A Happy Mistake

I guess you could say this is a "weak" article. I've written 93 articles on #HiveLearners since I joined and they are on their 100th week and I'm 7 articles or a "week" short of matching that hundred. (sigh) I guess I'm just a little bit short. Then again, their 100 weeks is also just a little short of two years. I guess we both come up a little bit short of the goal.

If I were to look back on joining the #HiveLearners it was purely by mistake. I came to the Hive Learner community thinking I could learn more about the inner workings of Hive. There are so many things I want to delve into on Hive from minting NFT's, setting up altcoin staking, finding ways to link the virtual and real world. I came to the Hive Learners community thinking it was about delving deeper into the Hive ecosystem.

Silly me

I now know that the Hive Learners community is all about becoming a better writer on Hive. Learning how to engage with others. Maybe even learn more about yourself in the writing process. I hate writing, I'm terrible with engagement, but I'm still happy that I found this place entirely by mistake. I also wish I knew more about how hardworking and well respected the admin here were. I would have given @bruno-kema a virtual "high five" when he interviewed me for membership if I had known.

But life doesn't give Do-Overs

Why did I stay?

If joining the community was a mistake then why did I stay? I'm sure my wife would be happier if I didn't spend so much time writing these articles in response to the 3x/week post prompts. Although seeing that 3x/week reminds me of a horrible joke about the different types of sex in marriage:

When newly married :

Tri-Weekly

When married a while :

Try Weekly

When married a long time :

Try Weakly

It's terrible but when I saw that 3x/week I just couldn't resist.

But I've gotten off topic.

I stuck around because if I went through the trouble of doing a virtual interview to get in, actually downloaded Discord (which I never wanted to do) AND someone went through the trouble to interview me I felt that I should try to engage with the community. That lead to my first article:

"The Goddess, The Angel, The Vagrant and the Duck"

@terganftp/the-goddess-the-angel-the

I had some fun putting together that article. Made a little bit of HP and my mission was to show that people could make money on HIVE so I just continued writing.

As time went by I wrote on of the articles I'm most proud of :

"Giving and Charity"

@terganftp/giving-and-charity

I actually learned something while doing the research for the article. I got curated. I got noted in a weekly round-up. I even had fun writing it. Overall I thought maybe I should keep on doing it. If I learn something and have fun while making a bit of coin why not?

Some articles were just a lot of work.

With "Three Meals a day for under $1.00" taking many hours to do!

@terganftp/three-meals-for-usd1-day

Again. I had fun writing the article. I had fun making the food. I got curated and mentioned in a weekly write-up. However, it was probably 14 hours worth of time spent to make the food, take the pictures, write up the article, plus additional time to buy the supplies and think of how I was going to make it work and research prices.

I had to take a step back and think. "Why am I really doing this?"

An old picture to give my writing purpose

(Dall-E gave me this image)

I'm using it because it gives a better thumbnail for the article. My personal picture is old, blurry and has a lot of glare because of the glass.

_{Image is mine}

That's a picture of my Great Grandfather. Taken in Silverton (a Ghost town in BC) back in the 1930's during the Great Depression. Probably. It's the probably that keeps me writing. People tend to forget. I remember my Grandmother and my Father very vividly. They are key figures in my life and have made me who I am. My children never got a chance to meet them at all....and they never will.

I believe that I'll be a huge part of my children's life. God willing I'll be a figure in my Grandchildren's life. I place the emphasis on God Willing as there are absolutely no guarantees in life! One thing that I can do on HIVE is make an link to who I am. I write so that if any of my ancestors are ever curious who their Grandfather, Great Grandfather, or well...whatever link I am...they can learn a bit about who I was and the time in which I live. My view, my stories, my viewpoint, my faith, my family...all written into an immutable blockchain for generations to come. Hopefully...Nothing is certain in life 😁

The Value of Post Prompts

The Hive Learners prompts are a great way to keep me writing. If I had to write a memoir a few things would happen. First: I'd never do it because my life is way too boring. Second: I'd forget things I should write about and just give a linear story. Third: It would show more of what I did not about how I think or who I am.

More importantly the Hive Learners prompts make me think hard about my past, my views, and what I want to present. For example: "write about a memorable road trip". I've done so many road trips that finding a memorable one was tough. Until I remembered the trip through Mayoyao and then the story came. It likely never have come up if I was writing a memoir.

93 Gems

I like to think that in the 93 posts I've already made each one tells a little story. Each one holds a little piece to who I am. Each one is a little treasure for anyone who wants to learn who I am. It is also a bit of a time capsule. The viewpoints that I have for today will likely seem very dated in 20, 50, or 100 years. They are very much who I am today though. I hope someday someone will read them. I honestly can't think how anyone could actually be that bored. Yet still I hope 🙂

However, while the tri-weekly prompt (snicker), give me a way to come up with things to write about and present a glimpse into who I am there are just some prompts that I simply cannot write about.

One prompt that comes to mind is along the lines of "Tell us about when you were the life of tha party". I looked at that and thought hard. Finally I came up with the conclusion that I have NEVER been the life of the party. It just isn't who I am. I went for a long walk with my dog trying to think of potential ways I could tackle the prompt but .... I came up empty.

Final Thoughts?

After 93 posts there are many posts I'm proud of. Some were well received and I got author of the week which was something I'm proud of. Some got ignored which was a little sad. Some took a lot of time (here's looking at you surviving on $1 USD for food/day). Some took virtually no time at all (here's looking at you post on favorite song). Some made me sad when I thought of my family now gone (Wisdom from across the ages). Some forced me to learn things (Ship of Theseus comes to mind). Others just let me vent after a bad trip (A very long trip back).

Overall though I've just enjoyed the journey. I've enjoyed trying to polish my writing skill. I've enjoyed keeping my mind active. I know I get very few views and for that I'm happy that @kronias is so good at going through the posts. What keeps me going is the thought that this is a legacy for my family in the future. Maybe it never gets read but I hope that someday it does.

Thanks for dropping by
As always I love getting replies 😁

Proof of 93 articles

Below is the link to all the articles I've written. Feel free to count but ChatGPT tells me there are 93. I figure that is reasonable use of AI in a post ... keeping me from the grunt work of counting ... hehe.

@terganftp/a-way-to-get-a

@terganftp/to-speak-up-or-stay

@terganftp/my-first-post-contest-in

@terganftp/wisdom-from-across-the-ages

@terganftp/dlease-as-onboarding-and-new

@terganftp/giving-and-charity

@terganftp/would-you-ever-want-to

@terganftp/slavery-vs-freedom-which-do

@terganftp/a-time-to-be-thankful

@terganftp/coping-with-inflation-hive-192111

@terganftp/the-power-of-hope

@terganftp/how-to-survive-on-30000