Crypto is dying for the 12th time and it's year 2016 when I finally sign up on Steemit. 

I've seen it around earlier, I've seen people discuss it. 

But the thing with me is: I'm stubborn. And not very witty, either. My brain flat out refused to accept how can money come out of nothing - it is physically impossible. 

It's a hack. It's a scam.

Whatever.

At that time, Steemit was literally paying users to sign-up so I had nothing to lose and a few bucks to win. Back then I was doing big moves on trading exchanges by buying 15$ worth of alt currencies. Big ballin'!

Ok, you got me to sign up, now whaat?

At first, this was very overwhelming because Steemit at that time advertised itself as a possible competitor to Facebook and Reddit. But all I could see on the trending pages were:

•   STEEM app developments
•   Crypto project tech projects
•   Insanely talented hand-drawn paintings
•   STEEM group projects, mainly tech again
•   Super cool photographs
•   A true show-case of skills in literature by likes of @ericvancewalton
•   Well researched, scientific works of news that would put modern news to shame by likes of @getonthetrain

So... Where do I fit in?

 I take good 10 seconds to evaluate my skill set to conclude that I have nothing to contribute, lol. I'm not an artist. I'm not a writer. I'm not a crypto thought leader. I'm not a blockchain developer. 

So what.. f*ck it! It's a decentralized platform and I'll do whatever I want. I'm a special snowflake. Because... Why not? I tried my hand in quite a lot of things (and I still have no target focus in my content - it truly varies from one field to another) and some of the content I've tried is as follows:

•   Designing wallpapers (didn't get any traction)
•   Cryptocurrency trend news (didn't get any traction)
•   Delayed intro post (didn't get any traction)
•   Journal for future plans (didn't get any traction)
•   Pictures of my home country (didn't get any traction and truth be told I can't take photos for sh*t)
•   Some experimental poems (some traction!!)
•   Personal memoirs of my past with god awful grammar that had more typos than actual content within. (Ching-ching! A winner!)

By not giving up I actually found that EVERYBODY has something to share

I turned my memoirs into mini-series and while I had days, even weeks, when none of my posts would cross the magical 1 Steem Dollar mark I just kept at it. In total, despite my absolutely awful grammar and inconsistency, my series about partying and drinking generated aproximately 500 STEEM (worth now 1,400$+). Aside money, I've made it to reputation 59, woohoo and I'm being followed by some quite the big whales such as @ned the man himself. He has thus far only liked one of my posts but it doesn't matter, I'm still going to brag with it!

Aside money... Steemit has made me a true believer

I've been interested in tech and crypto for as long as I can remember and it's always eaten me inside that I was a strong Bitcoin advocate but never actually got on the train. 

Well, not this time! No-no!

Nowadays, when people are skeptical about cryptocurrencies I show them Steemit as a simple, practical platform because...

...You don't need to understand the technical jargon, you can be just yourself and be here for a good time

It took me a while to understand but people post thousands of words of free content within platforms like Medium and Reddit, while they benefit from serving ads to you - you might as well be getting paid for it.

My true advice to all newcomers

•   Stay true to yourself, don't fake taking interest in things where you lack passion
•   Stay persistent. It WILL pay off.
•   Literally use your time spent on social media, on Steemit instead. Talk about it to your friends and family. Even if they think you're coo-coo, so what?
•   Make friends. Comment. Read. Digest. Develop a feed that interests and captivates you.
•   Don't worry about all the complex technical Blockchain jargon, the withdrawal process has become truly easy and there are several tutorials out here on Steemit how to do that.

Biggest benefits on Steemit above similar sites?

 1. Freedom of speech. This is a decentralyzed platform and it's extremely hard to get censored (unless you're getting flagged by other users for abuse or clearly illegal content, possibly, idk, I post really weird things and haven't been flagged even once so far)

 2. Endless content. You can forget about being bored, ever. Your soul belongs to Steemit now.

 3. It's pretty slick. That's it. Look, I made a rhyme, that's sick, I should make some $$$$ by clicking dat submit.

Last but not least

We're all here for a good time and to further introduce the world the possibilities of cryptocurrencies and the powers of blockchain technology. Something new, something hip. It's a much needed change to combat the advertisement giants (Facebook, Google) who profit from our data, while in reality they should be paying for it. You don't have to be an anarchist to realize this. 

I've learned to appreciate this platform and this is what my journey has been like. Don't miss out on this opportunity. Be part of something *yuge*.

Sorry guys for the poor grammar but not sorry!

 

This is an entry for @abh12345's contest