One of the first things I did when I joined Steemit was look through all the tags.
I wasn't a blogger so I felt a little lost on what to post.

I found the Open Mic tag and decided to post a video I had made of me playing Linus and Lucy (The Charlie Brown Song).

The next day I logged onto Steemit and was in shock when I saw that my Charlie Brown post had made about $280!

I didn't know anything about Curie at the time and I really didn't know much about Steemit either, so I was absolutely amazed and confused about how that had happened....and of course grateful and happy!

So, anyway, one of the comments on my post was from Hive account@luzcypher telling me to check out the Open Mic post to find out about the contest and the rules for entering. So, that's how I found out about the Open Mic contest!

I ended up entering the contest every week after that. It was such a great experience, especially as a new user, because I got to meet so many musicians and it helped me to feel like I was becoming part of the community.
The open mic contest also helped me grow as a musician and as person.
I hadn't performed in years due to almost debilitating anxiety and I had gotten to the point where I just accepted that I would never perform again.

Having a goal each week to make the Open Mic video helped my musicianship and more importantly, helped me to step outside of my comfort zone and grow as a person.

This personal growth helped me gain confidence to host radio shows on MSP-Waves.
Before joining Steemit I would never have done anything like that, but the Open Mic contests helped me to become comfortable in my own skin and showed me that I don't have to be afraid to share part of myself with other people.

Hive account@luzcypher gave us a list of questions to answer when making our Voices of Open Mic videos and I just realized I forgot to mention my Open Mic highlight which was when I actually won! I remember coming home from work and Shane screaming from the balcony that I won. lol
I honestly never thought I would win so it really meant so much to me!

The week after I won, I started the Steemit Creative Curation Show with Hive account@swelker101. Part of the show includes playing music from Steemit musicians, but I wanted to create another show specifically dedicated to Steemit Musicians.

I was talking with Hive account@krystle in discord one day and we decided to start a radio show for the Open Mic musicians. Hive account@swelker101 joined us shortly thereafter.

I do 4 radio shows and Steemit Musicians is my favorite. Every week I am absolutely blown away by the level of talent that we have here on Steemit.

HUGE thanks to Hive account@luzypher and Hive account@pfunk for organizing such an amazing and meaningful contest for over 70 weeks now!

Also, BIG thanks to the judges, Hive account@krystle, Hive account@soundlegion, Hive account@verbal-d, Hive account@passion-ground, and Hive account@meno, who give so much of their time...they have an incredibly hard job as so many of these entries are amazing!

Thank you Steemit Open Mic!