I wish I knew Steemit earlier. I'm barely 2 months and my love for this platform have grown tremendously. 

You've been an inspiration @tarazkp, and i hope I give a good testimony too in 9months time.

A trip down the memory lane often makes us realize the value of the things we perhaps didn't notice or bother to appreciate before.

And I guess that will be the case for the present which will eventually be the future's past. Wait, I got confused with my own statement.

Very interesting view of how things used to be. As a newcomer this only reaffirms my belief that steem is going to the moon ;)

>But, there is one thing that is very relevant and that is that I am just as keen to be a part of this system as I was then.

Where I come from, there's a saying that goes thus "its not how far but how well".

I'm amazed how this drive u maintained about a year ago is still the same.
I've been a follower of your articles and a couple of times, you've highlighted that "you are not a money-driven person" and overtime I've really seen it.

I'm barely two months old here and hope someday I'll get to share my own inspiring steemit journey.

Thanks for sharing @tarazkp

I have 950 posts and I have been here for little less than 2 months. I'm basically in the same situation as you were in the beginning. 

You should check https://web.archive.org/ and save your profile once in a while so you can look at it later :)

![Screenshot_417.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmdNHeHkndceCJ2qnnK4z8A1WsKFkfhWkr2BFtbxAuuqsh/Screenshot_417.png)

That is really inspiring to read. Although it makes me once again kick myself for not joining Steemit sooner. UGH! I am going to try my best for the next 11 months. I don't have high dreams of becoming a whale though...just a minnow... :)

>Luckily notifications still don't work otherwise all those tags would be annoying ;)

Lol! I love this comment so much.. considering I've been hearing about getting notifications to work for as long as I've been on here, with no success. That's such gold. Thank you for the laugh! 

Ok, 100 posts, 109 followers and 64 rep.. not fair at all! I've got more than 26x the posts, more than 7x the followers, and 10 less rep... I wonder if there's a * cough * * bots * * cough * reason for that difference?

Sorry, I don't mean to bring it up, but that's really something to be in awe about. Definitely not something I could see happening very often nowadays. Although, it probably wasn't that common when you started either. You're definitely a great content creator, and you truly deserve the rep and recognition that you receive (and more than you sometimes receive as well)!

Thanks for sharing more about your journey! So many people that I started with in my joiner class have left the platform. It's quite unfortunate.

But I'm still here, and I'm still trying to make my way along! I promised myself one year (plus) of working hard on Steemit before I would make any decisions on my future here. It's been a trying time, surviving much of the volatility within the community itself (ignoring the value fluctuations).

If I were to guess today if I'd still be here after 1 year on the platform (this coming June), I would say that I'm honestly not sure. There are so many situations that are plaguing Steemit, but I do see some small flutters of hope passing around the community. Time will tell which part of the community will win, or if we can coexist, or if another player enters the game and changes it all for us in a new way. It's definitely not dull here on Steemit!!

I have just recently found and created a steemit, and this was a very interesting look into how much has changed in just a year on this site. I sincerely hope as this site grows, the community can maintain a kind, respectful interaction and communication of ideas while maintaining the ability to speak freely. My hope is that with this being such a public place where everyone sees pretty much everything about another user, people can once again learn to interact with one another civilly, and bring some humanity back into people who have lost all sense of social etiquette online and in person.

Yes @tarazkp i hope this history inspires most minnows like  me to come up with interesting content like this,  Great write up @tarazkp, thanks!

This is really Inspirational. You've done well for yourself over the last 10 months. 

But like you said, times on steemit have changed, and so have the people. It seems the people in your early days were better off. Lol

Once again your article deserved my 💯 %! 
I miss those “cosy” Days 😉😋

My biggest ever post was $344; when steem was 23c
That'd be approx $6500 now if I hadn't powered down and cashed it out.
Which is great, cause I didn't :)

Nice very good

and be a part of the community)
obviously we need to be a part of steemit to help it flourish ,it will be good for both steemit as well as for us

 delightful &  exhilarated!

Owk I think this is motivation enough ...in few days time I will be 3 months old on steemit  and have 7 more months to make it 10 months and I already know I am Gonner be big by then if I continue with this enthusiasm .

I am confused as to how you managed to to reputation 64 in 3 months with just 100  posts and according to you, you wernt making much in your payouts back then...how how how???

You said people can buy reputation now...Just hearing it for the very first time though . Buying reputation is like taking the juice from the from the orange. Where is the fun in that. To me, seeing my reputation grow gradually and on a daily basis gives me the indication that I am working hard.

Your story is encouraging. Progress at the very beginning is very slow. And I hope that in 10 months I will be able to write about myself that I have succeeded. Thank you for your article.

Wish I had joined back then! I guess better late than never. Still amazing to see how far you've come though.

25 cents to about $3.35 today in 10 Months is a great return on any Steem purchased. 

If Steem was to rise the same approximately 13x over the next 10-12 months I think everyone here today would be extremely happy. We would be sitting at $43.55

That would be an amazing number and there would be a ton of millionaires from Steem. More importantly in my opinion there would be a ton of people who could afford to change their lives. Might be something simple like buying some clothes they currently can't afford for their kids or maybe funding options for their kids futures (my plan) or maybe getting to stop working that second (or third) job they have to be able to pay the bills.

There is so much potential to the futures of the people here on Steemit and I think sometimes that gets lost in the hustle of it for many others. If those with the most influence continue to make more minnows succeed the demand for Steem, SBD, and the Steemit platform would skyrocket. They wouldn't need to worry about earning so much money from their bot delegations as the value of Steem would be so high that those profits just wouldn't matter.

Based on the way demand grows we honestly could see growth beyond the 13x seen in the last 10 months if people continue to help onboard new members, those raping the reward pool get counteracted, and those in a position to help others start using more of that power to help the little guys grow without worrying so much about instant profits.

Seriously can you imagine 50,000, or how about 500,000 steemit bloggers earning even enough that they can help pay some of their bills and making their lives a little better. I'm not talking about becoming full time bloggers, just ones that earn a little side income to help give a little relief.

I have some thoughts on how this all happens, but the reality is as a minnow without the means to purchase thousands of SP the chances of myself making much of a difference are probably fairly slim.

This post will help minnows like me to post great quality content. I think being a minnow it's important for us to spend more and more time on steemit. But can you tell me one thing, how do you teach 64 in just 3 months ?