First, what is this "Batchmates" thing?
The term "Batchmates" is something I learned from the Filipinos.
According to Wiktionary
Noun batchmate (plural batchmates)
- (India) classmate
- (Chiefly South Asian and Philippine English) A member of the same graduation class as another.[1]
- (Chiefly South Asian and Philippine English) A member of a batch
So essentially, to me, one's "batchmates" are the people one began their journey with.
For me, my batch mates are.
From the very beginning I saw the possibility of all of us growing together as we continued our Steemit journey. At the time, sure Shell and Choo were already well on their way to Dolphinhood, but for the most part a lot of us were beginning from zero.
But I knew it's only a matter of time until we all grew and one day we will all be dolphins and whales.
The Pattern
If you look at some of the OLD, OLD original Steemians who registered back in 2016, you'll see they mostly vote for each other, some people call this the "circle jerk" I'd prefer not to call it that and pass judgement.
I prefer to see it as, possible, loyalty and friendship.
You will see the same pattern in my voting. I have most of my batchmates on auto vote (I'm not even gonna be shy about that) and some I curate manually.
Why?
Before I ever knew anyone on here I knew them first. They have had my back on this platform longer and more solidly than anyone else. Me being the loyal person that I am. I return the love.
I look at my single digit payout values and see a lot of those votes are from my batchmates.
Is this the power of the "batchmates" system?
When this all began I didn't know anything about anything. All I knew was these awesome people keep voting for me and I'd be a douche not to vote back. It didn't matter to me if their vote or mine were worth a total of "jack shit" at the time. It mattered that I show my support.
What am I trying to really say?
This is for the newbies.
Support your fellow newbies for they are YOUR batchmates.
We all go through the motions of being a new fish in a new pond and although experienced users will be there to assist. No one but you and your batchmates know exactly the feelings, dramas, challenges of being in your current position.
To me that is something to bond over.
It shouldn't matter that they have ZERO Steem Power because that is only temporary. Trust me. THAT will grow over time, that is if you/they don't power down constantly.
Even then, after a while, it doesn't even matter if they do Power Down. After a while they become your people.
To all the newbies reading.
Please invest in one another.
Steemit is a big ocean, getting bigger every day.
As much as we "experienced" Steemians try to support all the newbies, sometimes some do get missed.
I've seen this happen and I've seen people leave the platform due to lack of support.
If you all supported each other I think our user retention rate will dramatically increase.
When I started Steemit in June, I didn't have access to ALL the resources, communities, groups, that's available now to new users. In fact, @TeamAustralia formed only days after I joined, and look at it now.
This is an always growing and evolving platform.
Please don't feel discouraged. Your time WILL come, but it all depends on you ENGAGING people on the platform.
Engagement is your path to success
I engaged my batchmates. Well, we engaged each other, bonding over our posts and discord. In a lot of ways we invested in each other, and through that we have all grown.
Don't just engage your batchmates. Engage EVERYONE.
When I say ENGAGE. I don't mean you go begging for votes. I mean, go out there, read some blogs and put a decent comment up.
Get involved in the community.
This is the true path to your Steemit success.
By getting involved you get to meet more people that can be YOUR people.
For me, that's 
This is because I go out there and engage Steemians. Wether it's on Steemit or Discord or Facebook.
People forget Steemit is SOCIAL media. So get social peoples!
Yes. We want everyone to read our posts, but are we reading anyone else's and making the effort to comment?
Think about that next time you post your blog link somewhere.
You may not think it's important, but as much as you want your post supported, another person out there wants support for theirs.
Someone's gotta get the ball rolling.
Let that someone be you.
Now go out there and curate and comment your big heart out and see how much more fun Steemit can be.
Happy Monday everyone!
💗 Arly
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
PS. Sorry if I missed some people when I was tagging away