Yesterday when I checked [steemd](https://steemd.com/@acesontop) I was surprised to see a birthday cake appearing on my status over there. I know that I begun my Steem experience on February last year but I didn't know exactly the date. It was actually February 8th and I am a one year old Steemian right now.

This year has passed so quickly but with many things happening and a lot to come. I have to say that Steemit for me was the first blogging experience and it still is a very good one. I have wrote hundreds of articles during this one year, have interacted with people all over the world, earned cryptocurrencies which is awesome in opinion and kept myself active on social media in healthier and more productive ways than Facebook and Instagram.

![first-birthday-309189_1280.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmWVkjSDctM69smFKrUCXRNKGKLY8ohbqhrzXhd53qhhoe)
[image source](https://pixabay.com/en/first-birthday-cake-candle-309189/)

I have to say that the expectations I had when I joined Steemit in terms of earning cryptos form a blogging activity are far from being accomplished but I realized that this thing is not meant to replace a day job or a small business. It's something fun and engaging that can get you some coins at the end of the day but everything gravitates around tokens. It doesn't have to become a "to do" either but rather something like "I can't wait to get home and write about this...".

That's how I perceive Steem. As a way of expressing myself much more than I would in my daily life on certain topics and also a way of putting down my thoughts through writing. I have had quite a strong desire to write before discovering Steem and was also thinking to write a book but I didn't had a story to fill hundreds of pages. It was just a bag of ideas with no string connecting them.

Thanks to Steem I am able to share these and to read yours also and that's one of the best ways to spend my time online. I know Steem/Steemit is not perfect and I know that it will never be but I am grateful for it as it is and I look forward to make my second year in here even better than the first one and also hope to have all of you that I considered my community a part of my Steem story. 

**Thanks for your attention, your comments and upvotes and all of you for being here with my in this blockchain virtual world!**
**Adrian**