Hi @kdneeley! I am so happy to see you here! It can get pretty overwhelming at first with all the new lingo, but in no time you'll get the hang of it. The main thing to remember is that as a creator all you have to do here is create. Your creations add value and most of that value finds its way to your wallet.
There are so many more subtleties to steemit, but to begin with that's all you need to do to start getting immediate benefits from the community. Not all the benefits are monetary.
In the month I've been here I've met many great people, who've all contributed in some way to my skill as a writer. In a month, my writing has improved by orders of magnitude.
But even more than that, and this is the most important thing to me, is that I wake up now with more optimism. Left behind are the divisive tactics of other media platforms. The constant program of Fear is absent from my life. There is so much less general stress in my mind. Being around these folks on steemit has done this for me.
I'm glad you're here! I support you through Patreon and I support you here! Welcome to steemit!