Be excellent to each other

Hello fellow Steemians, it is I the ever elusive, somewhat reclusive, Thatguyjono.

I have been thinking a lot lately about all sorts of things, one of the things is how thankful I am to have a place to write this very post, without the nagging irritation of facebook comments and the drama of twitter. Steemit is truly a remarkable place and I am glad to be a part of the community that drives this wonderful website

More and more every day, i am barraged by the negativity of the world in all aspects of social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, or the dreaded YouTube comment section, all this negativity has a way of getting to people, after what was possibly the worst year according to the entirety of the internet, places like Steemit are are safe havens from the negativity that surrounds us all in our daily lives, or at the very least that is my experience.

Steemit to me, is a format in which i can put my thoughts down on a website where the community is genuinely helpful and friendly, I enjoy writing, I don’t get a chance to do it as much as I would like since I work a terrible twelve hour long night shift job and the days are the only time I get to see my girlfriend @yogidream.scapes. But here I am, overflowing with the desire to speak my mind, and I have yet to thank everybody on this wonderful site for always being excellent to each other. Never have I seen a social media platform or a comments section with so many friendly people. So consider this my thank you.

Now to the main body of my Post:

Positivity. I have recently been struggling with mild depression due to issues with my family, and thanks to the help of the people in my life, I have a new found positive outlook to life and I haven’t been this happy in a long while, I feel like I can finally get my life back on track, start studying to be a teacher, get a new job, get my YouTube channel running again, and finally get my drivers licence. For too long, I have put this off and made excuses for why I couldn’t do it yet or why it wasn’t the right time. Wow, if any of you could have seen me a couple years ago, I don’t think anybody would recognise me. I feel like I have grown leaps and bounds even in these last six months, circumstances led me to grow up, grow out of the childishness I was stuck in. you see, I had a group of friends that berated me constantly and knocked me down ever since I met them, back in 2004/5, I was constantly the butt of the joke and the easy target, I always saw it as more of a “just joking around” kind of thing, but the minute I left that part of my life behind, things started to become clear, I was being stunted and my self confidence was almost non existent, I could barely answer the phone or talk to a stranger, be it a cashier or a waiter, because of the social anxiety that was caused by this… for lack of a better word, trauma. All this went away once I removed them from my life, at first I felt kind of terrible for doing this, but the more I grew as a person, the more I started to realise that I was getting better, I now have no problem answering the phone or even talking to a stranger on the street. I recently helped my girlfriend with a craft market she was doing just before christmas, and I went out of my way to greet every person that walked past the stall, and I personally attribute a few of those people coming into the stall as my doing, as they turned around and came in to look at what we had. I guess the point of my story is this: be positive, it is never too late to grow and thrive. I personally believe that anybody can rise to the best that they can be with a little work and the right support structure.

Finally I have a few thanks to the people who were my support the beautiful and amazing Mother, daughter combo for @onetree and @yogidream.scapes my practically Mother in law and my girlfriend.

Thank you for reading. And Thank you for being awesome
Feel free to follow me if you so desire: @thatguyjono