I've been lucky to have many "things" in my life because I worked hard and made smart decisions on what I bought and when I bought it. Most of my life I have held a job working for someone else while having my own business at the same time.

I have been unlucky however in the number of people in my own family who think because I have more than they, I should be willing to give it to them. I disagree.

Now that I am older and physically not able to do much outside of my home I find since my husband died, my own efforts are not replacing the daily expenses fast enough. I will run out of money within a year or two.

I am old enough I could take early Social Security, which would keep me going several more years. But I am not willing to give up various rights and abilities to do as I please.

I could do as some have suggested, simply accept the fact I am not able to produce as I use to, and literally blow my brains out. But to me, that is the epitome of weakness.

I have chosen to learn to do new things. Things I can do from the comfort of my own home. Things I can do while being my own boss.

Steemit is one of those things. It isn't easy for me to write because I am vision impaired, but I put in the many hours to fact check the knowledge I have learned over the years and I am slowly finding my place her on Steemit.

But I have also been teaching myself to make graphics and I am doing ok. It is not easy when there is so much you can't see, but if you try, you learn ways to work around the problem.

I am also teaching myself how to make jewelry again and will be opening a store on Etsy sometime this month, if I can figure out how to get decent photos of my work out of this slr camera I am learning how to use, lol.

I think the point I am trying to make is no matter what life throws at you, there is a way past it if you try hard enough. For that reason alone, when I see people taking short cuts that abuse others, I would like to give them a kick in the rear end.

I think Steemit will be a major part of my income in the future. But I refuse to run bots to sell my upvotes or use my downvotes to harm people that I disagree with. I have chosen to only downvote hateful, harmful and abusive posts. If I simply disagree there is always the mute button. I am not willing to do much over trying my best to make money. It is the same ethic I have held my entire life and since I am debt free and everything is 100% paid for, I am already ahead of over half the population so how can I complain?