Wow...I can hardly believe it's already been a year on Hive! Of course, in reality, it hasn't...let me explain.
My start with Hive was actually super-bumpy. A real-life friend got me "sold" on it, and I decided to dump out a tiny crypto account I had on Coinbase, and move those funds over to Hive to see if it was really as great as what he was describing.
Well. THAT didn't go according to plan. 😆 Here's the timeline:
10/6/22: I sign up for a Hive account. Yayyy! 🎉
10/10/22: I move money from Coinbase (which doesn't list HIVE) to Bittrex (which does) and buy HIVE at a tad over $0.49 per token
Later in the day on 10/10/22: I find out that Bittrex won't let me withdraw those funds to hive until 2 weeks have passed. I sigh in frustration, but figure this is just par for the course with crypto.
10/24/22: It's two weeks after buying my HIVE, and I'm super excited to move it over to the blockchain and start using it! But what's this? The price has fallen a bit. Ah well. Another thing I should expect with crypto, right? Then, the real blow. Bittrex is no longer connecting with the Hive blockchain due to technical difficulties. There is no way to get my tokens to Hive! Not to worry, though, they say they'll have this fixed soon.
Pfft. Yeah, right.
Much time passes, with me checking often to see if they've fixed their interface with Hive.
12/2/22: FINALLY Bittrex stops holding my tokens hostage and lets me transfer them to the blockchain. Between HIVE's value dropping and their fees, my money has lost half of its value, but hey, at least I'm finally on-chain!
So while I'm posting this on the day that I signed up for Hive a year ago, it was quite some time before I had enough HP or resource credits to do anything exciting.
I won't bore you with tales of the dozens of other bumps and bruises I took along the way toward being a happy Hivian. There were many! But I slowly expanded my knowledge, and along with it, my friend group. I have met SO MANY fantastic people thanks to this blockchain! I don't want to name any specifically, for fear of accidentally leaving some out and hurting feelings. Not to mention my memory is terrible! I will give a shoutout to 
I was just having a conversation with him a couple days ago, and marveling at how, when we talk about Hive, we're practically speaking another language. One that he had to help teach me! 😄
I do, however, want to name a few groups that I became a part of, and that I am so, SO thankful for. I'd recommend these groups to anyone new to Hive who wants to put in the time and effort to learn how to really understand the blockchain and all its possibilities.
Special mention also goes to the folks at The Terminal, who are constantly, tirelessly helping out newbies to the blockchain, and all the denizens of 
A huge thank you to everyone from all of these groups, and everyone else I've met along the way. You've made Hive fun, interesting, and incredibly worthwhile! ❤️💛💚💙💜🤗
That said, this post is already getting a bit lengthy. So instead I'll just say that Hive has been a fascinating and enlightening journey. I have onboarded one person myself, and am still working on another, and that is definitely an excellent way to learn - newbies ask questions that make you really hunt for answers! But with all the wonderful people I've met, I now at least know where and whom to ask, and that's the best feeling of all. Thank you, Hive, for becoming my new favorite place!
Lady Willendorf
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