Steemit has been a great journey and is evolving day-by-day!
Intro:
I remember the first post I did on Steemit. It was an original song called "Step Back from your Mind." I was in medical school, studying God knows how many hours, and heard about this platform from my brother. I posted the song, and...Bang! Six bucks. Medical school may have been driving me further into debt, but that six bucks meant a lot.
It was the first time in my musical life that I felt appreciated for my work. Hell, it could have been six cents! More importantly, I received comments. @liberocist made a comment that meant a lot to me "Well composed and performed! Would love to see more of your original work. :)". May have been a short comment, but it validated to me that my music meant something.
I write songs from experiences in my life. Sad songs are always easier to write, but getting them out of the body and into some art form- whether that's painting, music, or dance (not that I do that haha)- is always the way to feel better as a person. From that post on, Facebook was nothing to me. Maybe Steemit was the small community here where each post was special...but even today I find more value in this site when there are hundreds of thousands of posts. Not in a monetary kind of way, but it's a place where people contribute their talents and share common interests. It's not a place to become rich, but if you contribute yourself enough, you may find yourself a little side bonus, which is quite nice. If you came for the money only, you probably will be disappointed, and really, for the most part, just turns me off.
Music and Beyond:
I continued putting up my original music on here. I played the sad love songs of my college days, the exciting times I had in Cancun, and many more special memories all put into music. I got some feedback, but the interaction was less before Openmic.
I decided to show my skills beyond music. I was a biology and religion major back in college. I may be very spiritual, but I'm not very religious. I loved the philosophy and history I learned from those courses. I published my written essays from college. I wanted to show those pieces I wrote to some audience beyond what the professors saw in the classroom. I would often get zero cents on these haha, but I still enjoyed sharing them. I met @williambanks who brought me further into this community. He started something here called "name in lights" and always encouraged me as a writer.
My Journey into Writing Blogs about Medicine
My biggest "success" on Steemit came when I started writing about my passion for medicine. I wrote about health concerns that mean something to everyone. I educated Steemians about the diabetes epidemic, prostate cancer, osteopathic medicine and many other topics that were important to me...and hopefully others. It was at that time that I started to be noticed by @curie, @ned and many other big names. @justtryme90 helped bring my articles to the forefront, and even made a "name in lights" for me, which I will always be grateful for! This led me into a smart, and very friendly community called @steemstem! I thank all the members of this science community. I am so busy as a physician that it is hard to write medical articles with the frequency I once was; however, I always have ideas for future ones. I want these articles to be public-health related that can mean something to everyone. I hope to do more soon. Here is an example article I wrote.
The Beginnings of Openmic!
The people that know me now are often from this group, and this is the group that I have spent the most time with here on Steemit. @luzcypher @soundlegion @pfunk @verbal-d @jaybird @passion-ground @coruscate @lloydavis @kenny-crane @brimax and many others have been great people, encouraging me to participate and making me a better musician.
I remember the early days (well like 1 year ago haha) when sometimes there would be 10 contestants. I was a winner a few times, and it felt great that people loved the songs I was playing...the songs that meant so much to me personally, whether it was an original or a rare cover. Now it is a gigantic contest with musicians with ridiculous skill. We are going to find those rare gems and make a few BIG-TIME one of these days. If we don't- who cares. At least we are hearing music that is 100,000-times better than the radio.
@soundlegion really shaped me as a musician. I may be a physician, but now I am proud to say that I am physician, who is also a musician. A great memory was playing a cover by @soundlegion with my own arrangement. You can find that link here.
My Life
Currently I am in my first year as a resident physician. If I thought medical school was time consuming...well life as a physician is even crazier; however, at the same time it is more rewarding. Now I have the influence to truly help lives. In the office setting, I am able to see healthy people and keep them on the right track. I am able to diagnose diseases like diabetes and help manage their condition. In the hospital, I am able to help the very sick, take care of newborns and sick children, and even deliver babies and assist with c-sections. I've even had a month where I exclusively worked in the ER.
As family doctors, we do everything. One may think that a family doctor is the basics of medicine, which is not the case. When you are a specialist, you are great at your area. However, you are exposed to that one area so you forget much about other parts of medicine. The difficulty about family medicine is you need to know a little of everything because you are the primary person a patient goes to for help. You simply can't forget any aspect of medicine. We are the "handyman" of medicine. I am very proud to be a family doctor.
