Fresh Starts: My First Steemit Post - Get To Know Me!

My name is Kristi-Anne, and I was a YouTuber. I say that with mostly with a heavy heart, because for a very long time YouTube was my escape when I was down - it picked me up and pulled me out of some of the darkest days of my life. It was love at first sight for me, or view rather, the platform in all of its glory offered a place for creators and viewers to unite and be a part of something together. There was a sense of belonging and a feeling of community. The current climate of YouTube has become political, aggressive, and downright scary. Videos have become so polarizing what was once a community is now a civil war erupting in the comment section. Some days you might argue North and South Korea have a less hostile relationship than the people joining in to watch the newest video from the most recent "it" boy (or girl) YouTube is celebrating. Which brings me to one of the reasons I'm writing this post to begin with.

I've been a YouTuber, a title I was once proud of, since the legacy partnership program existed. A time when it was actually an accomplishment to be an active poster - you needed views, subscribers, and content to be paid and rewarded for your videos. At the time I felt like I belonged and YouTube celebrated my accomplishments with me. Over the past several years YouTube evolved from a platform that valued diversity and community to a cliquey high school where only the jocks and cheerleaders could succeed. Small YouTube channels have been eaten up, YouTube throwing us to the back-burner to focus on the golden children, and seemingly at any cost. I'm not going to wine about my views dropping or adsense cuts, although this is very much the reality for most YouTubers who aren't one of the elite few big name creators, what I wanted to focus on was the ecosystem of YouTube, who I am, and why I've decided to join steemit.

Now that I've addressed a TOUCH of the YouTube ecosystem (I will elaborate on this further in future blogs) I thought I should introduce myself a bit. My name, as I've said, is Kristi-Anne. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the love of my life is a 4lb. chihuahua named Chanel. The second love of my life is my tech-savvy, (cryptocurrency-obsessed) boyfriend, Sebastian a.k.a. the person who introduced me to steemit. I'm a foodie at heart, if it's cream I'll buy it, I was a video game junkie (before real life took up all my time), I love videography, camera equipment, and the technical side of anything. I am somewhat of an enigma, being very much what you might call a 'girly-girl', but also endlessly curious about technology, science, filmography and editing, and the list goes on (endlessly). I'm certain this is a result of my attention deficit disorder, which has always generated more interests and passions for me than I could manage.

So for now, I will end this little introductory blog right here and finish it with a video of how I celebrated New Year's Eve (at home) with my boyfriend, making the most delicious raclette!

Enjoy a day in my life!