My submission doesn't count towards the official contest because I am a judge, but i'd still like to take a moment to recognize someone who has impacted me here on steemit!
When I first joined, I ended up chatting with @ashfreqk quite a bit between different comments and posts. When I finally got up to writing my "Introduce Yourself" post after browsing and commenting for a few weeks - he was so supportive of me! I think that post made about $3 and most of it was because @ashfreqk sent me an upgoat through minnow booster. It really made my day and encouraged me to keep posting.
It also really opened my eyes to how cool it is to be part of a worldwide social media platform. He lives in India I believe, which is very culturually and geographically different than my life here in the United States.
I've really enjoyed getting to meet people from around the world and get peeks into their lives and cultures. They say if you really want to experience a place, you have to hang with the locals. I feel like Steemit has allowed me to gain glimpses into different places around the world in a way that I wouldn't have been able to experience just by looking at photos of the place online.