Hello, good people on steemit

As you can tell from the title, and this being my #introduceyourself post, this is my first time putting myself out there on steemit. In fact, it is my first ever attempt to dabble in anything to do with the crypto world. And it is SCARY!! I want to understand it and so I read as much as time allows. The more I read, the clearer certain things become, but overall it gets more and more complex. For every question that is answered, several new ones pop up. I feel like I'm only scratching the surface and will never, ever know enough to make the best use of it. I can't even imagine in my head how a blockchain works. That whole concept is a fairly deep mystery to me and my brain just isn't wired for such things. So I have been reluctant because doing things I don't fully understand makes me uncomfortable.

Then again, I've come to believe that this is the future and there's no stopping it. And frankly, the thought of missing that rather important train makes me even more uncomfortable than getting on board. In fact, if there is a train to catch, I'd rather hop on early so I can get a seat with a nice view that enables me to observe the landscape, to learn how it all connects and eventually see the bigger picture. So here I am, hopping on (my phone apologises for the terrible picture quality):

(Yep, that fluffy thing in the right bottom corner is a cat. We have three of them and love them to death. No doubt, there will be a cat post at some point...)

How did I come to steemit?

I first read about steemit on the facebook page of an ex-politician who lives in my area, Rob Pyne. His story is pretty inspiring, check it out @robpyne. I don't know Rob very well so he's unaware that it was him who directed me here, but I hope a few new people will now read his posts. When I checked #steemit out, I found the idea of a blog with the potential to make a few dollars pretty cool! Even if it's not a lot of money, it's better than nothing, right? I shared this with my daughter who is a writer and editor and has had a wonderful blog for a while [Tamara Drazic] (https://tamaradrazic.com/). Tamara is extremely busy studying, working and writing so I wasn't expecting her to sign up as fast as she did, but sure enough, there it was @tamarajoy. When I saw that, I thought, ok, if she can find time to do this, then so can I. I do have some ideas that will hopefully spark some interesting debate.

But hang on, before I continue, I should probably finally introduce myself...

After all, this is an introductory post, so I better tell people who I am (putting this in bullet points to practice making lists with markdown):

Here it goes. My name is Yvonne and I...

• ...was born in Switzerland in 1966 which makes me 52 years old this year
• ...came to Australia with my husband Peter in 1994
• ...live in Cairns in tropical Far North Queensland (where it's always warm)
• ...love peace and trees, cats and other natural wonders (and the fact that I can walk to the beach from my place)
• ...have two daughters, born in 1994 and 1996, whom I absolutely adore (proud mother syndrome). No, seriously, they ARE the BEST!! You already saw a link to my younger one's writing work, and the older is a marvellous photographer, definitely worth a look on instagram (https://www.instagram.com/larissadrazic/) and her website [LD Imagery] (https://larissadrazicimagery.com/)

Not quite finished yet. I also...

• ...have a Bpsych(Hons) degree and plan to finish writing a masters thesis by the end of this year
• ...currently have two part-time jobs within Queensland Health (but often choose a day off over more money)
• ...have chronic hepatitis B which kills far too many people every year (more about that in a future post)
• ...am grateful for what I have and take nothing for granted
• ...am not a fan of religion and neither do I need religion to be a good person (huge topic, may well put my thoughts in a post one day)
• ...have a few more dislikes, mostly to do with injustices caused by greed and unequal distribution of power and money (also big topics that make one's head spin)
• ...I still have big dreams (especially one but more about that in a future post)

That should give a bit of an overview of who I am but, of course, it is not complete. No person can be fully described in a few bullet points. Also, some may think they would like me based on the above and some not, but if they'd actually meet me in person, it could well be the other way round. Human psychology is such an interesting study that has given me at least as much benefit in my personal life as it did in my work. One important thing it has taught me is to never judge a person until I know their whole story.

Now back to me and steemit

Soooo, why did it take me so long to finally get going and write my first post? Well, I'll be very honest with you, after an initial wave of excitement about the idea behind steemit (namely that rewards will be in accordance with the quality and value of a contribution), I quickly became disillusioned when I realised that it is clearly not so. I admit that I hadn't read enough about steempower at the beginning, and I should have done that before I even started to read posts. In any case, when I wanted to write my first post soon after signing up, I thought to myself, "let's look at some other #introduceyourself posts, maybe one that got lots of upvotes, just to see how it's done". So with expectations running high, I read one with hundreds of votes and $$ on it, only to be bitterly disappointed. I am a bit of a spelling and grammar freak, and the grammar of that post was appalling. But it wasn't that. Knowing that people from all over the world are using the platform and English is a second language for many, I have no problem with that. I even applaud people for having the courage to write in a language other than their own. But aside from that, the post (yes, the one with hundreds of dollars on it) was a dull account of a non-eventful life, lacking any kind of wisdom or useful message, and without a trace of humour or emotion. I took absolutely nothing away from it except the feeling of having wasted my time. And I was puzzled to no end as to what this post contained that could possibly warrant the high number of votes and dollars on it. It was a true moment of What the hell?? (using the word 'hell' here because to this day, I can't manage to get the 'f' word over my lips, or on paper or onto a screen, but really, that was how the thought very uncharacteristically articulated itself in my head).

After that, I read a few posts and comments about steempower, vote bots, whales and all that, and I didn't like the sound of it at all. In fact, it put me off, majorly. The thought that those who can afford it can just buy themselves votes and power to vote, and consequently help themselves (and those they like) to earn even more, doesn't sit well with me. My whole life I objected to the notion how easy it is for the rich to get richer, as they get higher interest on their capital and lower fees on services, and even the power to influence markets. My first thought was "is there even a point participating if I don't want to use bots?"

Those who know me also know that I'm not about money. I feel like steemit may be a good place to share what's in my head without worrying whether or not others agree with me, a place where people are open-minded and interested, tell it as it is (or as they see it) and are supportive even if they have different opinions. I don't expect to earn much money here, but I was hoping it would be a fair and just place where people can find what is actually relevant and most useful to them, and not just what ends up at the top of trending because that person bought the most votes. Unfortunately, right now it doesn't quite feel that way. I would love to stand corrected though and hear that I'm wrong, that steemit really is an equal playground for EVERYONE, where those who produce valuable content can get rewarded accordingly, and those who post rubbish won't be successful in the long run.

Please help me understand

Being new to steem and steemit, I totally appreciate that I simply don't know enough yet. There are a million posts to read and I never have enough hours in the day to read as many as I want, and sometimes my eyes just don't want to look into a screen anymore at the end of a working day.

I often find that I learn the most from insightful, concise, and relevant comments on the most interesting posts. The comments usually make the picture whole, enhance my understanding and tie up loose ends. A post is not complete without comments, and a post that doesn't receive any valuable feedback is probably not very valuable to begin with. So, my hope is for my first post here that some of the people who know best how all this works will take the time to comment and make it whole. Make it into something that helps me and other newbies to become productive members who will in turn add lots of value to the steemit community.

Thank you and please don't go away, I'll be back with more after the break (haha)!
Yours truly