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Last week I held a contest by the name of 'Spread the love Contest' and after a somewhat slow start (to be honest, I got a bit nervous that no one wanted to win any Steem), at the end of it, there were 11 contestants that entered. 

I asked the contestants to find a brand new Steemian with the #introduceyourself tag and tell me in a few words what they loved about their intro.

I ***did*** bend the rules just a ***little*** bit along the way. One contestant introduced 2 new Steemians, but I am not going to hold it against her, since it's all about spreading the LOVE and not about excluding anyone.
# Did someone say: don't bend the rules?

<center> https://media.giphy.com/media/1BH7Ydn4mH3ePT4BWN/giphy.gif </center>

So, now that we got that out of the way, I would like to introduce the entries, and of course the people they introduced to the platform. They are in no particular order, so you won't know who won just yet...More about that later.

# 1. @imsteinsbrother introduced his 'person' because he found a great new friend in him! Isn't that what it's all about?
### You can find his entry post [here](https://steemit.com/contest/@imsteinsbrother/spread-the-love-entry)
#### Introducing: @arknight His name is Roberth, but he would prefer if everyone
would call him Ark. He's 22 years old, born in Venezuela and his main goal is to become a Game designer.




Well, it's looking like he's well on his way with that, because he's showing quite the artistic skill.
He is also already thinking about how to give back to the Blockchain. Don't we just LOVE people like him?
### Check him out [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@arknight/from-gamer-to-blogger-to-game-designer)

# 2. The second entry is by @smithlabs who is an electrical engineer and found his guy in the form of ***another*** electrical engineer. 
They speak the same language: one in English the other Spanish! Now, if ***that*** is not a bromance in the making, then I don't know what is! (@smithlabs: you might be surprised to see that there's another electrical engineer with yet another language coming up here soon...)
### Check out his entry [here](https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@smithlabs/spreadthelovecontest-entry-for-freddy-from-venezuela)

@freddyjimenez is also from Venezuela. He is an electrical engineer, but because the salaries are not enough to live off in his country, he works as a trader. It surely puts stuff into perspective for us here at Steemit doesn't it? I admire people who try to make the best out of the cards they were dealt. Thank you for the find @smithlabs!
### Check out his introduction post [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@freddyjimenez/hi-my-name-is-freddy-i-m-an-engineer)

# 3. The third contestant is @crosheille. She chose this particular new Steemian because of their mutual love for needle work. She also loves his artistic side. What's there not to love?
### Check out her post [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@crosheille/spread-the-love-contest-kealagan)

You wouldn't believe it, but @kealagan is ***also*** from Venezuela! 
He became an artist after he learned about the performing arts through his brother. His mother told him to go to the presentations at his brother's academy, so you could say he grew up in the world of the arts. At the age of 8, the director of one of the plays gave him a role, and that's when his rise to stardom was born. What a wonderful story!
### Check out the rest of it [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@kealagan/a-little-bit-of-me)

# 4. Our fourth contestant is @fitinfun.
She chose this new Steemian because of what she does at work (when she's not working of course 😊)
I loved it too, and it is such a great idea...
### The entry post can be found [here](https://steemit.com/untalented/@fitinfun/my-entry-for-the-spread-the-love-contest-changeable)

@changeable is literally changing trash into art. She discovered that there was a lot of 'stuff' that was discarded at her office, and she decided to turn it into art. Catching two birds with one stone so to say. Amazing!
### Check out her intro [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@changeable/introduceyourself-and-some-digital-plastic-images)

# 5. The fifth contestant is @raj808. 
What jumped out at him was first the title of the introduction itself, and later the openness and honesty of the post.
I completely agree with @raj808 on this! 
### Here is his [entry post](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@raj808/spread-the-love-contest-introducing-a-new-steemian).

@t-lab's introduction is nothing but open. And quite direct. I love that in a person. No beating around any bushes...Just plain: this is who I am!
### Please check out the introduction post [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@t-lab/introducing-myself) and you will see exactly what I mean. 

# Wow, five done, 6 to go!!!

And it's already SO hard! If I could I'd let them all win. But unfortunately, I can't. However, I hope that my friends here will give at least a few people on this list a follow, if not all. I think we have a great group of people to follow here!

<center> https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEhmOOJWewv5bRK8M/giphy.gif </center>

OK, so now that I've stretched my legs and arms a bit, I'll go on to the next...Jeez, now I'm quite happy there weren't more contestants...I'd be here next week.

# 6. Contestant number six is @porters, with not one, but two new Steemians. 
(so there, here she is, the naughty contestant who didn't follow the rules...😉 it figures that it's a fellow @ecotrain passenger...they tend to bend the rules a bit at times.)
### Her post can be found [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@porters/i-m-spreading-the-love)

She introduces @nnkrl, who describes herself as passionate, curious and driven, with a love of photography and travel.
And this shows in her post! The photo of her in front of Singapore's Merlion stuck out to me. Mainly because of my love for that country that I will always call home. 
### You can find her introduction post [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@nnkrl/welcome-to-my-first-blog)

### Porters' second new Steemian is @reuniteearth, who introduces herself as BigMissSunshine and 
identifies as a genderneutral, fluffy, urban riot girl. She is from Germany, and a girl after my own heart. And also a electrical engineer (I promised @smithlabs!)
### Her introduction [post](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@reuniteearth/hello-world-it-s-me-bigmisssunshine).

# 7. The seventh entry is one by @maquemali. She chose a girl who's intro post is called: I like spaghetti. That alone cracked me up. 

