
If you randomly asked me how long I've been on Hive, I'll tell you 5 months and a couple of weeks. But if you asked me on a deeper level, I'll tell you I've been here through some good and bad times.
I first joined Hive in 2020 and I was introduced by my sister who was dedicated to seeking opportunities to grow, earn and improve her craft on the Internet. She believed Hive had a lot of potential for skilled and dedicated people just as much as I had a lot to contribute to the ecosystem with my content. So after much conviction, I opened my account but I didn't start writing until months later.
Frankly, I was scared about starting because at the time, Hive was the only platform I had encountered that had stricter rules with much more people invested in making sure everyone abided by them. A lot of concepts seemed strange to me from the interface, which was a bit discouraging. I also heard stories of people's accounts getting blacklisted, the weighty downvotes for breaking rules of the platform and how difficult it was for newbies to earn anything significant. This discouraged me for a bit and thought I needed more time to study all the rules before I started engaging properly.
All that changed in a short while because I found myself in the @theterminal where all my questions got answered, no matter how simple or irrelevant they may have sounded to me. I met people who treated me like family and never played on my lack of understanding of the platform. And in no time, I was able to give my profile a good facelift and I started engaging with others.

By observation, I already learned that Hive rewards only those who put in the effort in creating original content and making the blockchain a better and safer place for everyone. The moment I started creating content, I realized Hive was the place for me. It gave me the opportunity to express my thoughts, share my ideas and write my stories without feeling misplaced. It became a place where people knew me as a writer whereas I never dreamt of being addressed as one. And soon, I began to see the difference in how I weaved my words and turned them into gold.
Hive exposed me to communities like @ecency that were invested in the growth of newbies. Eventually, I joined their Discord, and that fast tracked my growth, made me new friends and taught me how to be a helping hand to other newbies. I think the interesting part is how much I've learned about cryptocurrencies by simply joining this platform.
All of these sum up the reason why I stayed back on Hive and continued building. With Hive, I've been taught that dedication and patience are two necessary virtues to have in life. I was in no rush to earn everything in a year, neither was I discouraged from posting when the price of Hive dwindled. This led me to being consistent as much as I could and when I earned me my first few HBD, I used them to purchase a few essentials and save for my next year in the university. This alone was proof that my hard work was being rewarded and even when I lost my account keys and had to start over again last year, I came back with the belief that only dedication can carry me through.
In the past month, my new account has grown much more than I hoped for. I've reconnected with more people, gained a few acquaintances, learned how to position my content better and engage with intentionality.

In essence, with Hive, I have become:
Overall, Hive has served as another source of income to me. I'll forever be grateful for it and I truly won't stop telling people about this amazing space. Happy 6th anniversary to Hive🎉 and thanks to every single person who has never stopped supporting my content. I hope to look back in a few years and see how far I would have come.
All images used in this post are mine.
When they're not, I make sure to credit the source.
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Thank you? MEL!🥰