Hello everyone

''everyone has got their part to play, the blockchain provides opportunities never seen before'' - @ehiboss

''I'm not out here to pretend or steal anyones idea, growing and becoming better is what we need now'' - @ejemai

''you do not have to start announcing yourself when you're doing good, publicity for an event? sure, but no need announcing that you ae the one providing the meal for a lot of steemians out there or that you gave a steemian something'' - @gbenga

source

The above were said to me in different situations and at different circumstances when conversing with my colleagues about community interaction and building.
Though not exactly how they said it, I believe I did justice interpreting what they were trying to say.

Everyday I wonder if I am lucky or just blessed by a supernatural being for being able to stand along side certain individuals and engage in building what is essentially a country n the internet.

An uphill task to say the least, since the country is known heavily outside for drug transportation, trafficking and internet fraud.

So far so good, I can say that the Nigerian community on steemit is a law abiding one, however its one with a lot of drive and passion, and Nigerians on steemit have overwhelmed a lot of services, but that's because wherever we are en masse, we adapt, innovate and take over.

Over the past one year(Jan - Dec) I have seen steemit grow, and steemains in Nigeria grow, this subject I have touched times before.

I have also witnessed a tremendous change in my approach to business, education, science, way of thinking, and of cause, the way I do music.

Many people still do not know that I am a music maker, a beat maker, a mixing eng, whatever you wanna call it. I am a music person, before I joined steemit, I considered it my first love, and I still do, only steemit has now become a close second on the list, ever so close, but never reaching the position(sorry steemit, music and I are inseparable).

With al that said, I wanted to look back at my life this past year, the lessons I learned from it,the people I met and all the goodness that has come my way.

Road to 2018

Before I start, I must state that this is more of a personal diary kind of post, ill be coming back to check on this in the future to see if I still maintain the direction of life I choose. Since the blockchain is permanent, it should work as a sort of time capsule message to my future self.

So dear future self, I have a story to tell you;

So at the turn of the year, around Dec 30-31 2016-Jan 1 2017, I was occupied with church activities, as well as being a sort of secondary chef for my dad in the kitchen.

The last Christmas and new year I spent actually opened my eyes to the fact that time indeed was moving fast. We usually spent Christmas as a family, Mom, dad, 5 brothers in arms. 2012, the eldest bro got married and couldn't make it, 2013 mom died and then we were 4, 2014 second bro got married and son couldn't make it, by 2015 we remained 4 that celebrated Christmas at home, I, my junior bro, my immediate senior bro and dad, 2016 came, and immediate Senior bro had to travel, so he couldn't make it.

Come 2017, its I and dad, junior bro is not going to be able to make it to town.

Since 2015, I have pretty much been on my own, spending huge chunks of time away from home, only having periodic visits because of the nature of my work, this year 2017 would indeed be the year that I settled down to take a different direction in my life, incidentally steemit helped in making that happen.

Before I joined steemit in march 2017, I had heard of it since at least November 2016. That was around the time I was dabbling into cryptocurrencies as well. I had a friend who was using faucets to gain free satoshies (a lot of people were into this as well). In my mind I dismissed it as a fools errand. If I had joined and held onto them, by now I would have had a whole lot of money in pockets.

By the way, this early realization that I could have made some money, fueled my decision to never lose out on anything, as long as its crypto related, its gonna boom to some extent. That was my thought process. Itt is what fueled my decision to sign up for steemit when my friend spoke to me about it, and it what fuels my decision to introduce people to steemit now that its still relatively low and (somewhat) new.

From January through to march, I was on the move, I traveled from sapele in Delta state, to Ife(yes, Ive been there before SIN), to lagos, meeting up people along the way.

In February, my constant movements gave me access to a unique and life changing group. In life, living in the normal will make you go blind to 80% of the most interesting, life changing and weird experiences out there. I wast living normal however, I had a lot of drive to learn about my craft, and I was eventually added to a group of some very hot music producers and mixing engineers in the country. It was a place of talent.

As at the time I entered, the group had the likes of Simi of X3M music, Altims of mavin , kezzyclef, swaps, STO, Dj klem that worked with wizkid, a producer that works for adekunle gold and much more, veterans that worked in the industry for at least 10 years.

Due to my contact there, I literally have the personal phone number of some of the hottest producers in Nigeria and africa right now.

dear future self, hoe you used all these connections well

In march 2017 I joined steemit, I wasn't too serious about it then, mostly because I was still going around making music. I eventually started postng, both music related works and others. I worked on my skills and community prowess, and eventually, I along 4 others were tutored by the great Tom, and forged int helping machines for the community of Nigeria.

weeks went by, and Nigerians came in droves, other communities started springing up like a virus, a @steemit-virus. hubs started popping into existence, a @stach initiative. An exchange for the community soon opened, an @airhawk-project exchange.

Many sub communities are springing out all over the country with different goals and objectives, most of them all leading to the main goal of ''making Nigeria great again''
The Nigerian community is getting bigger and better and a lot of work needs to be done to ensure that the riff raffs do not cause trouble, that everyone gets to enjoys steemit.

A steemit in Nigeria initiative was hatched and plans were put forward to move it.. We managed to gain the support of a lot of Nigerians, showing that unity was a possibility in the community, regardless of ethnic background or whatever.


On nov 2 and 3rd 2017 The first ever steemit in Nigeria event was arranged and things went more on less well.

The change that have happened to me along the way on steemit and out of it has been tremendous, I keep hearing from people that I ave changed. The ability to care more for your fellow man, the ability to have empathy.

I may not have shown my face in every single location, or announced what I have done to help .
Dear future self, I write to you in hopes that the message of love peace and upvotes to Nigerians is still spread
The future is bright and a lot of things are happening.

The seemingly last project from me this year 2017, is to host the best christmas steemup event as a way of saying thankyou for a wonderful 2017.