And who doesn't like spaghetti? I know I do... @maquemali's post also had me laugh. Which is good for the bonus points 😉.
It immediately made me think of, what I think is, ***the*** most famous spaghetti scene in movie history. Well, the second most famous...the most famous one comes right before this:
<center> https://media.giphy.com/media/sEcZk5kCy8H2U/giphy.gif </center>

#### AWE!!! I LOVE Tramp! I always wanted a <del>man</del> eh, ***dog*** like that. You know, one that rolls his last meatball towards me, instead of eating it...😂

### Check out her post [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@maquemali/a-spread-the-love-contest-3f562823e1e89est)

### As I mentioned, the new Steemian likes Spaghetti. (How many times can one mention spaghetti in just ***one*** post?) Her name is @anmitsu. But there is more to her than just that.
### Without further ado, here's her intro [post](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@anmitsu/intro-post-i-like-spaghetti).

# 8. My eight contestant is @sustainablyyours. 
He found a true gem in his new Steemian. He thinks that @keithf makes a great addition to our community here, and I believe he's right. 
### You can find his post about it [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@sustainablyyours/my-nomination-for-the-spread-the-love-contest-keithf).



### @keithf is originally from the US, but lives in Germany with his family. He is the pastor of a church in Heidelberg. 
His wife is from Istanbul and their son's name is Aslan, which means lion (something I've known since I had a friend with the same name). It's also the name of the lion in my favourite childhood book...(If we'd make this into a guessing game, I'd have you guess the title, lol)

<center> https://media.giphy.com/media/a3INOG86oFKo/giphy.gif </center>


### But it's much better to find out more about @keithf in his own #introduceyourself post [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@keithf/let-me-introduce-myself). 

Pfew...Sloooooowly getting closer to the end. 

# 9. The ninth entry is by @xcountytravelers.
She found her perfect New Steemian in @darrenfj. He showed snark and sincerity according to her, and I have to agree.
### Read her post about why she chose him [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@xcountytravelers/hey-have-ya-me-darrenfj-a-spread-the-love-contest-entry)

###  @darrenfj has had 101 jobs as it seems, is interested in 1001 subjects but knows little about any of them. 
Or so he says. I don't believe him, I think he secretly knows quite a lot. Either way, I hope you find his post as intriguing as I did.
### Read his story [here](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@darrenfj/portrait-of-the-steemian-as-a-wash-up-artist#@darrenfj/re-xcountytravelers-re-darrenfj-portrait-of-the-steemian-as-a-wash-up-artist-20181203t191830603z).

# 10. The tenth contestant is @ravijojla. She instantly fell in love with the woman she is introducing.
As she was looking for a Woman who has mastered the magic to turn a sober into an extraordinary day, she found @psico. And ***what*** a woman this is! Some of us reading this also fell in love. (huh @dreemsteem?)😍
### But please read @ravijojla's entry [here](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@ravijojla/donna-d-amare-a-spread-the-love-contest-entry) first!

@psico has lived quite the life! She is (also) from Venezuela and first studied to become an insurance consultant. Shortly after that she had her three children and while she was raising them, and working at the same time, she also studied to become a psychologist. But never neglecting her role as a mother. WOW!
Please read her post [here]( https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@psico/light-and-darkness-introducing-me-eng-luz-y-oscuridad-me-presento-esp)

# 11. The eleventh and final contestant is @jenina619.
She decided to introduce a group of people who have an account on Steemit together.
The people in that group create art workshops for street children in Manilla, in the Philippines. 
### Here is her post about [them](https://steemit.com/spreadthelovecontest/@jenina619/spread-the-love-contest-spreading-love-with-creativestreet).

### @creativestreet is an initiative by @aalagenesis and @deveerei.  The young professionals, artists and youth who joined the initiative later, all work as volunteers. What an awesome thing to do! Just look at the joy these kids experience with their art! 
 
https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZTVbGUSXZS4A4tqUwubM7RiFbQx48Bnf64Mh6apS9vEn/image.png

Photo courtesy of @deveerei 




This is a project very close to my heart, because there was a time when I had a very similar plan, but for children in Belize. Unfortunately, I never made it there, but this post just reminded me of it. 
And it made me think: maybe it's not too late and there is still an opportunity to start something
like it....Maybe this entry was fate.

### Be sure to check them out [here](https://steemit.com/creativestreet/@creativestreet/who-is-creative-street).





# Choices...choices...choices...

Wow, this is going to be a hard one! What I LOVE about this contest is that there are 11 contestants. 11 seems to be a number that keeps coming back to me. I can't get away from it, even if I wanted to!
Last year's Steemfest started on the 1st of November...and it was when I met a bunch of the greatest people on earth, who I now call friends. This year, Steemfest ***ended*** on the 11th of November, and I had to say good-bye to those same people, and then some. I think that means something, doesn't it? Yeah it does! 11...definitely special!

So I don't think it's a coincidence that the number is 11 here....

OK, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I'm at the beginning of a tough little road. It's a nice hole I dug for myself, lol. As I was reading all the entries again, I thought: Oh, yeah: ***this one***! And then I got to the next one and thought: ***crap***, this one...I almost forgot... And that's pretty much how it went all the way from number 1 to 11!
But I can only choose 3 winners!!! ARGHHH!!! And it won't be right now, just a little more patience guys.
Anyway, while I was reading, I was trying to figure out ***how*** to judge this whole contest. 
And I figured it out. I am going to choose 5 posts that I liked the most. And then, I am going to ask for some help.
Not sure how yet. It could be the readers, or some other people who I trust. 
Either way, I need HELP!!!
Chosing 5 posts out of all these is going to be hard enough.

But what I can truly say, from the bottom of my heart:
# ALL contestants were amazing and ALL entries equally so!
I started following all of them and I am quite curious where this journey on Steemit will take them all.
Hopefully next year around this time, they will all still be here and we can call them friends. 

So I congratulate ALL of you! You are ALL winners!

# Thank you so much for participating in my contest!

I will post who won within the next few days. Until then:

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