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Dear twenty-seventeen, you went down like a beetroot-ginger smoothie!

Exciting, revitalising, and with the distinct hint of a shovel full of dirt in my mouth as I try to swallow it all.

I just made it sound awful, didn't I? But in retrospect I really loved every bit of it. In fact I should probably drink a lot more beetroot-ginger smoothies!

Steemit has definitely been a highlight for myself this year and I'd love to share some milestones with you today. It's also my birthday, so if your mom taught you some manners, you'll sit down for a minute and read what I have to say!

I've also never written any official #introduceyourself post for steemit, but I think this one may actually fit the category.

Starting to Feel the Steem

I signed up here in August 2016 (for the 55,596th steemit account ever), but I totally missed the hypetrain back then and it really took me another half a year before I eventually started taking a closer look early this year.

I am a decentralization and self-governance fan-boy, voluntary anarchism FTW! I've been involved with cryptocurrencies since early '13 and naturally the technical and socio-economic aspects of this place quickly captured my enthusiasm.

But I was alone. I was never a content-producer, nor a social-media whore in any way. I hate to talk about myself and there was more than enough cryptocurrency circle jerking already.

Plus, I had to post something original to get into the game.

Making my 1st $100-Post and Rediscovering Photography.

I used to be a passionate hobby photographer, I had lost interest for a while, but taking a few pictures out of my archives and republishing them here was a low-effort solution to joining the party.

I entered the 7-days-7colors #colorchallenge by @kalemandra when the magic happened. My picture series of "The Lone Tree" suddenly showed a $100+ reward. I was completely blown away! Really, it felt like so much more than anything one hundred dollars could ever express! It suddenly felt like I wasn't alone here anymore. It wasn't just the monetary value, but the expression of value which had bedazzled me.

A hundred bucks, that's a whole lot to most and very little to some, for me it meant the beginning of an exciting deep-dive into this community and an incredible encouragement to pick up my dusty old camera again. I had completely forgotten how much fun I was having shooting pictures, being able to share them here and feeling recognized for it has brought a dormant passion and loads of fun back into my everyday life. Thanks!!

I am not entirely sure how it all happened or whom I'd have to thank for this early boost in confidence and motivation, but I do know the generous rewards came through @curie and the trailing votes by @kushed, @hendrikdegrote and @anwenbaumeister. @okkiedot had resteemed the post early on, and as a matter of fact he has been supporting me silently with his upvotes ever since! So: @okkiedot, when (if) you read this, let me know if that was you who sent the whales in my direction. We've actually never really talked ever, but either way, please know that I am incredibly thankful for your support all along the way!

Joining the Peace Abundance and Liberty Movement

Getting sucked deeper into steemit, I soon discovered the #minnowsupport group. Peace, Abundance and Liberty, P.A.L.net.

These three words, in that specific combination, they do encapsulate my personal beliefs to a large extend. I immediatly felt I came to the right place under such an aptly titled roof.

Luck, fate, coincidence, whatever you choose to believe in, it was playing out in my favour once more. I won the very firts minnow-resteem-contest. My prize was the resteem of my #colorchallenge summary post through @aggroed and thus becoming part of of the @minnowsupport history, let's be honest, that's kind of a big deal.

It started to really feel like my new virtual home, this rabbithole called steemit, where I was feeling recognized and rewarded for my presence and engagement.

Finding my Niche: #GooglyEyes

It was time to settle down. I needed something to leave a footprint in my newfound neighbourhood.

I have this quirky hobby of leaving #GooglyEyes in random places every now and then, I had never really bothered to take pictures of them but I always enjoyed the thought of random unsuspecting strangers discovering them. It's my personal creative footprint in the real world I guess. With the help of my camera, I was able to bring this spirit over here, to steemit.

I established the tag #googlyeyes and with a steady stream of quirky posts, I was able to attract a bunch of nice upvotes throughout the weeks while sharing little things about myself well disguised under wiggly eyed nonsense. But I wanted more, I wanted engagement and exchange and most of all I wanted to be able to give back and share the joy I had found in this magical virtual wonderland on the steem blockchain.

Giving back the Joy: The #GooglyPrize

I started here by joining a contest, everyone needs something to post, let's challenge others to join me in my creative endeavour!

The #GooglyPrize was born. I boldly called it the first 100%-fair contest on steemit, and so far nobody has disputed me on that. I'd appreciate if someone did, though! I'll gladly state my case here: The #GooglyPrize is very accessible and inclusive and it operates with a non-profit model, distributing 100% of it's profits to the winners while accumulating a steadily growing delegation fund. You can read more about it here or join the contest here.

With the help of an early patron, @krystle (she kind of sponsored the first 10 SBD in prize money) and the steady support of the generous witnesses @ausbitbank and @reggaemuffin, I was able to grow the #GooglyPrize into a solid establishment on steemit. A small but dedicated community of warm-hearted steemians has gathered under the #GooglyEyes tag and it's bringing me great joy to award these prizes for original and creative work every week. Within just 24 issues, that's merely half a year worth of googlyness, the award has accumulated a delegation fund of almost 200 SP and has additionally payed out over 250 SBD in cash prizes. I consider that my second biggest achievement on steemit.

Thanks to everyone in the #GooglyFamily, I love you all!

Feeling the Force of the Dark Side

The ego is selfish and motivations are often misguided

I like to focus on positive things, the bad stuff is usually omnipresent anyway so I'd rather share positive attitudes and enouragement. But just like the real world, this new and magical place, too, is populated not only with generous and genuine people, but also faces greed and selfish misguided behavior. To not let the negative undertones take over here, I just want to say as little as possible.

I went on the "dee-low" for a while, and some experiences I've made (on-chain and off-chain) started to fill my intuitive motivation with a sense of pressure and obligation, despite the impact I was making and the recognition I was receiving it became difficult to stay in control of the situation. Autumn was approaching and I lost the courage and drive to stay on top of things. Life had become stressfull in several aspects and I honestly didn't cope with it too well. But, at least one mission survived uninterruptedly - the #GooglyPrize gave me a good chuckle and a positive purpose at least once every week.

2018: Do More, Cuddle Harder, Dive Deeper

Meh, enough about feeling depressed, let's get back into some fluffy stuff!

The dark clouds have passed (for now), and I am getting back to my desired self. The #GooglyPrize has established it's own identity with a dedicated account, @googlyeyes, and I am looking foward to see it thrive in 2018. I've just release a cute cuddly kitten-bot, she's called @steemkitten and she loves to cuddle with likeminded steemians. She needs more friends, so go and show her some love, she won't forget you.