Welcome to steem! Like you I came upon steem recently and am very excited about the future for this platform! There is a lot to learn and I'm constantly exploring the ends and outs of how it works! One thing you'll find is that steem is still quite small (growing fast) and surprisingly influenced by a relatively small group and is somewhat "gamed". That will change as the critical mass of people is reached (I think steem is close to that point now). That said, this early stage is an opportunity that won't last forever so let your enthusiasm carry you forward.

Interesting story. I recently texted a friend who does YouTube videos. I told him that steem was the future and he needed to check it out. He texted back saying that he had setup a steem account two years ago and that it didn't work for him. I said you were so early there wasn't anybody using it (he was probably one of the first 10,000 users and didn't even realize it!). If he had stayed with he would probably be one of the whales now. Anyhow, it is still early but not so early you'll lose interest like he did. I think he'll be back on now.