All thanks to @dobartim for this wonderful opportunity. With whales like him, little minnows like me can actually survive. So, here goes nothing.
I am Onyinye, a regular student in a regular college in Nigeria studying medical laboratory science, I am 27 days old on steemit, still very young. Here is my life story in all its trueness.
Life wasn’t so easy for me actually, being the first born child of three children, a lot was expected of me and in truth I have fallen short of all those expectations. So, you see life hasn’t been a bed of roses for me but I continued to survive. I have always loved writing, I bagged few awards back in high school but recently, it seemed like whatever I wrote just wasn’t good enough, I had an inferiority complex, nothing ever seemed right, they were just many trials I had in my life and I was always going along with it, I had resigned myself to faith. In school, I met a friend @pasaift, he introduced me to steemit, I have to say, I liked the idea but was a bit hesitant because i felt people would always come around to criticize my work but then he told me I was wrong, he said no one will criticize my work, I was free to write whatever content I wanted to, it was a great way to start up a fresh new chapter in my life.
So, I joined steemit, it has been a wonderful experience but its not all been rosy, the journey did have a lot of thorns even up till now. In truth, when I registered with steemit, I came for the rewards just like I have been with every other thing I ventured into. However, steemit taught me a very valuable lesson, there was more to life than rewards, “come for the rewards, stay for the community”. This helped, me see life in a whole new perspective, I learnt that it doesn’t always have to be about what we gain when we do things, there is so much more to gain if we can only believe. I wouldn’t call myself anti-social but its safe to say, I was heading towards that path. On steemit, I felt like that part of me was slowly fading way to a whole new different personality, I chat really well on discord, I have made lots of friends, people I would probably know and never forget for the rest of my life. My life at school was not left out because I was able to meet new people all the while talking about steemit, put it this way, steemit made me meet new friends and I could not help but marvel at how far I have gone in my life within a few short weeks on steemit. My low self-esteem was boosted with the comments I had on my posts, before long I already had confidence in myself, even on posts I think do not make so much sense, I received a lot of encouragement from commenters, they kept me going with their amazing comments.
Financially, I was weak, i ventured into some businesses but it wasn’t working out so well mainly because my course requires so much attention that I hardly have time for myself, notwithstanding, I still did small business on the side, at school I worked in a cybercafé, but it still wasn’t enough, I could barely afford to pay my course dues, buy textbooks, handouts and other necessities. On joining steemit, the first curation I got was $7, I was really happy and it felt good to get money that I worked for but my happiness was short-lived when the value of steem lowered and I was left with $5, I wont lie, it hurt so bad but It still felt good, I was content.
Like I said, the journey hasn’t been rosy with my posts not getting up to $1 but i persevered and when I felt like giving up, a ray of hope shined on me, I stumbled on a post by @moneyinfant, it was a list of a lot contests held on steemit, he posts on them daily, I was rejuvenated immediately, I took a leap of faith and tried out for some of them. I was happy when luck shined on me and I was successful.
I thank @jochi, @mikepm74, @stach and others for allowing me the opportunity to try out for these contests.
I didn’t stop there I continued trying out for others. I cant tell you how happy I was when I saw that I had won one of the contests, I felt so good about myself, once again I believed I could do it. Another source of support on steemit for me has been @marrianewest, she hosts the daily prompt, I stop by a lot of times to write on her prompts, its been wonderful actually because I get to improve my writing and thinking speed all the while having fun and without the fear of judgment, her freewrite community gave me a sense of belonging on steemit like no other, I met a lot of friends from the freewrite community, I got lots of upvotes from them and I learnt a lot too.
You can check out her blog Here
I stumbled upon @steemstem blog, and to say i was amazed would be an understatement, it opened up to a whole new world filed with science contents, very enlightening ones actually, I saw a lot of contents related to my course of study in school.
Apart from the amazing content, I also learnt proper research techniques by studying their posts, I learnt how to do it right and it has been of great help to me in college, from time to time , we are given a lot of projects and assignments to do that require our research abilities and from @steemstem, I learnt just how to do that, my grades were certainly getting better, I had much more confidence. At first, combining steemit and my education seemed like a tricky situation but I later learnt to plan my time and it has been going great actually, I now can efficiently multi-task without stressing all thanks to steemit. You can check out one of my research works Here
All thanks to @steemstem.
Steemit has helped me in so many ways and I would be making an error If I do not give back just as it has given to me. For now, i may not be able to organize seminars to enlighten people on steemit but in my own way, I have been able to tell people about steemit and it won’t be long now, people I spread the gospel of steemit to will start trooping, it will give me joy to know that i can actually give to steemit. I may still be the littlest of minnows but I would not let that stop me from giving back in my own little way, here in school I have already started my own little revolution concerning steemit.
You can check out the competition Here
Nice write up, love the fact that you are still persevering to reach the top in steemit. Truly, staying in steemit for community is the way to go. The money is just added benefit. I'll be waiting for you at the top.
Thank you
Like your command for words
This is incredible,you took us down your online and offline whilr in a piece
Keep steeming dear,the best is yet to come
Thanks a lot dear
Good to hear this. Keep rocking steemit
Thank you