Before anyone comments "There is no way you can earn 1000 by August of this year!" I know its highly unlikley that I will be able to earn 905 Steem just from posting. I do plan on buying a small amount every week (as much as I can afford!) If I could afford to buy more, I would...let me explain why...
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While I started buying crypto in July, you could say that I pretty much saw it as buying a ticket for the lottery. I had no idea what blockchain technology was, and the only reason I even bought my first crypto was because one of my friends was sending me links and telling about one that he was going to buy. I honestly didn’t even care about learning about it as it seemed way too technical for me. I do not have a background in computer science, my laptop that I had been using for three years was purchased with a Groupon and it was a piece of junk. I couldn’t even switch between tabs without it freezing.
I purchased a fair amount of a token (Plr) and after my friend transferred it to a paper wallet, I stored it in the safety deposit box at a bank and proceeded to forget about it until late August. Sometime during late August, for some reason that I don’t remember now, I started looking into crypto again. I decided that if I was going to learn about this, I needed to start at the beginning and research a couple that sparked my interest. I also needed to learn the purpose of a blockchain and tried to grasp the concept of it. This was difficult. I still admit that I am a total noob.
Me Buying Crypto
Since then I have accumulated about 20 alt coins. Each coin sparked interest in me, as I could see the mass adoption aspect of it. Basic Attention Token comes to mind. Imagine being paid to view ads! To me this seemed like a genius idea!
I had been lurking on Steemit for a couple months before I actually joined. It seemed very intimidating to see the dollar pay out of a post right there under it. Of course, I thought I didn’t have anything to say that people would see value in. The thing that got me to finally sign up was the wait time. When I saw that it took several days to get registered I said I might as well sign up just in case.
The first couple days I spent about 10 hours total reading before I decided to comment on anything. Being new, I wanted to learn about the community and what’s expected of me. I learned so much from just scrolling through the Steemit tags. I started commenting on people’s posts. I think the first comment I wrote was on a post about EOS and what is going to happen when their ICO ends. People will have to register their ERC20 tokens that they bought and they will get their new EOS tokens. The person didn’t know this, so I commented. Imagine my surprise that someone upvoted me 10 cents! I know, its 10 cents...not $10, but to me it meant the world. I gave someone advice and someone else rewarded me. It was an amazing feeling.
I have not made millions so far on Steemit, but it hardly matters. I am here for the long haul. I have gained 165 followers (yay!) and interacted with hundreds more. My reputation is now at 46, which I hear is pretty high for someone who is so new! Since I joined Steemit 2 weeks ago I have dedicated at least 80 hours to being on this platform. I haven’t checked Facebook in days. I only use the messenger! I feel invigorated for the first time in years. I have been buying STEEM for the last two weeks. It’s not much, but its all I can comfortably afford right now. I believe that I will only be buying STEEM for the foreseeable future. My goal is to accumulate 1000 STEEM to power up in the next 6 months. I know that is probably impossible to do with only posting, but I believe in this platform so much that I will be buying it too so I can get there faster!
I talk about Steemit non stop to my husband and friends. In the past 2 weeks I have signed up 8 people. 3 of which started posting content. My husband and sister both received some really large upvotes. When I saw it I just had to call them to tell them. They were so excited! I have yet to receive an upvote like that (about $90 each), but I am grateful for every single upvote I get! They each give me pride that someone appreciated what I wrote enough to honor me with their upvote! Seeing the excitement from my friends getting those huge upvotes is just as thrilling to me because I know it’s going to motivate them into staying. I believe their success is my success too because we will all continue to support each other.
It’s kind of like when you tell your friend about your favorite TV show. You explain over and over how amazing it is and they just need to watch it. You pester them incessantly over weeks. Then they finally watch the show and call you to tell you that you were right and that they love it.
This is how I felt after I saw their upvotes and they told me how excited they were!
After hearing my enthusiasm for Steemit and seeing my constant struggle with my old laptop he decided to surprise me with a new laptop this week! I was absolutely floored! Thank you so much 
So far I have bought and earned 95 Steem. I hope that I will achieve my goal! I will be reinvesting all my earnings and I will not Power Down. Steemit is the first crypto based use case that I have been a part of, and honestly I think it has a real shot at taking over Social Media as we know it. While I constantly kick myself for not joining and getting involved sooner, I am trying to just be happy that I joined before 99.9% of the rest of the world!
Do you have any goals this year for your Steemit account? Please let me know! Would you honor me with your upvote and follow? I appreciate every single one.
-Emily