This post is my answer to the #gratitudechallenge from @theycallmedan a steem user. I was invited by my friend Sharon to join on on Steemit and Palnet and am a mobile blogger only.

Alright, here we go. Let me try to answer Dan's Questions.

First question: Have you met some awesome people who have changed your life?

As I joined: No.
It was damned hard to find help, those who introduced me left or I had hardly contact with, no one read what I wrote, it was as boring as Facebook.
Fact most posts are written for insiders and those who were commenting or took the time to answer were close to zero. Commentors are rare and precious on Steem.
It was mainly a waste of my time and energy. I left!

I join a Dutch blogging site. If it comes to the payment I do it way better there as here. But there is a but. I needed to share some stories which are important to know for the only family left to me, my children.
At the Dutch site, I wrote to them and the end of the story was they been deleted by the owner. People, once family, kept threatening him. It really is a small world.

My terrible slow connection was the reason I tried steemit again.

I was luckier the 2nd time.

I joined a group for writers and net Marianne West.
She helped me out, showed me the way and encouraged me.
All freewriters gave me a hand. My return was after the HF20 and nowhere I could find the reason why I could only post once every 12 hours or... only could comment 2-3 times every 12 hours. Still, I believe it does not make sense.

They pointed me at the daypp Partiko.
Without this app, I would never be able to join. My connection is too slow and many sites on the blockchain are hard to enter or there are options you can not see or use. The blockchain might be new, improving but is mainly meant for desktop users.

Sharon is helping me out since months and no matter how many times I asked the same, how stupid I am, she keeps explaining and encouraging me.

This community is so warm, helpful and close it really makes my life better. Thanks to them I even join the German freewrite and again I met new and helpful people.

Thanks to an other Steemian I learned to write a very short story (less as 240 characters) and thanks to the freewritehouse I even wrote a book. Yes, I joined Marchmadness and amazingly enough, I made it (of course i wrote a fairy tale, one of 25,000 words).

It is not easy to blog on the blockchain.To many (most) it will not make sense why you need power (mana) to join. It is not encouraging if you love writing. I found Publish0x thanks to Steemit. So far I like this site most of all I just need to find my way.

Writing, editing and publishing is harder on a mobile and I miss an option to see who left a comment. With a slow connection it is not very helpful to start up e-mail first, click on that link, start publish0x to be able to read "okay". It simply takes too much time (over 5 minutes to load). A plus is the site loads way faster as any I know, so I am happy with that too.

To find your way on the block chain, steem, eats a lot of time. It takes met at least 12 hours. There is a lot to read, learn, understand before you can actively join. Less positive I find all those posts written for insiders. It is good to spread the word about all the great possibilities of the chain and cryptocurrencies but many do not understand what is talked about.

The fact you know dus not mean every reader does. Something to keep in mind. A good and easy read is hard to find.

Thanks to a community Splinterlands (game with (monster)cards) came into my life as well. 

New people and friends came in my life.They all are great writers with interesting posts. Till today I am very grateful to them. They gave me the chance to be here. Leave my messages behind.

Second question: Have you earned some rewards on a post, and maybe bought something useful/cool with the money? (photos please!)

No. I wrote many posts but could not even buy a bread.
The bit I earned I invested in others.

How do you explain to someone you can not simply post? You actually need to pay, even invest $ to commit to other people? What will be their reward after the next fork? How big is the chance people will find you?

As long it is hard work, every steem is needed to upvote there is no time to write what I like. Somehow there is no room for my niche (fairy tales).

Every post needs to join a contest or fit to a community and you need to choose your tags carefully.

No matter how you feel you have to show your face daily unless you are big and well known.

Since today I have two accounts on Steem.

1. wakeupkitty
2. wakeupkitty.pal (this one I intend to use to upvote on palnet

Last Question: Has Steem been useful as a foundation for you to build an online profile that can never be taken from you?

I have very big doubts about that.
*Fact is you can hardly be found on the internet.
*All tags are mainly used/interesting within the steemworld.
*Via Google the score of Steemians is very low.
*How can anyone (my kids for example) ever find what I wrote, certain subjects? There is no list of posts nothing. Even I can not find them back when needed.
*As I understand everything can be deleted/disappear, the blockchain is no exception, so my posts/account too.

Do I promote Steem?

Yes, I do. I believe in it.
I might be a slow learner to some but I learn daily ways.
Steem is full of information and I spend 12 hours a day or more with it.
I assume this means I am an addict?

Thanks to @nathanmars  I am a member of #SEVEN77.
It is great to see how many Steemians join this initiative on Twitter, do their pushups in the most creative ways, to promote a cryptocurrency. They all deserve an applause. It would be great if more people would leave them a comment, commenting is clearly seen as a waste of time but it is the only wayt to connect!

77 days and next 777 days of pushing/tweeting/promoting is not an easy thing to do.

So far my steem life story.