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Happy Steemiversary to me!

I wrote about being on steem for 1 year as well, but I think 2 years is quite the achievement on the blockchain. People come and go on the internet, but I fell in love with the community, with the technology. I haven't been very good about keeping up with posting this year- much of my more creative work has been more fragments or ideas more than anything complete or polished. The vast majority of my posts have been my Creative Writing Curation posts, which I (mostly) post every Thursday- I am grateful to MSP for keeping me grounded in the craft, giving me an excuse to find and interact with other authors, and give them rewards! Also shout-out to @zaxan for creating the beautiful new banner I've been using this year!

Isn't it gorgeous?

The more things change.....

Initially when I started writing on steemit, I thought this was going to be a travel blog. However, when the school year starts and I don't travel as much, this is a difficult thing to maintain... especially if I want to post at all regularly. Then I went to poetry, and discovered my muse is a fickle, fickle bitch (especially under any kind of pressure, even self-imposed). So now, if I am not curating amazing creative writing around the chain, I have been writing about whatever comes to mind, when I feel like it (which is not as often as I planned, but sometimes life gets in the way). My life this past year mostly consisted of teaching, fitness, and exploring relationships and my brain.

I changed jobs, which doesn't seem to be that earth-shaking, but I have had some seriously negative experiences fitting in at new places, and tend to be happiest staying at one job for an extended length of time (fun fact: I served tables at Red Lobster for 7 years- I just recently hit my 7th year of teaching). Change does not come easily to me. However, moving to my new school gave me the autonomy to try new things, collaborate with new people, and the best part of all, connect with new students. I have a lot of opportunities upcoming at my new school, including a chance to use my Masters degree in administration, that I wasn't getting at my previous job. It's amazing how switching my place of employment had the ability to both give me more time and more confidence in my position, in my own power to bring positive change.

Me and one of my favorite students

Changing jobs also gave me the opportunity to focus more on myself. I started the keto diet, and promptly developed all of the negative side effects that they warn you about. However, it did help me develop a modicum of self control over my food, and helped me realize how the abuse I was subjecting my body to was a way to punish myself for my past transgressions, or to escape them. My attempts to get back into running ultimately failed,but at the end of the day, I'm still down more than 30 pounds. By the end of the year if I manage to keep up the diet plan, I'll probably be back down to my goal weight. It's crazy how caring for this meat sack makes the inner me feel better.

Once the inner me had healed a bit, I gave it a chance to explore some philosophy- starting with a topic that has largely shaped my adult and teen life, suicide. From there, I thought about how our inner monologue shapes our sense of self, and the nature of our reality. This year was way more about IRL me, than my digital me.

Welcome to my brain
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A lot of things have changed on steemit as well, which I am also excited about. After years of hearing Steemit Inc. hem and haw about SMTs, the community stepped up and created their own token system through steem engine. I limit my involvement in the various tribes to the ones that I've already been a part of- PAL, helpie, and CreativeCoin. I love that the "tribes" are able to reward one another more easily, and reward each other for behaviors that aren't generally measured by the blockchain, such as chatting on discord, listening to radio shows, curating. Things that I do a lot that I now earn tokens for ;)

The More They Stay the Same.....

The last two years on the steem blockchain have helped me build some wonderful friendships. I still continue to attend meetups, although some of them are less well publicized and more of a "hey, we are getting together" type of thing these days. When do your steemit friend just become your friends? I think after two years we are pretty much at that point.

@torico hiking near Castle Rock

@rebele93 taking photos at the Botanic Gardens

Everyone who attended the Cripple Creek Meetup

While I have met new people on the blockchain, it always amazes me how some of the coolest, sweetest people end up staying in my life for an extended period of time. I am so very, very lucky to be part of the Rocky Mountain Community. To have an opportunity to have these people be part of my life- digital and physical!

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Image sources, if they aren't mine, are listed below the image
Thoughts, feelings, emotions are all from Sunravelme