Time flies when you are having fun, it really does. One year ago, I started my steem journey and it is quite fun to compare my work from back then with the one I am doing now. So much has changed, I have changed and my posts have too. When I first got here, I had no idea about what witnesses are and I remember how even the difference between steem, SBD, and steemit gave me a headache. My first posts got 3 to 5 upvotes and maybe a comment or two. What is the point I am trying to make here? DO NOT GIVE UP! I wanted to... A couple of times actually... Ok, more than just a couple but I am glad that I didn't because after one year on the platform, I feel pretty satisfied with how things are now.

_{_{CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Image4you, adapted}}

After that one year, a celebration is in order. It is not every day that your steemiversary comes so I will say thank you to a lot of you and hand out a couple of gifts. I will even ask you to give me a gift. It is my birthday after all and I want gifts too :D

Posts about steem birthdays that I have seen so far, always had some numbers in them. Most of those numbers can be found on steemworld.org but I understand that bragging rights are important and it's not every day that you get to show off all your accomplishments from the past year so stay with me, I will try to make it short. (emphasize on "try" lol).

Numbers, numbers, numbers...

_{_{CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Alexas_Fotos}}

This birthday girl sure did come a long way from those 3 upvotes and 1 comment per post and here is some data that shows you just how far I have gotten:

wrote 291 posts and made 6,820 comments
reputation 67,933
1,119 followers
22 witness votes given
member of 31 discord groups
received 70 curie upvotes

Topics that I wrote about and will continue to write about include psychology, biology, physics, health, food, stories, DIY projects, needlework, painting and then some but all of them are connected with my Philosopy of happiness or how to live a happy life. All of them are connected with one of my favorite quotes:

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
― Mahatma Gandhi

Every day is about fun and every day is about learning something new and becoming better than you were yesterday. On that journey, the first person you need to learn about, improve, focus on and study is yourself and everybody else deserves the respect to be treated like an individual regardless of the sex, skin color, nationality, religion, education degree, and health status. This is the way I live and what I think is the right way to live so naturally, this it the thing that I write about :) An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind and choosing love is always the best approach. Love yourself, love people arround you, those far away from you, love our gorgeous planet, and love our amazing Universe.

I would not be where I am if it were not for all of you lovely people who read what I write, upvote, comment, and reestem my work. Thank you very much. All of your support is very much appreciated and I am grateful beyond words for every kindness and encouragement you show me. There are so many of you that I would like to personally say how much you mean to me and how much I admire you for everything you are doing for this platform. Let's start with some groups...

Hive account@steemstem, my lovely group of brainiacs who teach me so much every day. You will find the best educational posts from these people and enrich your knowledge. Learn like you are going to live forever, remember?
Hive account@thealliance which is lead by an awesome Batman and has a special family vibe. I was the headmaster in their server and helped new people with html and designing and thealliance has given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people
Hive account@thesteemengine was the first group I have joined and the place where I have learned that community is everything. To this day, some of the best people I know are in that group and are one of my best commentators and encouragers.
powerhousecreatives, with the old name Hive account@steemitbloggers that is such a lovely place to be and such a diverse one too. Always filled with great initiatives, socializing, games, and contests. There is something going on every day and there is never a dull moment.
Hive account@naturalmedicine is a group of people dedicated to natural healing, nature and self-work, filled with love and support for anyone who enters through their door
Hive account@welcomewagon is a great group/project that helps new people and is so loving with their advice, encouragement, and teachings. Many great people were given knowledge about the platform here, people who are now full grown steemians and going places
Hive account@steemsugars, Hive account@steemiteducation, Hive account@earthtribe, Hive account@ecotrain, and Hive account@actifit as an amazing app and group I would also suggest to anyone

Much love to my favorite people:

Hive account@vortac,

Hive account@enginewitty,

Hive account@dreemsteem,

Hive account@jaynie,

Hive account@enchantedspirit,

Hive account@bengy,

Hive account@bigtom13,

Hive account@zord189,

Hive account@thereikiforest,

Hive account@riverflows,

Hive account@nainaztengra,

Hive account@natubat,

Hive account@likedeeler,

Hive account@irelandscape,

Hive account@alexs1320,

Hive account@michealb,

Hive account@eaglespirit,

Hive account@katrina-ariel,

Hive account@tattoodjay,

Hive account@lizelle,

Hive account@agmoore,

Hive account@lemouth,

Hive account@rebeccabe,

Hive account@squishysquid,

Hive account@yidneth,

Hive account@trucklife-family

If your name is not up there, it does not mean that I do not love you, it only means that I forgot about you and that is on me, not you :D

A special thank you goes to Hive account@fundition who have accepted me as one of them and it really is a pleasure to be their Editorial director. The entire team is amazing and I could not have asked for a better boss than Hive account@hightouch and better people to work with than Hive account@addicttolife and Hive account@goyard.

_{Join a community with heart based giving at its core}

What kind of birthday would this be if there were no presents involved? As a thank you to all of you who are supporting me, I have decided to give away some SBI and SP. I will give 2 SBI shares to 5 different people and those people will tell me what group they want me to delegate 50SP. If more of you say the same group, that is ok too, the group will then get more SP.

All you have to do is leave me a comment, a nice one, about anything. 5 best ones will win. That is all. Not so hard, right? I will be subjective, of course, and there is no telling which comments I will like the best but do not overcomplicate this. It is easy because you always leave me amazing comments and there is no reason why you would not now. Just do not forget to mention which group you would like me to delegate 50 SP. After the post-payout, your SBI will be sent and the group you nominated will receive the delegation.

I want some presents too!

Sure, you can give me whatever you want and it will be very much appreciated (steem, SBD, SBI, SP, cake, candy, chocolate, wine, jewelry...) but I do have something in mind that would make me really happy. At the moment of this post, my reputation is 67.933 and it would be really really really nice if all of you would make that number become 68. That is what I want for my first birthday, a fresh new reputation number. Make it happen people :)

All I can say at the end that I promise to work hard on supporting your brilliant work and creating quality content for you to enjoy. Never forget that you are special and unique, marvelous and capable of more than you realize. You have all that you need, you have yourself. When those moments of doubts kick in and when you do not believe in yourself remember that I DO .