It's blowing my fucking mind that it's been SEVEN YEARS here.
(ok, if anyone wants to get technical about the difference between Steemit and Hive... calm down, y'all know wtf i mean.)
it's sorta nuts that i'm approaching my goddamned 40th birthday in a few weeks, yet this 7 years on Steemit/Hive seems like a far more monumental event. it's difficult to overstate the impact this space has had on my life.
i sorta wanna start the recap as, "i was living the dream life DJing in Bali..." though to be fully honest, that was sort of unwinding at the time as frustration was mounting with DJing for a living and i'd just moved out of my villa as a stepping stone to cut costs as approaching marriage and moving back to Canada, clueless on how i'd support us there. then, BAM. some Divine intervention led me to Steemit. started with zero expectations, yet following through on the instinct to just write somehow led to a complete life transformation.
it's thanks to this platform that i essentially exited the work matrix and have been able to fully do my own thing on my own terms & time since. sure, no Lambo or dream home (at least yet.) sure, life has had it's (high) ups & (deep) downs - but the fact that i basically retired from DJing 6 years ago and can manage to pursue whatever required at a sustainable pace without having to sell my soul doing anything i hate is something to be appreciated... and it would not have happened without this place, the community here, and especially the whales who saw value in my contributions and supported them accordingly.
of course, not to forget some of the amazing friendships/connections that have happened here. even though they've taken place over distance and internet, there have been some of y'all whose presence has meant more to me than people i've known face-to-face.
sometimes i feel bad for not having stuck around consistently here and having given back more. (but maybe there's that whole thing of, "it's hard to give when your cup is empty.") there definitely was a streak where it was immensely fulfilling to pay forward some of the blessings and make a similar difference in the lives of a few peeps in Indonesia and Africa. maybe it was partly selfish to have pulled out my funds here for reinvestment elsewhere aiming for higher ROI. (though not totally that simple, as felt the need for an emotional break as well). maybe when my targets are hit elsewhere, it'll be time to come back and shift them into here so can once again use that voting power to make a difference in other writers'/artists' lives here.
in any case, it is what it is. (god, how tired i get of that damn saying sometimes.)
nonetheless, it's pretty awesome to see that this platform is still running strong.
while i personally may have stepped back for a while and don't fully engage with others' content as much as could, it's still inspiring to see the new generations here keeping consistent in creating value others appreciate and reaping the rewards. even though i've kinda been totally out the loop for a while here, it's rad to know others are still running strong and keeping things alive & well.
it's definitely something special that was created here seven years ago and continued to expand with the contributions of so many around the world, each adding something unique to this ecosystem.
may y'all continue to be blessed.
and who knows where we'll be in another 7 years...
