You said it really well, let's see if I have anything to add....

I came here because I was trying to share my writing on patreon and do it fairly anonymously and there was zero community to connect with. I was thrilled to find a thriving community here and spent the first two weeks ecstatic to be meeting so many passionate people. Then came the slump when I realized the problems of the old world were still deeply ingrained in the new one and that the promise of profit still blurred he lines between what's real and what's contrived. Slowly I realized that if I wanted this new world to be any different, it was my job to try and make it different, so I slowly adjusted my behavior here to "be the change". Less complaining and more doing.

I also discovered many things about myself and saw how much I had grown in the past few years. I was able to see myself in action as someone who is no longer searching for what they want but ready to make it. I learned to appreciate writing as a process, one that challenges me to dig deeper and explore myself, creating new worlds in the process. Up until that point writing was just a way to share the ideas that I already had. I never realized how it could help me to formulate new ones, and how endless this kind of exploration could be.

As I said, unless we try to change it, the new world tends to carry over many of the problems of the old one so there are still a bunch of things I'd like to work to change at steemit. I'd like to encourage meaningful and lasting relationships rather than just "followers". I'd like to see a shrinking income gap and more emphasis on the potential for the gift economy aspect of steemit. I'd like for more of us to be able to stop scheming for payout (i think we all do it to some extent, however small) and be able to trust that real contribution will natural lead to payout, so I hope to get some real energy flowing to people who deserve it through payout.

I know that at my core I just want to make the world a more positive place for everyone so hopefully my payout will also reflect this so I can just put it out of my mind and still have the resources to go visit new friends I make here and life the life I dream of.

And I hope to find many ways to collaborate with others who have similar goals!

I love that all of this seems possible here and that to some extent, it's up to me and it's up to us.