Despite working 80 hours a week often, I still find time for Steemit because I love it here. I will always appreciate what this place has done for me and how it has made me feel. I feel alive here, and I feel purpose here.
Rock on Steemit!
For all those that have influenced me in this 1.5 years...THANK YOU! I'm sure I missed many!
Feel free to Follow for more posts on music/health/science/travel/and more!
Wow, congratulations on 1.5 Years!! There are very few steemians who can claim that kind of tenure!
I was so honored to be listed in your open-mic shoutout list! The open mic crew is so great and I really enjoyed reading about your first few experiences with posting music here on Steemit. Sounds like a pretty life changing moment, actually. It’s a pretty remarkable thing to be able to share your music with the world and be met with support and validation.
Also... I LOVED listening to your @soundlegion cover! Two of my favorite Steemians... can’t beat it!
You are awesome. I think that Braveheart theme playing made me a fan for life haha. @soundlegion rocks, glad you are a fan as well. I'll be seeing you around openmic weekly!
That's an inspirational story. I'm amazed that you can still find time for music when working so hard, but if it brings you joy then that's great. Steemit can really be a force for good. We have a wonderful community. Open mic has really encouraged me to play more
I think I was free-writing on this one, just let the article take its own direction...it led me to thanking a lot of people for a great 1.5 years. Your guitar playing is getting a lot better! Thanks for the continued support.
Really good testimony for steemit! You have the right attitude and it would be great if everyone also realized the community is the important thing and the money is just a bonus. Keep doing what you do here, including the cool open mic videos!
Always appreciate your feedback. You have to be the biggest contributor of comments. Thanks for making me a better musician with the positive vibes.
Very Sincere post and most encouraging to the newer members (like me), sounds like it has been a really rewarding journey. I hope to follow in your footsteps having posted music to other site for so long but find little to no feed back. Still struggling here to get much traffic but I am sure if we just keep doing what we love and posting with sincerity all will be well. Thank you for sharing you story...so far!
Thanks for reading. I think now it may be more difficult due to the shear number of posts. I would stick to communities like open mic to help get your music out there. Best of luck. The increase in views will come!
I thought it was quite an odd combination at first, Music and medicine! But yeah, it worked for you, and still does, and a pretty long time on Steemit. Congrats on achieving your goal, but I guess now another has replaced it. Having had a lot of medical attention recently. I will always have a lot of respect for medical professionals who always help others. Good luck with your career, and thanks for the nice story!
Music can work with any profession. I definitely have less time, but I'm here. Excited to see how this place continues to develop. At one point , steem was 7 cents. Crazy how it has changed with the number of users as well. Best of luck to you, and thanks for reading.
What a fantastic article! It's so good to hear from someone who has been on the platform for so long.
I only joined in January but as you can see I jumped in with both feet. You could say I'm addicted! :P
Medical students and independent musicians share the "lack of money" problem and as a musician and supporter of independent music I am bringing people from the "old world" of SoundCloud, Spotify, etc. here all the time. It's fantastic!!
Thank you for being a physician and helping to save people's lives and make them better. You are now one of the unsung heroes (excuse the pun!) of this world.
I look forward to posting when I have been on here for 1 1/2 years!!
It can for sure get addicting. Take some mini-breaks, rest the eyes haha.
I'm still paying off debt so in those terms I guess you're correct. I've tried SoundCloud, which did not do much...bring them over!
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for your honest words! Very inspirational!
Thanks! I see you are new. Take my words of advise. Don't come with dollar signs in your mind. If you treat it like fun...like facebook you will be more than happy. Keep writing, contribute your skills and eventually someone will notice.
WOW 1.5 years!! I guess in Steemit terms you are an old man now :P
We are just trying to get our head around how best to use it to promote our little music festival and raise money for charity but it's looking very hopeful!!
I will check this out, 1.5 years...for how fast the crypto world moves I guess it is a long time haha. A time when bitcoin was around 500 bucks a coin. Thanks for reading.
Good job.. Very nice post @tfeldman 👍👍👍
Thanks! I had to write something after all this time!
A great story!
Thanks!