Kelly from the Noughties teen drama The O.C. This post was entitled "Positive Bisexual Representation: Part One", as it will form part of a series on bisexual characters in film and T.V. who have inspired me and many others to live authentically and be true to ourselves. I have yet to continue that series, actually ... I will write the second instalment this week. See note above on how I have to let things slowly take shape in my head until I'm confident that what I write about will be as sincere and meaningful as I can possibly make it. 😂

a post I wrote last week on how I became vegan

The first of these just happened to catch a lot of people's attention (largely because the #introduceyourself tag is very popular and beginners' luck can be a very nice thing indeed, when it happens 😉), but @curie was entirely responsible for the success of the second two.

When my Alex Kelly post gained @curie's approval, the first I knew of it was when my phone began to buzz over and over again (I have the eSteem app on my phone, which notifies me whenever someone has upvoted, followed or unfollowed me – or at least, it used to. It has stopped sending me notifications recently – it needs an update, I guess). I was freaking out slightly, as my phone buzzed non-stop for several minutes and I had no idea what was going on! When I realised that my Alex Kelly post was suddenly worth over $40 Steem dollars, I was shocked beyond belief, but also thrilled. I had previously been quite pleased with that post as it had earned around 40 cents, as opposed to my usual post payout average of 20 cents 😉 ... but @curie's intervention brought it to a level I had never dreamed possible.

The upvotes I received on the Alex Kelly post caused my reputation to skyrocket from 42 to 47. I had believed it would take a few months of slow, gradual plodding on my part to achieve that score.

The second round of @curie upvotes on my veganism post caused my reputation to rise from 47 to 49. I did not know anything about it when it happened, because I was fast asleep in bed at the time and my phone remained silent, as the eSteem app has stopped sending me notifications. I simply woke up the next morning, logged into the app, and received an amazing surprise!

I hope to keep growing on this platform by doing exactly what I have been doing so far: writing as authentically as I can, writing from my heart, and writing in a way that will hopefully enrich and inspire those who read my posts. I would like to build up my SP enough to help other people in a profound and meaningful way. I would love to reach the stage where my vote is worth more than one cent, and I can make a real difference to someone else who might be struggling to progress on this platform. I know that my journey on Steemit will, for the most part, be a slow and gradual upward trajectory, but I look forward to every moment of it.

I know that @curie has extremely high standards. If none of my posts ever catch their eye again, I will remain immensely grateful for the vitally important role they play on Steemit and the upvotes they have given to date. Thanks to their intervention, my goal of someday being in a position to help fellow Steemians in a profound way is just a little bit closer than it would otherwise have been. For that, I will always be grateful. ❤️

I've joined a few great communities here (huge shoutouts to @teamgirlpowa, @ecotrain and all those who produce amazing #vegan and #lgbt content), I've gotten to know some amazing, dedicated people, and I've learned a lot about my own personal voice and how to develop my skills as a writer. This is why I continue to have faith in Steemit's future, despite the problems of spam, plagiarism and abuse of upvote bots that all too often appear on this platform. Those of us who still believe in producing and promoting high-quality content will remain, no matter what.

Just click on the banner to join the TeamGirlPowa server on Discord.

You can also click on this banner to join the LGBT Discord.

The link to the Vegans of Steemit Discord group is here.

And here is the link to the Ecotrain channel.

One more thing: if anyone else reading this has a @curie story they want to share, by all means feel free to write about it, using the tag #mycuriestory. 😍 Thank you for reading!