Nine years?! How could it be?
My origin story will forever be emblazoned in my memory. I caught wind of a blockchain-based blogging platform in a Facebook self-improvement group, ChooseYourself, I belonged to in 2016. I had no idea what blockchain even was at the time. I’d heard about Bitcoin around the time of the Housing Crisis but didn’t own any myself or even know anyone who did. I mainly was just looking for another place to promote my writing.
Around late May of 2016 I joined the waitlist for the platform. A week later I received my invite, and then promptly locked myself out, got super frustrated, and forgot about it. A few weeks passed and a friend from Facebook asked if I had ever joined. This prompted me to send an email to the devs on July 5th to get my account unlocked and I did. I began blogging that same day, and I’ve never really stopped.
A few weeks later, around mid-to-late July, my posts started to gain attention and over the course of the next few years a succession of dreams came true. Sometimes I still can’t believe how profoundly this community has changed my life. For better, and sometimes worse, for once in my life I can say that I know what it feels like to win.
As I’m typing this I’m in a state of shock that almost a decade has just vaporized. I was a completely different person when I began my journey here. I didn’t have many wrinkles, my hair was still dark. I was working a dead-end cubicle job keeping track of every penny and squirreling away as much as I could for my “golden years”. My days were fueled by faith and vague dreams of that might writing would, someday, somehow be discovered.
Back then I was a tad more optimistic but I was also still blissfully naive about how the world actually worked. So many great and memorable characters have come and gone from this platform. I miss each and every one in different ways. But if this place has taught me anything it’s taught me that nothing stays the same and that is a good thing. I’ve become a better writer, a better person, and my worldview has changed completely since starting this journey.
The past nine years have been such an incredibly wild and rewarding ride—full of excitement, chaos, education, despair, friendship, growth, treachery, debate, frustration, and sparks of euphoria. Name an emotion and I’ve probably experienced it here, the whole gamut. During this time I've come to truly know myself and started actively working on the things I saw and didn't like.
Even more valuable, I’ve gained the kind of genuine optimism that a person can only have when the veil has been parted and you catch a glimpse of truth. I’ve grown up. This can be disorienting and a little painful at first but the truth does change us, makes us stronger, and it makes us whole—it’s a true superpower. I have Hive to thank for that as well.
No one knows what the future will bring but we can all be grateful for the here and the now—and that I truly am.
I could go on and on but I won’t bore you. I mainly just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s supported me here over the past nine years, your friendship has meant the world to me. A special thanks to @steemed who saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. If you're reading this I still owe you that beer, by the way.
Opening the laptop nearly every day and posting has become such a part of my daily routine. Writing here has been my anchor and my constant. According to the stats I’ve written over 20,000 posts (can that even be right?) in the past nine years. Interacting with friends here has gotten me through some incredibly tough times and made the good times infinitely better.
In honor of this nine year anniversary I’d like to repost a link to the article I recently wrote Nine Reasons Absolutely Everyone Should Be Blogging on Hive. Much love to you all and, remember, make the most of your days and the years will take care of themselves.
All for now. Thanks for reading.
