Hello my dear Steemians. this week is the 7th week of #steemitultimatechallenge hosted by mr @dobartim together with other sponsors for this competition, @flysky and @aidasfg7. First, I want to give thanks to these people for having this kind of contest, this is a great opportunity for Steemians to win and inspire fellow Steemians by sharing their story about how Steemit changed their communications in life, financial, business and education. I also want to congratulate the first 6 Steemians who won the first 6 weeks for this challenge.

The Winner from the Week #1
@utomobong
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@utomobong/steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks

The Winner from the Week #2
@josecarrasquero
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@josecarrasquero/steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks-week-2

The Winner from the Week #3
@camilus
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@camilus/steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks-week-3

The Winner from the Week #4
@karensuestudios
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@karensuestudios/how-has-steemit-profoundly-changed-my-life-steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks-week-4

The Winner from the Week #5
@cinderz
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@cinderz/steemit-ultimate-challenge-8-weeks-week-5

The Winner from the Week #6
@biljed
https://steemit.com/steemitultimatechallenge/@biljed/steemitultimatechallenge-8weeks-week-6

I'm really happy to read some of the winning blogs, they were stories of ups and downs. They were great stories of hope and optimism.

Anyway guys you can still join on this contest, you still have 1 day left to make an entry just click the blog title below to know the rules and regulations how to enter to this challenge.
Steemit Ultimate Challenge 8 Weeks ( Prize Fund 2000 SBD ) Week #7 - Registration is in Progress - Last Week.

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(inspired pose of "LOGAN"-Wolverine )HAHAHA

I want to start my story by introducing myself before and after I found Steemit. Hello, people of Steemit I'm your friendly traditional artist freelancer, Christian Jess A.K.A @ishanvirtue. I just turned 24 this March 5. I graduated 2 years of associate degree in computer science. My godfather sent me to college, he has been very influential in my life. In fact, I live in his house right now and his family treats me like family. My father and siblings are back home in the province. We lost our mom to cancer when I was 12. She had bone cancer and it was diagnosed in the last stage.

When I graduated college in 2013, I was excited to look for a job to help my family back home in the province. I did not realize it would be so hard for me to find a job, reality hit me hard when all companies I applied to where asking for years of experience and for them my 2-year associate course was nothing compared to a 4-year bachelor's degree. I felt demoralized and I got discouraged after many attempts of applying to various companies. I lost my confidence in myself, I was lost. I tried to find online jobs instead. I found a blogging site that pays, this is how I learned blogging. I was able to buy my own computer through blogging. It gave me hope and I was able to help myself and my family but it did not last long because the blogging site completely shut down unexpectedly. This was another tough bump in my life and totally changed my mindset. I decided to just go home to our province and do what I think I do best, my passion in traditional art.

While I was in the province, I connected to various artists that could inspire me and I joined artist groups in social media. October last year, I keep seeing posts about Steemit by fellow artist and Facebook friend, @jacinta.sevilla. I got curious what Steemit is and how one earns in the platform. Jacinta was helpful to answer all my questions regarding the mechanism about how one earns in Steemit, when I was assured it was for real, it gave me hope because blogging was something that I have a background. I made an account right away with the guidance of Jacinta, she told me it might take a week or so for verification. I was excited but willing to wait. To our surprise, my account was approved in 2 days. It felt like the universe was telling me that I was meant to be here. Jacinta further told me how Steemit has been very life changing to her, that it has gave her the best venue online to showcase her talents in the arts, that it recognizes efforts and it gives her more freedom to create and earn. I checked her blogs and I was impressed of what I saw. Since then, I look up to her as a mentor and I am one of her fans in Steemit. Please check her profile and follow her so you will know what I am talking about. @jacinta.sevilla is not just an artist, she does her best to be a voice for mother nature. She advocates animals and wildlife protection and protecting mother nature in general. This is very evident in her works and her Steemit posts. Right now, she has initiated a contest on protecting our seas from plastics, please feel free to check it out here. [PLASTIC 🎨DRAWING CONTEST: Save Our Seas! 🌊Join and win! 15sbd prizepool 🏆] I cannot help but be grateful to Jacinta as she is the one who brought me here in this platform. If you want to read more about how I started Steemit, you may check my intro post:
[INTRODUCING MYSELF]: PROPERLY INTRODUCING MYSELF AFTER 1 MONTH USING STEEMIT]

Indeed, Steemit had been life changing in a very positive way. I have improved pretty well in various aspects of communications. I will share a number of things how it has helped me in this post. I'm hoping it can inspire other Steemians and motivate them to check these things here in the platform.

