It is official!
I have set up my witness and everything is running smoothly. Now the set up itself wasn't the most fun thing in the world, but thanks to 
Hive account@lexikon082 for being on the mic with me the whole time while we troubleshot it. Shout out to 
Hive account@anarcho-andrei and 
Hive account@coff33a for being there to answer questions when ever they came up and all the support through the process.
Why do I want to be a witness for Steemit?
Today is my 140th day on this platform and to say that my journey has been amazing would be an understatement. I have met the some of the greatest people ever and seen the potential that this platform has to help the global community and I want to be a part of ensuring that it is here to stay.
Most people join Steemit for the same reason, to make money, but they find out that you have to be social and join a community to be successful. Who would have thought that being social with people on a social media site would help you, crazy way of thinking.
So once I had been here for a few weeks and began getting more involved with different communities, meeting people, and learning how the Steemit operated, I started to invest fiat into the platform because I could see the long term value of this platform.
I had some pretty successful posts that helped my account grow and my VP grew with that and I was able to start rewarding more people with votes and that was awesome. I started donating to different projects like 
Hive account@youarehope and 
Hive account@tarc and that is when I really started to see the power that this platform could have on a global scale.
When I first started on the platform I got involved with 
Hive account@czechglobalhosts and his daily photography contests. He runs some amazing contests that and he rewards people from all over the globe for their photography. I began to look at the other contests on the platform and then spent about a month structuring my photography contests. I structured mine with a beginner, amateur and professional tier so everyone had a more equal chance of winning and then I pitched the idea to Hive account@czechglobalhosts and without hesitation, he agreed to back the idea. Since then, backing for the contest has grown from awesome people like 
Hive account@pfunk and the whole 
Hive account@steemcleaners team.
My photo contest was just the first step in my plan to start helping the worldwide Steemit community. Since then I have learned from 
Hive account@maverickinvictus that he has been running a non profit organization for the past 12 years called 
Hive account@giftinkindph and recently brought them to Steemit. They are an organization that has been raising funds to put underprivileged children through school in the Philippines and get them the supplies needed for the school year. They recognize that education is the main key for these children to help get them out of poverty so they are doing what they can to provide the tools for a successful future. I have been trying to help Hive account@giftinkindph raise funds for the children by making donations of SBD to them, but I am hoping to be able to do more in the future.
Over the past few weeks I have been delegating all of my SP to various communities and people that I feel will use it promote growth for their communities and reward the content creators that are helping to grow this platform. So after this somewhat long-winded explanation of why I want to be a witness here on the Steemit platform, the answer comes down to building up the community and helping those that are in need.
Witness Goals
For now, I know that it is smart to start with small goals. I know that I will not be blazing my way up into the ranks of the top witnesses, so I know I will be paying out of pocket for my witness. I have come to terms with this and I am fine with that because I am not doing my witness to make money, I am doing it for my passion for this platform and my hopes for the long term success of it.
This is how I am paying for my witness server. I have been donating plasma twice a week and will continue to do so. My wife told me that no money can come out of our bank account to pay for it, so I can honestly say that I am putting my blood into ensuring the longevity of the success of Steemit, lol.
The main goal I have for myself and my witness is to support the communities that I am involved in. Hive account@pfunk is a big inspiration of mine when it comes to this. He is very supportive of Steemit Open Mic Contest run by 
Hive account@luzcypher and supportive of so many other things here. I am hoping to follow his lead and do the same for the photography community since that is one of the communities I am most heavily involved in. I am also involved in the Military Veterans Community, 
Hive account@helpie community and a member of 
Hive account@thealliance and I am hoping to be able to support those communities more as my witness support grows as well.
My goals for the future are to expand my help for the non profit organizations that I am supporting. Once the market starts going back up and Steem value rises, that should be a lot easier.
In conclusion
I want to thank everyone that has helped me get to where I am right now. There are so many that have helped me along the way so if I forget to mention you, it wasn't intentional.
Thank you 
Hive account@underground for letting me be a part of 
Hive account@mbc-meps and 
Hive account@minnowbootcamp and for being my "Steem Dad" and helping me out in the beginning. Thank you Hive account@czechglobalhosts for all of the support and for the inspiration to reach for the top, I wouldn't be where I am without all of your support. Thank you Hive account@pfunk for your continued support for my projects and posts. You really are a supportive witness that I would like to emulate. 
Hive account@guiltyparties, 
Hive account@basicstoliving, 
Hive account@lexikon82, 
Hive account@rakkasan84, 
Hive account@veteranforcrypto and the rest of the Military Veteran community for being there for me. Thank you to all of the members of the Hive account@helpie community for being so awesome and such a fun group to be with even though the obsession for cake and cookies is a little weird at times. Thank you to 
Hive account@enginewitty and all of the members of Hive account@thealliance for being a great group of people. I also want to shout out to 
Hive account@snook for being so awesome to me such a long time ago and pushing me to open up and begin writing me on here. I wasn't planning on writing, but #snookmademedoit and it has been awesome letting my creativity flow through my words, so thank you Hive account@snook for that.
So in closing I just want to thank everyone for having faith in me and my witness server. I am looking forward to doing what I can to build up the community and help people all over the globe. You can vote for my witness by going to https://steemit.com/~witnesses and then entering my name in the box.
Or you can simply vote for me here vote for @derangedvisions and it will cast your vote via Steemconnect.
Thank you all for being awesome.
