My 1 Year Steemit Birthday!

It looks like The Dood's Steemit account is about 1 year old. The great folks at SteemitBoard just issued me my 1 year Happy Birthday badge.

Time really does fly. I can't believe it's been one year. I've met some great people on here and it's been a lot of fun. Been through the highs, lows, and highs again of STEEM price and watched the platform grow and mature into a great community. I feel honored and blessed to be part of this experiment in both social media, and finance.

Together we are all breaking new ground, creating a new platform, and changing the paradigm of both value and money. As this platform grows and new users join, we slowly shift the power from social media giants like Google and Facebook, and take control of our own content on a censorship resistant platform that we can actually earn money on. Instead of the corporate behemoths earning money on our content and selling our traffic and user information for profit.

Each day that this platform grows larger, we begin to shift the balance from corporate giants who profit off our hard work, to helping thousands earn an income and change the way social media benefits us all. Some of us have been able to become full time bloggers and live off the income. Some have become travel bloggers, and travel the world on their Steemit earnings writing about their travels. I've met others from places like Venezuela who have a failing economy and the income they earn from Steemit has changed their lives in so many positive ways and continued to put food on their table in a part of the world where their daily and weekly STEEM earnings are equivalent to some of their neighbors monthly incomes.

I am so proud to be a small part of this platform, the community, and all it has to offer. It has been wonderful watching so many great people grow and come together as a community. I hope to continue blogging and interacting with you all for many more years to come and look forward to long lasting friendships and new friendships yet to be formed. Thanks for reading, thanks for making Steemit the great place it is, and thanks for tolerating The Dood and allowing me to share this great experience with you over the last year!