Hello my fellow steemians. I bring you greetings from @Steemcamp. Today i will be sharing with you all my experiences as a Contestant so far in the @Steemcamp and also soliciting for support from you all no matter how little.
Steemcamp is an initiative aimed to eradicate poverty and unemployment in third world countries using Entertaimment as a tool to on-board creative and talented individuals who will contribute positively to the steem blockchain network and their local offline community at large.
--@michaelcj
I dare say that the statement made by @michaelcj is actually a reality because so far so good, that vision is been materalised.
HOW MY @STEEMCAMP JOURNEY STARTED
It all started with the vision of my one man @michaelcj, who saw a need in our country and made up his mind to make an impact so that "He wouldn't need to introduce himself to the world".
I'm a member of @Steemnaira community, a very loving and amazing Nigeria Community here on Steemit. @michaelcj happens to be the owner/pioneer of the community and he's been assisted by some great folks like @dante31 who happens to be one of the major admins and also some moderators who help with co-rdinating the community.
On a certain day, @michaelcj posted some pictures concerning the @steemcamp auditions in the community whatsapp group page. When i saw it, i didn't really give it my attention till after some few days. The audition held in Six States in Nigeria. They were: Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Warri, Enugu and Benin City.
(This was the city i auditioned in)
So on the 10th of May, which was the supposed date for the Benin City audition, i left the city where i live in and embarked on the journey. It took me about 3 hours to get to Benin City from Asaba (Where i base). Locating the venue was not an easy task for me as i had to trek a far distance before i could get a bus that would convey me to the venue. The reason i had to trek was not because i didn't have cash, it was because there was a heavy traffic on the road at the time.
Finally, i got to the venue and i felt a bit relieved because i was already behind the time scheduled for the audition to start. As soon as i got into the place, i saw a crowd of people listening to the ever-inspiring man @michaelcj who was educating them on what steemit is all about as most of them were just hearing it for the first time.
(@michaelcj speaking to the people)
So i quickly took a seat and sat down as well and also started paying attention to what was been said. He spoke so well that all who were listening gave him their rapt attention.
After the lectures, it was then time for the auditions. All the contestants were first of all interviewed including me.
(I was been interviewed)
The auditions kicked off properly immediately after the interviews. I was the second to the last person that was auditioned. I was glad that even my fellow contestants were cheering me as i was performing. I was happy with my performance because everything i had rehearsed went according to plan.
Finally, the auditions came to an end but some of us stayed back and this was the reason; I FINALLY GOT TO MEET SOME MEMBERS OF THE @STEEMNAIRA COMMUNITY. We used to just chat on our whatsapp group page but we had never seen each other before. So seeing them all was fun for me. I met with @gracehills, @motivatorjoshua, @aauthespian and @mrglowz all for the first time and we then decided to make it a little meetup with @michaelcj and we never regretted it because we all had fun with each other.
I was about taking my leave along with my other fellow steemians when @michaelcj said "Are you guys going? Why not stay with me tonight and leave in the morning, so we all could spend time together!" It sounded like a great idea to us all and we all bought the idea. So we stayed back and went straight to the hotel and we were well taken care of by @michaelcj. We also had a discussion time where we discussed about our experiences on steemit and how we could help each other. Then @michaelcj gave us an idea and the idea was We should all put each other on auto-upvote, immediately we all did it and so far so good, it has really been helpful to us all. By the time we were all exhausted, we all slept. We all woke up sound maybe because of the hospitality we got and then we all departed to our various destinations.
I QUALIFIED FOR THE SEMI-FINAL/PRE-CAMP
I received a call from one of the officials of @steemcamp informing me that i had qualified for the semi-final. I was very excited to hear the news that i didn't feel like eating that day because of my joyous feeling.
I also got another call again, but this time i was informed about the date and venue for the semi-final/precamp.
I ALMOST MISSED IT
As the semi-final/pre-camp drew closer, i had a bitter experience that almost made me to miss it. I was on my way to work one morning when my phone dropped inside a taxi and that was how i misplaced my phone. At that same time, the officials were all trying to get accross to me, (so they said) but they couldn't until one faithful day when i just had to borrow a friend's phone to put my sim-card into and fortunately for me, a message entered my phone at about 9:57pm stating that Audition had Started. That also meant i was behind schedule. I became very anxious but at some point, i had to calm my nerves down.
Early the next morning, i got my bag ready and straightaway, i travelled to the city where the camp was holding. It was a 4 hours journey but it was worth it. It was already getting dark when i got to the venue. There i met the other contestants that all qualified from the various states where audition held. I saw different type of raw talents, from singing to rapping, acting, drumming, comedy and even spoken word. We all were well fed as food was never a challenge.
It was really interesting and i learnt so many things from the people i met there and also created relationships.
AUDITION/EVICTION NIGHT
It was a long day for us all and also a tensed one as we were told we would be having some guests who were going to be the judges. It was there and then i met with the highly esteemed @destinysaid who's a very popular figure here on steemit and especially in the Nigeria community. The audition started at about some minutes to midnight and the atmosphere became tensed. The audition lasted all through the night into the next morning, but sadly some contestants who didn't qualify were evicted and they took it in good fate and left the camp; while those of us that qualified were grateful that we did.
AN AFTER PARTY BY THE FINALISTS
After the whole audition ended, the finalist taught within themselves to have a little fun by having a little party where everyone was going to dance and take selfies. It was a very good idea but i didn't participate because i was busy writing a post on steemit, and i was also not in the mood for any party.
SUPPORT NEEDED BY ME
I didn't want to do this but with the price of SBD still going down, i made up my mind to do it. I'm asking for support from well meaning steemians who believe in encouraging gifts and talents.
As finalists, we were given some instructions to carry out and those instructions, when carried out properly, increases one's chance of winning.
These are some of the terms:-
A finalist is entitled to 100 points.
40 points goes to Stage Performance
40 points goes to your ability to SELL THE TICKETS
20 points goes to your the audience votes.
YOU CAN HELP ME WIN, YES YOU!
You might be wondering why i made that statement, well this is why:
(A friend of mine who has purchased one)
I need people who will support and encourage me by buying these tickets as they INCREASE MY CHANCES OF WINNING, since the sales of the tickets already has 40 points. There are two ways in which i believe you all could support me.
- You can purchase the ticket from me by donating to my account @eddie23. The cost of purchasing one ticket in Nigeria's currency is #1,000 which is eqivalent to 4SBDs.
Or
- Giving this post your 100% upvote, so as to help me raise something for the tickets no matter how it turns out. (I'm specially appealing to everyone on steemit i.e Whales, Dolphins, Plankton and even Minnows)
I will be so grateful to you all if you can help this dream of mine come to reality.
Thank you all for reading
Please kindly Upvote, Comment and Resteem.
From your Blockchain Spoken Word Preacher @eddie23!