1 year ago Steemit. Inc decided that I was worth enough so they approved my account (after about 2 weeks of waiting). So on this day I got spawned on the blockchain... I wouldn't say I was "born" as this is the digital form of popping, anywhere on the Internet, right?

![hj0miv913t.jpg](https://img.esteem.ws/hj0miv913t.jpg)

Coincidentally or not, today I also passed the 1000 STEEMPOWER milestone, which feels so good. The majority of it are earned and I invested every little, hard worked, STEEM, into STEEMPOWER. Something tells me this blockchain is going places and I have to have a stake of it. I surely missed the early adoption but for sure I ain't going to miss the first seats of the mass adoption. 

For sure this is the most beautiful blockchain. With everybody around trying to impress the others with different types of content, this place is so colored that sometimes you just forget you are on a blockchain. 

One year ago, when I got airdropped here, there was so much information about the mechanics of the whole thing that I had to take in... I needed something like half of my time here (6 months) to understand what the fuck is this about. Are we circle jerking or what?! Where are the money coming from?! Why da' fuck does that bullshit post gather 200 bucks?!

Good times, those first few months... like an ignorant child, recently born, no eyesight yet, trying to get a hang out of that nipple dripping the sweet milk. But the family is big... thousands of mouths are trying to get up and clamp on to that titty in order to suck it... suck it dry! 

I got lucky because I met guys like @lishu and @alexvan that showed me the "way to the light" around here. @curie also helped a lot and I've got to thank all the curators in that project. They are doing an incredible job spreading the incentives in a very meritocratic way. The same goes for @ocd, a blockchain construct and society sharing out rewards based on blogging quality and content. 

During this full year STEEM got me back into photography. Big time. It made me buy a DSLR and go out playing with like it was 2008 again and I was still in university. It made photography relevant to me again. It made it all worthwhile. Which I believe it's a big thing if a "network" managed to inspire. That's how I got acquainted with @photocircle , this very nice photography initiative on the blockchain that not only upvoted my photography but also spotlighted it. That's again a big thing because it motivates. 

If this "invention"... this blockchain, did so much in terms of raising creativity in me, I guess that, in the wake of the many talks about a possible fork and lots of misunderstandings, this blockchain has value. It really can shift attention and financial rewards from their traditional paths, inside the social media universe. I only hope that we don't spoil it with greed, like we always do when it comes to good things happening to the world. We tend to screw it up. 

Anyway... I don't usually do milestones but I guess that celebrating my first year around,  during which I've been sticking to blogging as often as possible, in an orderly fashion, is worth noticing... and maybe contemplating about. 

As a gift to myself for accomplishing this I bought a WACOM tablet. That's how I got the cake drawing...