Welcome! Everyone judges. It is part of being human. Why we judge and how we judge are what's important. I do not judge a book by its cover for example. Instead, I'll wait for the person to prove themselves a jerk or not. Everyone's story is different too, and we can learn something new from them.
You write well. Keep doing it! Consider sharing about those rough patches too as long as you can do it in a positive way? My childhood was definitely not all sunshine either. I kept driving forward though, and I refused to quit.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. --Rocky Balboa
There are a ton of other webpages to help you with Steemit. Here are some of the best for beginners:
https://steemd.com/ (This site is used to keep track of your voting power and other stats. You do not want to run out of voting power, and you only get so much per day. I keep my voting power around 80% for example.)
https://steem.makerwannabe.com/ (This site will tell you who follows you, who unfollows you, and who mutes you. It is great for meeting new people too. I regularly check it to see who has followed me to see if I should follow them back.)
https://steemit.chat/ (This site is the official chat webpage for Steemit. There are Discord channels too, but I usually stick to the official site. Come in to network and meet new friends. You can directly message people there too, so it makes it easier to communicate with your closest friends.)
Oh yeah, there are a lot of bots on here. If you see a cookie cutter reply, especially to your intro post, it is almost certainly a bot. Check the account's reputation. If it is low, I would recommend just ignoring them. Everything is public on Steemit, so you can go look at an account's comments and replies. Are they all the same? It's a bot.
Again, welcome, and I've followed you! If you have any questions about getting started, look me up on the chat site.
@finniann I grew up on Rocky movies 1-4. But let me tell you, "Rock Balboa" was definitely my favorite of all the sequels. Why? Because of that line you just quoted.
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'll definitely check out those links.
Below are some of the original pieces I posted so far:
https://steemit.com/poetry/@oceanrift/divorcee-a-haiku https://steemit.com/writing/@oceanrift/unoriginal-a-haiku https://steemit.com/poetry/@oceanrift/text-messages-by-christian-cruz
Enjoy!