Steemit Ultimate Challenge 8 Weeks - Week #2

Before I start, please follow @dobartim and click the link to participate in this challenge if you would like!
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@dobartim/7un91p-steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks-prize-fund-2000-sbd-week-2-registration-is-in-progress

Steemit is something unique in my life that takes a special role that I didn't think it would. It makes me learn to communicate and share my ideas, become a better person, and take financial burden off of me.

Two and a half years ago, I started a YouTube channel with the wish that it could bring me enough money so that I could live worry free. That still hasn't happened yet. About three months ago, I started cryptocurrency investing, and while it took off the burden from YouTube, it brought a whole new stress to my life. I remember spending multiple hours waiting for the market to move so I could sell and make a few dollars. I hated it. I had fallen into the trap of quick and easy cash and now I had to deal with it.

This is where Steemit comes in. One of my YouTube Subscribers, @c-rock, told me about Steemit, and it changed my life. Steemit took off the burden from YouTube to support me. Since I am used to writing, livestreaming, and making YouTube videos, the current apps on this blockchain really don't add anymore stress to my life, and make me want to make more of the content I already like to make. I also decided to make different kinds of things on here as opposed to YouTube, and that has overall made me happier and filled me with more ideas.

I've been commenting on posts a lot more than I ever have. Because of this, I am learning more things than I thought I would. Take for example, the way that fiat currency works in the USA. I never knew how it worked until I started asking questions. These questions came from the replies I got from other people on my comments on their posts. I am also building relationships with creators that I never thought I would build. I feel comfortable asking these creators about things I may not know, and am okay sharing my opinion with them because I trust them to listen and be honest.

Since this platform works differently than YouTube, I feel less obligated to make content about stuff I built my audience on, and I feel like I can make content about whatever I want. A month ago, I wrote about how amazing Minecraft in VR is. There is no way I would post something like that on YouTube because I couldn't use it to grow my audience as well as other videos that I could make. On here, people liked it, and I was happy that I got to share my thoughts.

My friend @raghnarblrp and I's relationship has grown tremendously since I found this site. I told many friends about this place and what it can do, and he is the only one who joined. We have now gone from being friends to best friends. We share tips and tricks that we figure out, and talk about things that we found on this website, but only we can talk about them because we are the only ones that use this place. I want to see how good we can get at explaining how Steem and Steemit works, so that we can bring more friends on here and build a little community for all of us.

What happened early on was I got a comment from someone about who to follow to see what was up in the community. This was awesome. I found people who were super active in the community, and I really got to know what Steem and Steemit was all about. I had found a very optimistic community, and this has made me more optimistic too. Now, I am no longer afraid about putting stuff out that may result in no follower gain or losing followers. I know that certain lessons can be learned, and I am discovering even more new techniques and types of content that I didn't even know existed.

Hope is something that I lacked severely. I am a cynic at heart, and cynical thinking reinforces itself when left alone. With all the political and international issues going on, I really thought the world was going to end, and that there was no way that I or most other people could fix it. Steemit offers a way out, Not only does it give access to an optimistic community, but it offers ways to fix one of the worlds greatest problems: poverty. One of the things that Steemit will enable me to do is motivate people to come on here and start to make money. This will allow them to do more things in their lives, and overall improve the world. In short, Steemit offers me a way to improve the world, one of the things I want to do with my life.

Steemit has made me more of a giver than I used to be. A few days ago, I received about a 15 SBD upvote from DLive while streaming with @raghnarblrp. I felt bad that he couldn't easily get a part of it, but then I realized I could easily send him part of the SBD because of the way Steemit is built. I now will not forget to give him some SBD when I get the payout, and I can do it every time we receive something for a stream or video we do together. I think that if I didn't find Steemit, I would never think to do something like that. It has also effected how I look at giving other people cryptocurrency as well. I have currently about 21 million Strong Hands Tokens. If it gets big, I can give some of my friends even 100k tokens and I would lose next to nothing. However, those who hold no tokens what so ever will gain a huge amount.

Overall, Steemit has helped me become more optimistic and given me a way to live my life the way I want to. I have grown closer to one of my friends, and have learned a lot more about things I didn't even know existed. I think, though, the biggest thing is it has made me want to give to people. Give to the world this amazing thing called Steem, and share in the wealth of SBD that I earn from posts I do with my friends. The cynic in me is dying, and the giver is coming out.

Thank you for reading! -Pacific.