Hi! I am Anna - I am a sociologist, UX designer and newborn javascript programmer!

Discovering Steemit gave me goosebumps and I am really happy to start posting finally!

Would You like to know more?

So... why and how I got here?

I was not lucky enough to have a friend that could tell me about Steemit. People around me have no idea what Steemit really is. So I am the first here, need to learn and spread the word! In the end the story is quite random and I ended up here mostly because of the coincidence, my curiosity and intuition that told me it’s worth trying.

But to the point. I was still lucky enough to hear about Steemit from @joshsigurdson and tutorials from @jerrybanfield convinced me to try it out. Simple as that. Problem is...it was almost 3 months ago and I needed some time to make mental shift and decide to really engage. And today here I am finally writing my intro post!

I live in Eastern Europe (Poland), so it might be odd that at the end of 2017 I started watching Canadian reporter who is running alternative media channel. But I did. Just about few days after I came across his work (I am not like a regular viewer, at least not yet :P ), Youtube started his big demonetization for channels with “alternative news”. Jason uploaded a video explaining why he is starting his journey with DTube. From there - everything just went avalanche and I started reading about the whole concept of social media platform based on blockchains and it blew my mind. I have been waiting for sth like that and now it’s the reality.
But now a few facts about me:

But now a few facts about me:

I was born in beautiful city called Poznan, just check out this colorful image from our old market!

I also come from a big family and as I am getting older I can see how it shaped me as a person. Growing up as an oldest with 4 siblings I was exploring the trails and always had someone weaker and someone to take care of around me.

I will not lie, I did not particularly like it. But thanks to that I became more willing to take the risks and don’t give up easily. So far I tried out many things and even in times when everything seemed to be falling apart I tend to take responsibility for my life, act, react and pursue. I am constantly trying to improve my life and myself and I am not afraid to look for answers in the least obvious places (which surprises me everyday while wondering where this drive comes from really).

So far so good

I graduated sociology and specialized in migration studies for a while. But finally made a turn into programming and design. It was a big and probably one of the best decision in my life!

When I think about what my life looking back, what is odd is that I apparently like to move a lot. I have changed apartments over 15 times already and I am still in my twenties. I do not know if it indicates something, but I can say I never regret living in beautiful italian island Sicily or working in cosy Utrecht right next to Amsterdam. I had a chance to work in some odd places on some crazy projects which made me who I am right now. I strongly believe we should move our asses both as for health reasons but also out of our comfort zones - here mentally and also in terms of our location

At some point I worked for one of the weirdest museums in my country, did some researches, volunteered in different projects or worked in a cinema for almost a year. Also did some hitchhiking in Europe. Travelling taught me the most valuable lessons and gave a chance to meet most incredible people. I can not be more grateful for that.

A few shots from some memorable moments

In Sicilia I was doing researches about immigrants

In NL I worked for a German startup.

But the most important year, and the year I learned the most, was the one I spent working in a hostel located in a Landscape Park in the middle of the forest , where despite the hard work I had a chance to find some peace and perspective. Mostly because mother nature is awesome. It was in a way as taking a sabbatical. I learned I just need to recharge in forest once in a while to stay sane and I love being in the mountains and wherever I am I’m looking for at least some small hills nearby.

Also during that time I learned some programming along with UX design and developed skills needed to pursue a career in IT. Recently I started slowing down and looking for a place to settle for a while, and I am currently working in IT taking first steps as frontend developer / UX designer sitting quietly waiting where it’s gonna take me.

My Steemit adventure

As a sociologist I am really curious how new technologies like blockchain impact society and change human behaviour . I am just at the beginning of this journey so if You are interested to see how I will keep diving deeper, feel more than welcome to follow me.

As a UX designer I hopefully will be able to make my small contribution in improving the platform via Utopian.io and already started preparing some pull requests :)

As a programming student and newly made front-end developer , I consider posting some guides for beginners and tips within the topic and learning process. I am not sure yet if it will happen and there will be any audience for this kind of materials here on Steemit. I really would like to connect with other designers and developers in purpose of collaboration or mentoring. I am a big fan of mentor - mantee relationship and hope I could find some more experienced colleagues willing to share their wisdom with me or maybe give some tips for the ones that are just starting out. Let me know if You are the one I would be happy to meet You!

One last important thing on the topic it would be really nice to meet more women developers and create some small community in here, I support such initiatives out of Steemit and they seem to be working very well giving a support to each other (if u think this is a way to support and validate discrimination and women alienation - You can not be more wrong!). Many times is so much harder for women especially when they grow up in the environment that tell them they can not do it. Supportive environment can do wonders here!

I also really like taking photographs so You might see from time to time some series here showing stuff that inspired me at some point.

Funny fact: If You still do not know what to think about me here is one more thing - I can jump far! Accordingly to a an animal-based scale, i’m a rabbit-like jumper. Hope u r convinced now 😎

On Steemit:

post random stuff
post posts containing 3 sentences, 1 photo or other things considered as spam or just bullshit
tolerate the language of hatred or intolerance or even excessive negativity

keep it positive
bring value
stick in and post regularly
bring other people in
try to preserve the original principles of the steemit: transparency, honesty and respect for the community

Summary

I remember this feeling I first read about Steemit - a mix of emotions, sooo much confusion, a little fear but also excitement that there it is, this beautiful idea of decentralized platform based on blockchain. I was waiting for something like this to materialize for quite some time.

I believe there are so many challenges waiting to be faced in the future development and already I have seen there are is so much to improve. But hopefully those will be made by hundreds of contributors from this community. It seems like this thing can not be stopped. For me it’s still a wild, wild west kind of reality, still chaotic and exposed for many kind of abuse, but I am so happy I will be watching all this evolve, hopefully being able to co-create.

If You are reading this sentence it means You probably read the whole story, I appreciate it!

Happy Steeming to everyone! (if it’s not commonly used word, i hope it will be soon!)

Cheers,
Anna

P.S. Since there is so much spamming recently and I would like to reach out to people who want to bring value - because I do! I did my research and hope to be niticed by @welcoming