LIFE COMMUNICATIONS:

My life had been difficult. I had to seek help and live with my godparents to be able to make it through 2 years of college. Although I am grateful that they took me in, they had discouraged me and belittle my talents in the arts. They do not believe in my capabilities as an artist. They look at it as a weakness, that I do not have life goals. Being an artist will not afford me enough money even for myself. I have heard all the discouraging words from them, they wanted me to work jobs outside of my comfort zone, in fields that have nothing to do with the arts. It was confusing and disheartening. I could never do what I wanted to do because they did not appreciate it. Even my friends does not think arts can sustain me. These were the reasons I hesitated on the arts and lost confidence in myself and my craft for quite sometime. I have the heart and mind of my mom, she was more of a business person, she does not want to have a boss and she wants to control her time for the family. I want to do that, I want to be in control of my works and my time, I want to be able to check my family in the province anytime. Steemit made this possible. I was able to see how other artists can do it here plus the fact that our arts are appreciated by a wider audience around the world. I slowly had my fire back. I was slowly making arts with passion. Although it feels like I am starting all over again and learning new things because I see a lot of brilliant artists in the platform and I cannot help but be in awe of their works. I do not feel competitive but I am inspired how it challenges me now that I see that I can improve, that arts has a lot of things to be explored. I am learning so much about the craft from many artists all over the world and I am so excited. With a positive community like Steemit, I can communicate with great artists and they can mentor me, we can share what we learned. I do not see a hindrance to my self improvement. Arts is something you can do and improve if you have the heart for it, and I have, I have always had it in me. I am so happy that Steemit can help me just be me and reward me for being genuine and do what I love. Steemit can make me grow in life.

These are the works I have done for Steemit, so far, most of them are for art contests.

I am so glad that I earn in Steemit. I am not expecting much but it has rewarded more than my expectations. Before Steemit, I would get offers from friends and family to do art jobs for them but unfortunately they end up free service because they think art is nothing but my past time. That drawing is easy for someone who knows how to draw and it is not worthy of compensation. This is a sad reality that artists face specially in a poor country like ours where arts is looked down by many. I am very grateful that I got here in Steemit, it has changed my life and my outlook. I have found hope, freedom and happiness here.

FINANCIAL COMMUNICATION:

Life had been tough, financially when my mother died. My dad became the breadwinner but he has a low paying job as a grave digger and a lay minister in our church. The church pays him 750 Pesos per week. He would earn extra if there are more families that would ask for grave digging services, like when they want their loved one's bones to be recovered and be kept in another site. I helped him with finances by working part time in a t-shirt printing shop and doing drawing jobs for students in high school in our hometown. It was not a fixed income for me because I relied on their demand for my services. What we were both earning was not enough to finish our small house and to send my siblings to college.

I had to go back to my godparents to try looking for a full time job that would pay but thank God I found Steemit when I went back to the capital, Manila to live with my godparents. I am happy to try earning through blogging again through Steemit. I am enjoying to share my works here. I honestly cannot imagine doing any other job than arts, that how much I am passionate about it. I am grateful that the universe lead me to Steemit, I really feel like this will help sustain me financially.

Other than helping my father finish the house and send my siblings to college, I have a goal in investing more in my craft and in Steemit and in other cryptocurrencies. As of this moment, I do not have a functioning computer and my cellphone needs to be replaced. The battery of my cellphone already have a bump and I cannot use it without connecting the charger to the outlet. I know it's dangerous to use it but I have no means to do Steemit if not through it for now.

I invested my first cash out from my earnings from Steemit for a new phone, before my old cellphone battery explodes or the phone completely dies on me. These are my immediate goals and long term financial goals now that I earn through Steemit. I am doing things at my own pace but I am hopeful Steemit will help me achieve them through doing arts in it and being passionate about it.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION:

For now, I have a plan of showcasing my works through freelancing. Thanks to @steemgigs and @surpassingoogle for the new steemgigs.org condenser. I want to specialize in portraiture and traditional art services in the Steemgigs platform. I am still compiling my portfolio to show it one of these days.

For now i will show to you guys some of my artworks.

