Until steemit came along, @papa-pepper lived his life primarily offline.

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I rarely used the internet and for the most part had no need to. The people who I interacted with were mostly family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. The interaction that we had was mostly face to face, although there were phone calls and periodical letters too. Basically, the people that I was exposed to was rather limited. @Andrarchy brings this point up in his video, where he points out how steemit connects strangers from around the world.

AROUND THE WORLD AND AROUND THE BLOCK

Meeting and interacting with people from all around the world is an amazing opportunity with incredibly beneficial potentials. We can combine our efforts, talents and creativity to collaborate on amazing projects. I’ll share this animated short as just one small example of what can happen when we work together, but it pales in comparison to the real things that we can accomplish.

@PAPA-PEPPER STEEM-HELP CENTER FEATURING @ANARCHRYSALIS

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To make the video above I reached out to @anarchrysalis and we had some fun recording an improv phone conversation that I later animated. I have still never met @anarchrysalis in person, but we have had some fun interacting together, which has been made possible thanks to steemit.

These days I have many people from all around the world that I would consider to be my real friends because of steemit. Most of them I will probably never meet, but sometimes we do meet up in reality offline. Two great examples of this are when I traveled to Texas and met up with @xtrodinarypilot, or when @vcelier traveled down from Canada to visit us with his grandson @naru-celier. Here are some interviews that I did with each of them.

@PAPA-PEPPER INTERVIEWS @XTRODINARYPILOT

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@PAPA-PEPPER INTERVIEWS @VCELIER

It blows my mind that suddenly we have the opportunity to actually meet many of these interesting people from all around the world. Whether it is local meetups, one on one visits, or major events like STEEMFEST, we all can potentially meet other people in real life after meeting them on steemit. Recently, @xtrodinarypilot and his family even took a ”steemit roadtrip” and visited with several other steemians across the eastern United States.

Besides one-time meetings of others from distant locations, steemit has been hard at work introducing people from the same area to one another too! If you saw my recent interview post with @paradise-found, then you may have heard that for years we lived in the same town and never even crossed paths. Here is my interview with him which I made when we finally met one another at that crazy Wisconsin Area Steemit Meetup that @provider orchestrated.

@PAPA-PEPPER INTERVIEWS @PARADISE-FOUND

The night before the @papa-pepper tribe left Wisconsin I even stopped in to visit with @paradise-found at his home, only to realize that we even lived in the same neighborhood for years! I am blessed to know him now and to have met him, it’s just too bad that it had to wait until I left town.

BACK TO ARKANSAS

Down in Arkansas though, the story remains the same. My wife had checked out some videos on YouTube from @mericanhomestead, so when they joined steemit, we already knew of them. After connecting a bit online, we made the drive over to their place and hung out for an afternoon. @Mericanhomestead took the opportunity and I decided that we should make a steemit post together. Here are the videos that we created that day.

@MERICANHOMESTEAD INTERVIEWS @PAPA-PEPPER

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HOW TO MAKE A HOMESTEADER POST FOR STEEMIT

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Not all that long afterwards we visited the home of @dwells and @essentialoilmom. After @dwells entered a contest that I was running, I noticed that he was located in the same area of Arkansas that I was. We got to talking a bit and before too long we were enjoying the day and a meal together. I also took the opportunity to interview @dwells.

@PAPA-PEPPER INTERVIEWS @DWELLS

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As things would have it, they are also friends with @mericanhomestead, so when we returned for another visit, @mericanhomestead was at their house too. Not only that, but @jeejee and @beardo were at their house too. They had been having technical difficulties getting steemit accounts, so I offered to use AnonSteem to pick up some accounts for them.

After as much as they had been hanging out with @dwells and @essentialoilmom and with as much as they had been featured on the STEEM-POCALYPSE SHOW it was about time that someone helped them get some real steemit accounts and get started. In the end, we had quite a steemian gathering that just sort of came together in the Northwest corner of Arkansas. Without planning it, all of the following were in attendance.

• @dwells
• @essentialoilmom
• @mericanhomestead
• @thehomeschoolkid
• @beardo
• @jeejee
• @papa-pepper
• @mama-pepper
• @little-peppers

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That translates into four families, but still, what a gathering! Naturally, content creation was in the air. Here are a few videos that were shot that day.

BALLOON ANIMALS 101: HOW TO WORK A CROWD - Part 1

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BALLOON ANIMALS 101: HOW TO WORK A CROWD - Part 2

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BALLOON ANIMALS 101: A LESSON IN INFLATION

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THE STEEM-POCALYPSE SHOW – SEASON 5 EPISODE 20

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PAPA-PEPPER SHOW AND TELL

RELATIONSHIP REFLECTIONS

As I consider this gathering that I was at in Arkansas, a few things come to mind. First off, I would not have met any of these people if it were not for steemit. I would still be living my life, loving my wife, raising my children, building our homestead, and having fun outdoors, but I would not be sharing my adventures or life like I am. Neither would they, and our paths would not have crossed like they did.

Also, though the others who were there may have been online elsewhere, it would not have been in a way that I would have ever interacted with them, much less to the point where we decided to meet up in person.

Now, I have real friends in my area that I would have never met otherwise. Not only do we all happen to have steemit in common, but many of our beliefs, values, and goals in life are similar too, which is often the basis for lasting friendships. We can live, laugh, share, and encourage one another, both online and off.

Obviously I have long appreciated the online interaction that steemit offers. Now though, I am appreciating the lasting affect it is having on my life when it comes to people that I know and see. Perhaps one day we will even have a map where we can look up the locations of steemians around the world and in our own states and areas. Many anonymous accounts would remain just that, but for the rest of us, it could be really helpful in making connections and building relationships.

As I reflect on my steemit journey so far, I believe that no matter what the future holds, I have made some life-long friends. Not only that, I now know many more people in my own area than if I had never joined steemit. For that, I am forever grateful.

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-building-real-relationships

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Until next time…

Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com

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