I've been thinking a lot lately about what STEEM really means to me

Not just the currency, or the blockchain, but everything that makes this platform unique. What feelings it invokes, and what potential it already holds for the future of every single person who comes in contact with it, and even many who don't! I've been around for a while (since May 2017), and still wish I could have seen the first few months of this in action!

To me, STEEM is much more than just a network of social media sites, not to mention ones that actually pay their users for creating and engaging with content. STEEM is a new way of life. A way to break free from the bonds of what society says you 'should'. STEEM is a feeling, almost an emotion. STEEM is connectivity like never before, and not just the superficial 'connections' we get out of other social media. Something about this idea of incentivizing engagement has created an environment where people actually listen to what others have to say, and often give incredibly thoughtful feedback. STEEM has created real-world friendships and connections that will last a lifetime, all the while inspiring people to become better, and do more, than they ever dreamed possible! STEEM has real power, not because a government 'allowed' us to have it, but because we are creating it every day. STEEM is putting the power to do real change in the hands of the masses, and with it, they can do anything!

A tiny bit of history about myself, and my own experience with STEEM:

My childhood was pretty much hell. I don't exaggerate on that statement. I have gone into that a little bit on my blog, and will likely do so more in the future, but today isn't the day for that. Today is a feel-good day. When I became a teenager, dropped out of school, and began living on my own, I didn't have the motivation to do anything but stay alive. I worked whatever job I could find, and used sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll to keep my mind off of life's real problems, and that leaves no room for ambition. I took shelter where I could, and with whom I could.

Then, at 26, I had a child.

Life and it's priorities change really fast when you have a tiny human being to nurture, educate, and protect. Carlin is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me, the other being his brother Vincent.

When Carlin was first born, I knew I wanted to find a way to work from home, and spend as much time with him as possible. I started up a website that would introduce people to earning money online, and the money would come in from affiliate commissions and referring interested parties to sites they could potentially earn from. Boy oh boy did I learn pretty quick what that world is all about... Even "opportunities" that would pay you, turned out to be little more than MLMs and outright pyramid schemes. I discovered Bitcoin in 2014, and started promoting free ways to earn some satoshi to get people started up. These were the early days of faucets, where you could easily earn hundreds of thousands or even millions of satoshi in a day, which today would be worth a nice chunk of change...
The website still wasn't bringing in enough money to make it all worth it, and after 2 years, I was still working a full-time job to pay the bills. Logically, I closed it, and focused my online energy on bitcoin, still searching for free ways to get as much as I could. I've been burned on Cloud Mining, I've had websites turn out to be scams and run off with hundreds of dollars (which today would be worth hundreds of thousands...).

A few months after I closed down www.moneyfromho.me, I discovered Steemit.

A blogging/social media site that pays it's users with cryptocurrency? And I can join for FREE? Sign me up! I earned $30 worth of Steem from my introduction post. I bought a debit card from BitPay (with bitcoin I had gotten from trading STEEM through @poloniex). About a week later, I traded the rest of my STEEM for bitcoin, and deposited it to my new BitPay debit card when it arrived in the mail. An hour after setting up the card, I withdrew $20 from an ATM down the street!

You got me, Steemit! Hook, line, and sinker!

I'll do whatever I can to honor your whitepaper, and create as much value for this platform as I possibly can! I have done my best to put forth the greatest effort I can on my writings and my blog in general, since day one. I'm what you'd call scrupulous.

This behavior was developed as a coping mechanism from my childhood, but it has served me well as I traverse this windy road we call life. This mentality has earned me an organic following of over 1100 wonderful people. I say 'organic' because I have never played the 'upvote for upvote' or 'follow for follow' games, and have often spoken out against such things. I despise the idea of buying upvotes, and that too is something I have been very outspoken about. My integrity has wavered of late, and bots have become a way for me to try to get my content in front of those who might be genuinely interested in it. The Trending and Hot pages have become one big game of 'who can pay the most for this spot, and earn a fat profit for nothing'. One thing I've learned in nearly a year on Steemit, is if you truly believe in the value you are creating, it will eventually reach it's audience, and you will see rewards that line up with your own opinion of your content.

I've yet to be engaged by some of the big time players, but I'm not the only one who thinks I deserve their attention, and I'd love the opportunity to chat with minnows, dolphins, and whales alike, to explain why I deserve your support. I've started many projects centered around community. @steemparents was a project I started to show parents the kind of love they could receive here, and the power STEEM has to change their childrens' lives. It has kind of been on the back burner for a while, but I plan to revive it soon with all the gumption the team I gather around it can muster! @steemfreelancers if off to a great start. Only 2 months in, and we are empowering freelancers around the world to advance their careers, and boost their STEEM earnings. My latest aspiration is to open a real-world makerspace and STEEM hub in my hometown, and I'm only weeks away from making that dream a reality!

My passion for this amazing ecosystem has only grown during my time here, and has progressed to my getting the STEEM symbol permanently tattooed on both my hands!

I am now a walking billboard for everything this symbol stands for!

My efforts to promote this platform to my community will increase 100 fold with the opening of @thesteemhouse, bringing as much value to the #promo-steem tag as possible over the coming months, and hopefully years!

I plan to put the STEEM Blockchain to work for my hometown, and my hometown to work for the Blockchain, giving people earning opportunities they could have never dreamed of pre-Steem, bringing value to everyone involved!

I have a new motto that I repeat to myself every day now:

"No matter what it is, make it happen."

Enough about me, though. I ask again:

Here's a challenge to Steemians old and new:

- Tell everyone what STEEM means to you. Write a post, make a video, draw a comic, or paint a picture. Express yourself in your own way, and let the world know how STEEM makes you feel!

- Put "whatsteemmeanstome" all one word, at the very end of your post. You'll see the same thing on this post. This will make it very easy for @ginabot to let me know when someone participates in this, without devoting a whole new tag for one challenge.

- Share your post on another social media site. Any will do, so long as it's a separate audience from Steemit.

- Put a link to your post, and a link to where you shared it to, in the comments below.

In an effort to promote the altruistic use of bid-bots, I will be rewarding the first 50 people who complete this challenge with a 0.1 SBD bid to @upgoater. When this post pays out, I will reward 3 of my favorite submissions with a 5 SBD bid to @appreciator. That's up to 20 SBD in rewards for this challenge!

I believe the only good use of a bid-bot is to reward a creator beyond what your upvote alone could. I don't like the idea of buying votes for one's own post, as to me, it violates the true "spirit" of STEEM, and what it stands for. I chose these two bots in particular because a portion of the funds they receive are used to fund other projects within the STEEM-ecosystem. Read more about those initiatives here (@upgoater) and here (@appreciator).

STEEM means a lot of different things to different people, and it has the power to create real change in the world, for better or for worse. I never know how to end these things, so I'll just say thank you for reading, and if you found this post interesting, consider upvoting and/or resteeming it. Even better, take part in the challenge, and let everyone know what STEEM means to you!

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