Well, tonight is the night we leave behind another year's passage and embrace the dawn of a new year.  Wow, what a crazy year it's been!  

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I started out the year working 3 jobs and living a very uneventful life with nothing much other than the daily grind on my mind.  I wasn't really hanging around the best people, as in people who are conducive to my personal growth just by their mere presence in my life.  I wasn't giving any real thought when it came to the subject of my goals and dreams, what I wanted to accomplish and achieve in my life.

My life was stagnating once again, and it seemed like I didn't care.  Even though the very reason I moved to Utah from California was to break the cycle of stagnant mediocrity that had  been plaguing my life.  Then in June, I threw caution to the wind and took a week off from work to drive out to Las Vegas for the Electric Daisy Carnival.  I had no plans, other than that I was getting to the festival no matter what.  I guess I just *knew* that I needed to be there at that time in order to put my life back on track.

A lot of amazing things happened to me at EDC, and I suppose I'll go into those stories someday soon...but for now I'm just going to say that on the third day of EDC, I was christened under my newly bestowed "rave name" and that set me on a course that snapped me back onto the right track.

Ever since EDC, I've made it a point to go to as many EDM festivals and shows as I can, and I've met some pretty amazing people at every one.  This past year for me has felt like a very literal *rebirth,* a dying off of the way I had been for so long, trapped by my past and unable to make any true progress in life.  I was reborn at EDC an ever since then, things have really been looking up for me.

I found Steemit shortly after Global Dance Festival, when @stevenalexander had begun posting about it on Facebook.  I decided to check it out, and man oh man what an amazing decision that was.  Best choice I ever made all year :P I've since then been able to really keep up my motivation to write, and I've made some pretty amazing friends as well over the past 3 months.

I'm grateful to have found The Writer's Block and the @MinnowSupport Project, because those were my first two Steem communities on Discord.  My membership in MSP in particular has been such a huge part of how my experience on Steem has gone, and I can't thank everyone enough who was a part of building that community and who is a part of keeping it alive and thriving today.

I'll be going to Decadence SLC tonight to ring in the new year with my best friend as we dance our hearts out to the music of SHSTR, Illenium, Porter Robinson, and more!  I just wanted to make a post today before all of that craziness, to take some time to reflect on this past year and how much I have grown and developed personally.

I've come such a long way since leaving Saipan 10 years ago, and then leaving my family in California 2 years ago to try to make it on my own out here in Utah.  This past year in particular has seen the most rapid growth for me, in as long as I can remember.  Now I'm down to working just 1 (maybe even just half of one honestly) job, and I'm trying to make it to where I can survive off of cryptocurrency earnings by June 2018 and I can just quit my job.  I'm so grateful for everything and everyone that has been a part of this wild ride.  

I've brought so many people onto Steem and got them interested in cryptocurrencies, that I kind of wish Steem had some sort of rewards/commission system for recruitment, lol.  I bring people onto the blockchain and I help guide them to successful habits and tactics for positive growth on the platform, and I am always so happy whenever I see their posts doing well on here.  I'm so grateful to have found this place and to be in some sort of status where I can convince people to come check it out, and then I can help them grow and find their own success on here too.

If I'm gonna close out this year though, I really just want to say one final thank you in 2017 to the three individuals on the blockchain who really blew my mind with this whole Steem thing this year when they pooled together to get me an XBOX One so that I could play with them.  @bambam808, @btcvenom, and @sirlunchthehost, you guys are awesome, thank you so much for everything!  I'm looking forward to streaming with all of you soon!

Also, one final thing, since I'm going to an EDM festival tonight, be on the lookout for a new post from [The Dancing Dreamers](https://steemit.com/created/thedancingdreamers) soon!

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<h4>Check out some of my other posts!</h4>
<a href=https://steemit.com/minnowsupport/@rodeo670/six-tools-that-every-new-steemian-needs-to-know-about-and-use>Six Sites You Need to Know About as a New Steemian</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/steemit/@rodeo670/steemit-tutorials-how-you-can-withdraw-your-steemit-earnings-into-usd-and-why-you-should-only-do-it-if-you-re-truly-strapped-for>How You Can Withdraw Your Steemit Earnings to USD</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/minnowsupport/@rodeo670/steemit-tutorials-how-to-use-tags-to-maximize-visibility-for-your-posts-and-gain-more-upvotes>How to Use Tags to Maximize Visibility for Your Posts and Gain More Upvotes</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/minnowsupport/@rodeo670/how-the-minnow-support-project-helps-you-achieve-your-dreams-on-steemit-and-how-to-join>How The Minnow Support Project Helps You Achieve Your Dreams on Steemit</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/steemit/@rodeo670/how-i-achieved-200-followers-in-my-first-month-on-steemit-a-recap-of-the-last-28-days>How I Achieved 200 Followers in My First Month on Steemit</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/steemit/@rodeo670/why-i-chose-to-invest-usd100-in-steem-a-recap-of-my-second-week-on-steemit>Why I Chose to Invest $100 in Steem</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/minnowsupport/@rodeo670/steemit-tutorials-how-to-set-your-profile-picture-cover-image-display-name-about-location-and-website>How To Set Up Your Steemit Profile</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/blog/@rodeo670/the-dancing-dreamers-the-dawn-of-the-dancing-dreamers>The Dawn of The Dancing Dreamers</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/blog/@rodeo670/friendship-in-a-new-age-the-dawn-of-friendship-in-a-new-age>The Dawn of Friendship In a New Age</a>
<a href=https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@rodeo670/i-m-just-an-island-boy-living-in-utah-who-loves-edm>I'm Just an Island Boy Living in Utah who Loves EDM</a>
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!steemitworldmap 40.754539 lat -111.902618 long Salt Lake City, Utah local Steemian! d3scr