Well I found it, Steem, an exciting portal to a great world defined by the people who use it.

I am Anthony and I decided to re-introduce myself as I haven’t met everybody yet. I am a US Army Veteran, and former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. I love philosophy, positive and motivational thinking, science, technology, photography, animals, especially creative writing, any writing, and the list goes on and on. http://www.cookeq.com/img/mearmy.jpg

http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/run.jpg

I went to basic training at Fort Benning Georgia and did my Airborne training as well. Here is one of our cadences we sang while running everyday:

C-130 rolling down the strip; Got an airborne trooper on a one-way trip Mission top secret, destination unknown, Don’t even know if were ever coming home Stand up hook up shuffle to the door, jump right out and count to four If my chute don’t open wide, I got a reserve by my side If that one should fail me too, look out ground I’m coming through!

http://www.cookeq.com/img/goodvibes/paratrooper.jpg

I would have never thought ever in my life that I would be jumping out of airplanes for a living!

I ended up making 25 jumps total. 23 from planes, either C-130s or C-5s, 2 from helicopters, if my memory serves me well, one from a black hawk, and the other was a shinook. I ended up being station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina home of the 82nd Airborne Division.

My specialty was technology, specifically computers and IT.

I became very good at it, although a lot of the time I was either running, rucksacking (backpacking) or jumping out of planes. I learned many things about computers, and quickly became an expert at them. http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/kosovo.jpg

One day my Master Sergeant told me to pack my bags.

They flew me across the world and I did a tour in Kosovo. It was an exciting country to visit, the people were nice, the girls were beautiful and unfortunately things blew up. The first day I was forward deployed, I was sent to a small town called Vitina. Our Base was an old machine factory. The equipment was still inside, but it was huge and we worked around it. http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/explosion.jpg

The moment I walked outside, a house across the street was hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device)

I never heard anything so loud in my life. As I was still very green, I almost ran towards it to see if there were any enemies still hanging around, but my Lieutenant grabbed me and threw me to the ground behind some cover. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Never be a looky loo. And I never have since.

After three months in Kosovo, I was offered a leave, basically taking a break.

They sent me a few countries over to Bulgaria. I love Bulgaria, even to this day. I had so much fun there. Although I also have one of my biggest regrets. I partied too hard. Instead of visiting all the historical sites the country had to offer, I just ran amuck. Even once me and my friends had to bribe the police officers so they wouldn’t take us to jail. Needless to say, after four days of fun, I was returned to Kosovo. Many exciting events continued happening while I was there, but I can leave that for a future story.

After returning to America

I spent the rest of my time in the military at a heightened alert, as 9/11 happened right before the end of my time there. I was lucky enough that they let me exit the military before sending me to the desert. http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/me.jpg

Now that I exited the military safely, I have spent a lot of time working on computers and technology related topics to this day.

I love bitcoins and all the crypto currencies, and am extremely excited about steem, as it offers a never seen before platform of decentralized social media. Who would have ever thought that this could exist. I even have been mining cryptocurrencies since 2013, and its been a great experience. http://www.cookeq.com/img/staypositive.jpg

Steem offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for everyone here, we are all in its infancy.

My advice to anyone who is still struggling in this community is to never give up. Keep on writing, keep on trying. I know we will all be successful if we do that. I learned in the military to strive for success and excellence, and that’s what I’ll do. Here is a post I wrote all about never giving up: https://steemit.com/steemit/@anthonyc/steemers-keep-on-marching-greater-than-good-vibes-6-less-than

Steem is the platform of the future.

Why should we allow all the social media companies to continue to make millions of dollars off our backs? They take ownership of our intellectual property. No longer will we allow this, and here on Steemit, we take back our rights. Never before has there been the ability to share ourselves and our creativity in such a way.

We need to support the Steem community.

We can do this by continuing to write creative new things, take beautiful pictures of places we’ve been, tell stories of our lives, write poetry, talk about bitcoins, Steem and other crypto currencies, and pretty much any other topic you can think of. All of this will add value to the community. http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/steem.jpg

I am proud that I am an early adopter of Steem.

We are all early adopters, and we must continue to help the community to grow. I for one am glad that I can contribute to the future of the internet, an open source, decentralized social media platform. Remember Thomas Edison. He attempted 1000 times to build a lightbulb before he was successful. I know you can be successful as well if you keep trying. I learned in the military to to keep at it, and I will.

Our writings and photos belong to us.

I’ve written many articles so far and will continue to do so. Each one brings value to my life, whether or not it brings me more Steem. That is actually beside the point. My purpose here is to continue to add personal value. I know if I add enough value to the community, the value will be returned back. Even if it doesn’t I will have a lot of great content for the book I am writing.

Keep on Steeming and We will all be successful. I wish you luck on your adventure!

Here is me today: http://www.cookeq.com/img/armypost/menow.jpg

If you like this or my other posts or if you want to read my other work [click here for my personal page](https://steemit.com/@anthonyc) and hit the ![follow](https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://i.imgsafe.org/63e11066d7.png)button in the top right corner! Thank you for reading :)