This is my serious face (aka I just bought my first crypto--and it was Steem!)

I have a confession to make. A couple days ago I made a decision. I was standing in the shower, water pouring down my face and I thought to myself, "Are you serious?" Then I thought to myself, "Where the hell's my slider?"

I've written thousands of words into the Steemit posting window, made friendships that I really value, become part of something that I consider to be very special. What am I doing?

So I thought some more, and eventually I got out of the shower. And I made a mental list of the things about Steemit that I have personally grown to love. Now I'm not saying these things are the be all and end all, but these are things that mean a lot to me:

• The first one is personal: writing. Steemit helped me rediscover the joy I used to feel for writing. I cannot thank the community enough for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
• MSP: The support of the Minnow Support Project has been amazing. I don't know what else to say, but through the hard work of this team and the support networks they have built, I was eventually able to find the Fiction Workshop in Discord (https://discord.gg/t7Yz679) MSP is supporting thousands of members of the community, it's a huge effort. I love you guys.
• The Fiction Workshop (https://discord.gg/t7Yz679 -- and yes I did just give you the link twice...see what I did there?) What can I say about you? What a team. I am humbled and grateful and learning so much. I don't think the rest of Steemit really understands what we have here with the Fiction Workshop. The level of talent and editing ability in the group is staggering. If you want to improve your writing, come and hang out. I swear just lurking makes me a better writer. It's also a place I feel I can give something back to the community by helping other writers.
• #teamaustralia: You know who you are. A ragtag troupe of crazies, but I love every one of them. They've supported me so much with my posting and with their strong community. This is really a template for how good Steemit can be.

Which brings me back to my confession and my thoughts about being serious. Because if I am serious about being here and doing more, if I'm here for the long-haul and ready to help build the community, then it's time to pony up. So today I made my first ever crypto investment. I bought some Bitcoin, but I bought it for a specific reason: to buy Steem.

So yeah, on my first ever crypto investment, I purchased Steem. Because I believe in what we are doing here, and I hope you do and will continue to do so too.

It's not a huge investment, but it's my first foray, and I'm doing it here on Steem. I feel pretty good about it, actually. Hopefully I can contribute a little more to our fiction community with my voting, and I'll have a bit more there to delegate than before as well, which I hope will make a difference.

So thank you Steemit community. It has been fun so far, but it's not over yet. Let's keep raising the bar, and pushing for quality posts.

Um, yeah. So, it also turns out I only needed about $20 extra to get my slider... 😅