When Little Moments are Big Events
Part of a Contest sponsored by 
. She is generously donating AT LEAST 24 SBD worth of #steembasicincome shares in honor of 
and 
. Be sure to enter this Contest!
Image - Pexels CC0 License
Newbie Syndrome
Like many new people on Steemit, after a few weeks I was beginning to feel a little frustrated and hopeless (I really didn’t understand how Steemit worked). I wasn’t prepared for the dead silence that met my posts.
Looking back, I can see that many of my earliest posts lacked either proper attribution for images, or were simply ‘low effort’, in terms of length and quality. I was determined to up my game and become a better writer / poster. Still, not much response. The hopelessness started to creep back in.
And Then...
Then, just 8 days ago, one of my posts seemed to attract some modest attention. It was a post on Bamboo, a plant I really love for its many qualities. This single post received more upvotes and more comments than all my other previous posts combined, thanks due to 
The second thing happened 2 days ago, when I was one of the winners in the #steemitcommentchallenge contest, put forward by 
I won an SBD prize, and was delegated some Steempower. I am very grateful for this, as before my upvotes for others had virtually no value, but now I can support other plankton and minnows with a vote that will actually help them. Thank you all the people involved in this contest and others like it!
What Does it Mean?
To others who have been on the platform longer, and are big fish, dolphins or whales, these might seem like small, inconsequential events. But for me as a plankton, they were big events, in terms of boosting my morale, giving hope, and encouraging me to write better quality posts, and to reach out to others with comments and upvotes that will be helpful.
There are many people and communities on Steemit working hard to share the love and contribute to others. The people / communities I mentioned are such, and there are others.
Before my focus was on trying to get attention and make some money (short-sighted and naïve). Now, it is on writing good content, and trying to connect with people and support communities. This is the future of Steemit, at least for me.