I'm Benjamin Miller 27, cryptocurrency enthusiast, sports over, brother, son, and uncle to three nephews, a niece born in a firestation during a snowstorm (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/11/buffalo_woman_trapped_in_snowstorm_goes_into_labor_gives_birth_in_firehouse.html), and a baby on the way (who according to my 1 year old niece may be an owl).
Those are all labels and something I love about this platform is that you can be yourself and people accept you. There have been a lot of great new introduce yourself posts, and I would like to make mine as honest as possible with a little humor thrown in because that is who I am.
One of my biggest values is that I enjoy helping others. That is actually the reason that why my picture i am posting is so sweaty. I've been painting my sister and brother-in-law's apartment to get it ready for renting. But I really get joy out of helping people. I went and volunteered after Hurricane Katrina and both helped in tearing down old houses, and putting up drywall and repairing those that could be saved. I also went to the Dominican Republic to help build a sidewalk around a schoolyard with limited building supplies (lets just say the concrete we mixed would not be the easy kind you just add water to). I also visited Uganda a few years ago with my Mom and Dad and visited offices that are involved in helping get justice for the problems of child slavery and landgrabbing (I can explain more to those interested). It's a joy to me to be able to do things that others appreciate. It truly makes me happy.
Another thing about me is I suffer from clinical depression and anxiety. For me it's an imbalance of chemicals that I need to take medication for. Most people would never guess I struggled with these two as I joke around frequently and usually have a witty comment or a smile on my face or both. But this depression has resulted in my inability to work at times. If you haven't suffered through depression, I can't write words to do it justice, but it is mentally and physically exhausting and nothing seems to matter. This disease has forced me to terminate my working to be fair to my employers, but leaves me with a lot questions about my future. I hope to find work in the computer coding field, as that is my current focus. Hopefully I can help destigmatize depression and anxiety. So many people suffer from these two, yet in general it is frowned upon to reveal this to others that you don't know well. It's really no different than needing to take insulin for blood sugar in the same way that my body doesn't produce the chemicals it needs to to regulate my feelings.
Anyway, as a cryptocurrency enthusiast I have scoured the web looking at almost every coin available and how it is mined and the features it possesses (that word looks so weird). But I didn't find anything that really caught my eye except one alt coin called Espers that caught my eye. It's development team has slowed its progress and this is when I stumbled upon Steemit. I won't post all the great things about it because we have seen so many posts doing so, but wow! what a great uplifting intellectual community. Haven't seen anything like it before on social media.
I tried to tell my parents about it but they are very skeptical. My Mom does not believe it will actually gain any money for me and has discouraged me from continuing. (That won't happen) but I'd like to show her actual proof that content that is valued can generate user interaction and monetary reward. I would love to say nothing to her and then hand her a check with the money I have made and surprise my parents with a gift or vacation, depending on how much I earn. I'm not going to beg anyone to vote for me, but if you would also enjoy proving the naysayers wrong, I'd surely appreciate your support.
I might have to post a picture of my mom and the check or gift I buy with the money so other people in similar situations with skeptical parents or loved ones can show this as proof that there is no scam, simply a revolution of impassioned bloggers, trying to make social media an experience people want to engage in.
Here is an outtake picture (If you believe that isn't me in the post, please tell me who would take the time to write everything backwards and be incredibly sweaty in their picture to fraud you all haha)
Wish you all the best steemit! Should have made this post a few days ago, but I have been so engaged in conversation with other people here. (Thanks for those who stuck it out to the end I also have a little ADHD aka “quirkiness)