I joined Steemit last August, after I was introduced to it by my friend, @tinyhomeliving.

It's been an interesting ride, and I've seen a lot of changes and learned a lot about many topics. Before Steemit, I had never even heard of cryptocurrency. Now I consider it a large part of my investment/retirement portfolio. I have "seen" many new places in the world through Steemit. Places I never knew existed. I've exchanged great conversations with people from every continent. How else could I have had these experiences if it weren't for Steemit? My Facebook friends list is comprised of family and people I used to hang out with. There is little that is new and exciting to post or read about there. But here on Steemit, I get a glimpse of how other people around the world live, and what they do for entertainment. It's an enjoyable experience.

About the recent changes.

When I saw the "experiment" implemented that deprived us of whale upvotes, I had nothing but negative thoughts about the outcome. After all, I was quite pleased with the occasional posts that earned me 400 or more Steem from huge whale votes. I took a few days off, not even turning on my laptop to look at Steemit. But I came back, and decided to keep posting and curating, simply because I enjoy it. Then Dan resigned, and many people panicked. I'll admit I worried Steemit might be doomed. But just a week later, I see that we are as strong as ever. We lost some users, but they might have been weak links in the chain, anyhow. Those of us who remain active and positive should someday see Steemit come out of the dark and shine on a global scale. And we will have stories for all the new users flooding in. We can tell them about the day when Dan left, and Steem was only worth 7 cents. Those days will go in the history books.
And back to the experiment. Although huge whale votes are history, at least for now, I think we all feel much better now that our own votes carry so much more weight. I enjoy increasing someone else's rewards when they created a great post. It feels good. And the rewards coming in from my posts are generous and consistent. I get the feeling that many of us are satisfied with the absence of whale votes, in general. We are the everyday average users who didn't invest a small fortune in the very beginning. We peck away at our keyboards daily to create interesting content, sharing a similar vision of the future of Steemit. If you are reading this, then you didn't run away scared and power down your account when Steemit looked doomed just last week. Congratulations! Hang in there, and keep up the good work!

God is Great!