Celebrating Hive's 6th Anniversary by sharing #MyHiveJourney

Well, this is going to be an emotional post for sure!

I've never been good at writing down some personal thoughts, life updates or doing some anniversary wishes, but the truth is, that I am a proud veteran of the blockchain, who joined this place not 6 years ago, but early 9 years ago, as my account will celebrate the 9th anniversary at the end of 2026.

Now, I know not many people since that decade are still around here, hence why I get excited as a kid whenever I run into an account which is at least as old as mine because we all had a completely different beginning than what the new users are enjoying these days, speaking about a very advanced interface and a way more user-friendly platform where people can figure out what to do pretty quick.

Back when I joined the platform, there was a different name than Hive which I would prefer not to remember but let it be known only by those who've been here around then, where, even though no one really remembers proudly about those times, I think we can all agree that it still served as a great start for many of us, before having a forever platform to call home, which is obviously, Hive.

My first-ever post made on the chain was in December, 2017, and I will avoid linking it here just because I am not proud of it, coming with a lack of content, very few words, and literally nothing to see, lol. Yes, I know, I recycled my content at the beginning and even upvoted my posts (DON'T DO ANY OF THESE!), but I ended up learning from my mistakes pretty quickly.

Actually, I joined the chain with zero hopes or self-esteem after some sort of a classmate wrote me a message on Facebook mentioning the blockchain and that I could start an account and write down my experiences while travelling.

I remember constantly refreshing my posts and looking if a new little heart appeared on my post, ready to follow new users and learn new things!

Even today, I find that a very strange encounter since that guy wasn't an actual classmate of mine, but we were studying in the same school and noticed each other on the corridors, but we never really spoke face to face, not even saying hi, until I graduated, and then he started texting me on Facebook. However, as a person who never thought things were happening randomly, I am forever grateful for those first messages and that I ended up here, where I keep reminding myself that one day I should text him back and invite him for a coffee since he changed my future so much without even realising even if he is not longer around here anymore.

The first actual post came 2 days later when I managed to write a few more words but still failed terribly at making an actual introduction post because I was still practicing my English, yet a thing that improved a lot, now the real challenge being to actually stop from writing when I being a new post, lol!

However, seeing over 40 little hearts and a few bucks on the post, it raised a signal in my head, figuring out that I should focus more on quality over quantity, still being very grateful for every single comment I had to answer back then, although I don't know if anyone is still around here these days.

Not even one month later, I had my first downvote for a copyright claim, which was the first and last time I got one of these. So yeah, don't believe that the veterans of the blockchain never made mistakes, as we all failed in one way or another at one point, but the actual important aspect was to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them again. You can read that post here.

Ten days later, I got to taste the other face of that mood, being extremely happy for having one of my posts curated for the first time. I still get a smile on my face remembering these times and how much they impacted my life, as having a post curated was quite rare back then, when not a lot of big accounts were active, nor did we have communities, so definitely a bit harder to be visible.

And despite having very childish thoughts shared, which make me feel embarrassed a bit when reading them now, they were very authentic and came straight from my heart. You can see that post here.

Moving a bit further and skipping nearly 3 years of constant activity with lots of people met, tens of posts written and a continuous personal development, the date of 31st March 2020 came where I've wrote my proper first post on the Hive Blockchain, that you can read here.

As you can see, we are already speaking about nearly 2,000 words in a single post, a community where this has been posted in, and most importantly, a full backpack of memories and experiences of all kinds, even back then.

Now, this backpack I am mentioning is already filled with a lot more experiences and lessons learned, as well as feeling that my name is not just one of the many others on this platform, that weights in my personal life too, knowing that having a little place on the internet to call home for nearly 9 years is not something random.

I am an introverted person. I mentioned it countless times before, and most likely I will still mention it a couple more times. That means that I get a bit of anxiety whenever I join a new place or something changes in my lifestyle, creating a bit of discomfort.

Hence, while I joined the blockchain just for fun, I can easily say that there are already a few years since I realised I can't see my life without this platform. And it's not about money, although they are a nice to see them gathering in the wallet. They are indeed a great motivation to do your best and bring your contribution to this place in one way or another, whether we are speaking about being a curator, a witness, a moderator or just a content creator, but this place is definitely not limited only to that.

And speaking about the wallet, I will take this moment to say that my account doesn't have everything I gained during these years as for a few times I felt like withdrawing and putting them in a safe place, although I don't have one of those magic stories I've seen shared around here with people buying their first car or house with their earnings. I am a modest person, and I've always taken any penny and stored it safely for whenever an emergency takes place, rarely making myself a valuable gift, and that's why I don't have one of these stories to share just yet.

Six years of Hive is quite a lot.

And I think there is no need to say that this place feels like a 2nd home for me, especially since in all my nearly 9 years of activity, I never skipped posting at least once per week (although I had a period when I was posting daily). Hence, I consider it as one of the most important aspects of my life, representing both the test of growing up and a safe place to go to whenever I felt like sharing something else than my travels.

It's a place where we all know things are stored forever, and there is really no other place on this internet where I would be more than happy to know this considering how many doors were opened for me along the way, as well as get to know people behind their usernames even if I never made it to a HiveFest or met anyone on IRL. But there are definitely a few amazing friendships that were formed, even leading to lots of long text messages shared on WhatsApp or Discord, for which I will be forever grateful.

More than anything, I managed to become a curator at the beginning of 2026 for both Hive Gaming and Worldmappin communities, which brings a special satisfaction feeling that I can bring my contribution in a different way than just writing. And believe me, even if you don't experience this part, there are really plenty of people who invest their time in improving the blockchain in one way or another instead of focusing on creating content anymore. People for whom we all should show more gratitude because we are speaking about a place that is constantly improved thanks to human intervention, and there is really a big change from what we had 9 years ago!

So I guess this is it.

Six years later, or 9 if we take into account the whole time spent on the blockchain, this is me, Gabriela, with over 2,300 people who took the time to follow my journey on here, 43,000 HP payout received for my posts, over 670,000 upvotes distributed, and nearly 900 posts created exclusively for the blockchain.

After such a journey, there is no need to say that I am here to stay no matter what, and even if I don't manage to stay as active as I planned daily, there is nothing that can pop up in my life to make me stay away from this place for too long.

Happy Anniversary, Hive!

For 6, 60, or 600 years old, I wish I could catch them all!
And I cannot wait to grow even more by keeping this platform as one of the main actors in the story of my life!

^{This post was created for “Hive turns 6 - Tell us your journey!” challenge by @hivecreators which you can check here.}

~ Gabriela, xo

^{Gabriela Travels is a Curator for Worldmappin and Hive Gaming communities, but also the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 850+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

~ @GabrielaTravels ~