Hi Brandon, and welcome to Steemit!

That's a pretty cool and unique story... and pretty cosmic and unlikely, especially with you living in a small town and Steemit not being THAT widespread, as of yet. So the next challenge might be to find the person here who LEFT that pine cone message for you and your friends to find.

I see you have been welcomed by the usual posse of "welcome bots;" but no worries, there ARE lots of cool and interesting people here. Be patient; it can take a while and some effort to build a following... but that's really no different from Facebook or anywhere else, except here you do get a shot at earning some rewards.

Good luck to you!