(this is my recent commission portrait, last December 2017)

"V-BTS"

(this is my birthday gift for my father before i go back in MANILA)

"My Father"



(this one is a portraiture of my Counsin and her Daughter)

"Mother and Daughter"

Hopefully I will get clients in Steemgigs and will help increase my earnings in Steemit. I would feel so happy if this works for me, as I can really say that I have a job in Steemit as a freelancer not just a blogger. When this happens, I hope it can buy me a laptop that I can use to learn digital art and I can improve my chances in having more clients. I am willing to learn and improve because I understand how vast and how dynamic arts can become. Digital arts is a thing right now and being a technology platform, clients through Steemit will have a demand for digital arts and I want to be able to offer that, too.

I want to take this chance to thanks @surpassinggoogle, he has always been an inspiration to me and I am grateful for his projects like #steemgigs and #untalented, it has helped boost my confidence and a ray of hope to us artists here in the Philippines and the entire Steemit platform. Thank you sir, may you be blessed more than you deserve. Your generosity and kindness is much appreciated and I hope I can show you that one day.

EDUCATION COMMUNICATION:

Steemit has been a great venue for me to learn. I am slowly learning about the decentralized platform, it is complex but slowly I am able to digest the blockchain technology by being it. I am also learning cryptocurrency. I am certain that if I do not have these experience in Steemit, I will not be able to understand the crypto culture. It is way too complex for me, but since it is tied with Steemit, I am slowly having a grasp of how wonderful it is as opposed to fiat currencies.

I am also learning more about blogging in Steemit. The various writing styles, approach and formatting. Steemit is actually not limited to blogging. It actually applies to all like business and investing, raising funds and charity, events and contests, advertising and so many more. It appeals to your being #human just like what @surpassinggoogle has been writing all along in his blogs. I am also improving in my communications skills, I am striving to be understood well by everyone around the globe so my blogs will have a lot of audience and it will be upvoted by the people who will read them.

Steemit feels like a school to me, and I am glad the host of the contest @dobartim has his community Steemit School because it just makes sense and people should realize this a great venue where we can improve ourselves. This is revolutionary technology here in Steemit and a lot of people if not all can benefit from this if only they discover it. I am also going to dedicate my future works in promoting Steemit because I feel that it's just right. Both investors and people who are struggling with their lives should be here and harmoniously benefit from the platform. I have my faith in Steemit that it can help humanity in a positive way. And if all of us Steemians see it the same way that I do that we will use this platform to improve ourselves and others without negativity or issues, we would be changing the future. We will offer a better future to the next generations to come.

These are just a few of my realizations in Steemit, I am hoping I can write more encouraging posts in the future. I am grateful to @dobartim who initiated this contest. I am honored to be able to share my story here. On behalf of the many Steemians that you help here in Steemit, thank you so much, sir. You are an inspiration to many. Your initiatives are really brilliant ideas that fuel the platform with a positive culture. More power to you and god bless.

I would also like to thank my team and families here in Steemit, the communities I belong to, @steemitachievers

i'm so thankful to my Steemit Achievers Family for giving me a chance to be the Host DJ on our Discord Channel.
Actually i initiated a Live Singing Contest on our Discord channel in the past 3 weeks together with my Co-Host DJ
Ms. Paula Roces @zoeroces you can check what happened to those wonderful and fun nights of audition and sing offs from the blog below.

SUCCESSFUL LAUNCHED OF SA RADIO IN PUBLIC WITH LIVE SINGING CONTEST : POWERED BY DISCORD

STEEMITACHIEVERS RADIO CHANNEL LIVE SINGING CONTEST 1: 1st Audition Night Results

and aslo i want to thank @steemitfamilyph Ohana for motivating me and guiding me here and also the @slothicorn community which I discovered recently but I am excited to be a part of it because they primarily want to help small artists like me. Of course, I will never forget, @surpassinggoogle for motivating us to keep steeming and acknowleding that flaws are allowed and everyone has something to offer. I would like to thank Steemit, Inc as well and everyone who believes in the platform. May we continue to rock and may we improve the platform so all of us can improve ourselves altogether in it. More power and God bless us all!

Always Remember

Patience is a Virtue

Keep Steeming and Steem On!


-----Ishan Virtue-----

Please support the Smart Media Token @teardrops project by Sir @surpassinggoogle and follow https://www.facebook.com/teardropstokens on Facebook.

Please also support @surpassinggoogle as a witness by voting him at https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type in "steemgigs" at the first search box.

If you want to give him witness voting decisions on your behalf, visit https://steemit.com/~witnesses again and type in "surpassinggoogle" in the second box as a proxy.