**Alright, I have to admit, I just thought that this sounded like a nice title to drag you in. I haven't suffered from OCD. Doctors just never managed to put any label on me, no matter how hard I tried to get one...**
*This was supposed to be a post on Curie, but it also became a story on OCD. In fact, I thought it was about Curie but it wasn't and then it was. You see, I tend to mix the two of you up, every now and then. I hope you aren't like the supporters of two rivaling soccer teams, that bash each other's heads in out of fanaticism. I hope that you go along well. We need both of you to be as strong as possible.*
When I heard that Curie is having trouble to keep its head above water, I felt I had to dig in. I delegated a bit of SP to the good cause and then read on @CarlGnash 's page that there's an initiative going on called #MyCurieStory to spread some love about what the amazing people of Curie are - and have been doing - for the community from the start. The idea is to show the (Steemit) world what difference getting curated has made for us. And, as they have showed me love, several times, I felt I had to return some of that. So, without further ado, I present to you
**My Curation Story:**
It's early December 2017, Winter has just started. I am staying at my parents house. On my Steemit blog, I have recently started a series on consistency. My aim is to figure out if I can get myself to post daily. Although I have been on the platform for over 5 months, I haven't managed to build any routine.
The first 5 posts of this series are doing okay, making a couple of bucks each and - more importantly - I receive some nice comments. The 6th – a post about [editing and the movie psycho]() is well received. I receive a comment from a user named @guyfawkes4-20 that I recently met on Discord. He informs me that OCD found my post and if I would mind if they resteemed it? I learn that OCD is more than just obsessive compulsive disorder but - in fact - an initiative that sniffs out quality content that isn't getting much attention. I also receive an amazingly nice comment from a kind soul, called Carl Gnash and his (human)bot friend. All this digital love puts a huge smile on my face.
Later that day, inspired by the frosty landscape that I witness on my daily walk, I write a post called [Ice Ice Baby – consistency or how I learned to stop worrying and post on a daily basis](https://steemit.com/movies/@vincentnijman/ice-ice-baby-consistency-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-post-on-a-daily-basis-part-7).
The next morning, I get out of bed and head into the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet, I check my phone to see how yesterday's Steemit post has done. I suddenly see **80 steem dollars** next to my write up called [Ice Ice Baby]
<br>
> Holy cow! Is this for real?
I almost run down the stairs with my pants and boxers still on my knees, to break the news to my parents but - instead - I decide to take a shower and put some clothes on first.
Later, in the living room, I tell my mom about my first Steemit 'success'. She is excited for me, I feel that she is starting to see the potential of my blogging, that it is actually possible to make a living blogging (on the blockchain). When I later tell my dad about it, he reacts as per usual:
> How much time did you spend on this? How much hours per week?
When I answer him that it took me a couple of hours and that I'm on Steemit and discord for about 4 hours per day, he replies as follows:
> I see, so you would make more money filling shelves in a supermarket?
Thank you dad! You always know how to spoil a party.
I didn't tell him that. Let's say that I'm pretty much used to these kind of responses by now. This reminds me of an earlier post I wrote about 'The Power of QuittinG', written in my early Steemit days, after a phone call with my parents. I had just broke the news to them that I had quit my film project, after working on it for 9 months. Anyhow, this wasn't meant to be a post about the lack of compliments that I've received from my dad's in my 36 years of existence, nor about how my mom has always compensated for that. This is meant to be a piece on Curie (and OCD) and what a difference these amazing initiatives have made for me on Steemit and in my life.
I don't want this to become a book, so I'm going to take a short cut here.
After seeing how much I was making with this single post, I started digging a little deeper. I found a post about changing steem backed dollars - they were at their highest value ever those days - to cryptos and/ or euros. I wasn't very skilled at these things, decided to get an account at Bittrex, which took me a day or so and in the mean time the value of sbd went down fast. Nevertheless, I managed to make some nice bucks on that single post. Later, I learnt to keep as much money as possible in the platform and mainly power up. Nevertheless, that single day had changed my life!
##### A little loveletter to Curie (and OCD)
<BR>You gave me hope, when I needed it the most. You made me believe in a better future. You are one of the main reasons why I decided to stick with Steemit, to become a full time blogger. You gave me just the right amount of encouragement to not go back to a day job ( something I swore never to do again, after quitting my teaching job, in July 2016). You gave me the believe that I could actually leave The Netherlands, armed with a backpack and my laptop, only two months ago and to head towards Portugal.
I have to admit, that the above could be said about Steemit in general (and the crypto space to a lesser extent) but, if it wouldn't be for the curie votes that I received over the last couple of months, I might actually have given up.
*Oh - and before I forgot - I actually have to thank my parents too, for their support. Thank you mom and will you thank dad for me too :>)*
**Little Outro**
It's now four months later, April the 10th of 2018 and cryptos have gone down for months. As I got most of my money invested in Steemit and crypto coins, it can be stressful at times. I still see light at the end of the tunnel though. And Steemit and the connections that I've made on here are the reason for that as well as quality loving initiatives like Curie and OCD. I hope this story inspired you in any way and – if you have your own curie story to share - please do so. Let us grow this beautiful initiative so we can slowly fill the trending pages with quality content again. Let's show new Steemians that this is indeed a platform where content is king or queen.
Let me end with the tiniest of poems here:
Thank you, Marie, Curie,
for all you've done for me
and thank you OCD
for all you've done for me
<3 Vincent
#### Oh, before I forget, just like I did, you might want to delegate some SP to Curie? You can do that easily , in a matter of clicks, by following this link: [Curie - A Call for Delegation](https://steemit.com/curie/@curie/a-call-for-delegation)
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