Last week I celebrated my birthday on Steem. Three eventful years were completed last Saturday, which I didn't actually realise until my 
Funnily enough I was meeting 
I love the fact that I was meeting them on my Steem birthday, and it's a bit of a shame I didn't realise at the time as it would have been nice to mark the moment with a raised glass.
No matter, fun was had by all.
Gratitude
When people ask me how I feel about Steemit, the first thing that always comes out of my mouth is the word gratitude. I am extremely grateful and happy that Steemit came into existence when it did, and that I was lucky and curious enough to check it out.
It has allowed me to live a certain life these last few years, and even though it can no longer sustain me, I shall be forever grateful to 
Changes
I first became aware of the word hardfork in relation to Steemit. I think it was around HF15/16 that the phrase worked its way into my general lexicon, and it represented the first of many changes on Steemit.
One major change that happened a few hardforks later was the move from a 104 week vesting period, to just 13. For those of you who aren't aware, the original time period to withdraw all of your funds from Steemit was two years!
I actually wrote an article at the time saying what a brilliant idea I thought it was. My thinking was that having such a long period whereby your funds where staked into the system, meant that you were less likely to act in a way that damaged the system.
In my mind the 2 year vesting period was the perfect answer to the prisoners' dilemma, in which every prisoner is offered a chance to win a million dollars each, but only if everyone agreed and nobody decided to take the money for themselves.
Unfortunately I, nor the developers saw what this meant as far as where the power lay on the platform. So the stake weighted voting algorithm was changed and the vesting period was changed from 2 years to 3 months, which in some people's minds is still too long.
Frustration
Not everything has been plain and smooth sailing on the good ship Steemit, a lot of us, and I am no different, have voiced frustrations at the way the ship is being steered.
The biggest one for me was marketing, I shouted myself hoarse between about August and October 2016, because this was when Steemit was getting a lot of positive press and free PR.
I felt that
Alas, anyone who could have made that happen either ignored or disagreed with me. Unfortunately now my frustration is borne out of watching a half-hearted marketing campaign happen three years too late.
Don't get me wrong, I love 
Community
I mentioned at the top that I hooked up with
I really value the connections I've made on here, and as well as meeting Eric, I went to Steemfest last year and met a whole bunch of amazing Steemians that I hope to see again among others, later this year in Thailand at Steemfest 4.
The Future
No matter what happens, I'll always have a Steemit account, and I think there will always be a place for our quirky little website.
I do think though that certain things will hamper its development, and I don't know if those problems are surmountable.
For now though, I'll just sit back and reminisce about the good old days of Steemit, I'll raise a glass and drink to the future.
Thank you Steemit.
HOW OLD IS YOUR STEEMIT ACCOUNT? WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? WHAT ARE THE BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT STEEMIT.COM?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Title image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash