I’m a very enthusiastic person, that loves to jump on dreams and my heart desires. This is a merit and also a flaw. I like to imagine how my RPG sheet would look like if I was a player character, definitely a lot of flaws! Hahaha

But as an optimistic person, I like to see the merits of these flaws also. Like being optimistic, it's a real drawback sometimes but it keeps me moving forward! 🤪

Playing RPG games like D&D, Vampire, mage, and others, helped me a lot with my social anxiety since I started to play live-action and play roles that required a lot of social skills. This was the start of my nerd life as I made friends all over the country and started to play MMORPG with them also.

Here is a picture of me dressing for a Vampire party a few years ago… I was a crazy smart Malkavian 🧛‍♀️

Since I joined the Twitch with Splinterlands streamers I started to really enjoy this game, as I found an awesome community with the #NoSleepGang! It remembers me of my RPG friends. The giveaways are just a bonus, getting to know real players all around the world, having fun while getting expert knowledge about the game, that is the real prize we get from those streams on Twitch.

Back to my life outside the game, one of the most precious lessons Life gave to me is: always have a plan B, C, D, E… And I quickly realized this is essential for playing Splinterlands also!

My first career plan was to be a Life Sciences researcher, So I went to Biology graduation and also post-graduation in Molecular and Cellular Biology.👩‍🔬

But career opportunities in Science are very scarce here in Brazil. At the time my family needed me here so leaving my city was out of the question and the stress of academic life plus the lack of local professional perspectives started to consume me.

My plan A wasn’t fulfilling my life anymore, I started to feel sick with depression and a lot of anxiety so I went for professional help and the company of my friends and family.

So I always loved animals… I could show you guys pictures of my pets for an entire year. Maybe I’ll put a picture at the end of each post to get more upvotes hahaha

And I was always involved in some sort of animal protection project. My ultimate dream always was to live on a farm where I could take care of animals without causing harm to them. In my country, sadly, most people have a culture to mistreat animals and explore them. At this moment, frustrated with my plan A of academic life, I started to let my dream grow and let it consolidate in my mind. Someday I’ll start – or be part of – an animal sanctuary that teaches farmers how to be kind and respect animal welfare as part of the production system. Vegans, forgive me, but my urge to help animals makes me want to just lessen their suffering while humanity won’t stop consuming animal products.

The opportunity presented itself when my mom decided that this plan was solid and let me have my share of the family business she had sold. So I started my plan B. I got the knowledge I needed and rented a small land near my city, bought only 10 cows, and joined a milk farmers cooperative.

The picture on my profile is the first baby that was born on my farm. She was always stealing my hat from me:

When I started, most of the farmers thought I would fail and quit in the first months. How could a little city girl (I was 26 years old) be a farmer like them? This wasn’t a woman’s job.

So… Against all the odds, the little girl and the farm were doing great! I started to change the habits of my colleague farmers without them realizing it, By showing them how my cows behaved and produced more milk in a calm and comfortable environment, giving them affection instead of shouts and beating.

Here is a picture of a milk quality tournament my cow Barola won:

But life is made of highs and lows, right? After a time the depression started to prey on me again.

Yes, prey. For me the depressive thoughts were like a predator surrounding me, waiting for a weak moment. And this moment came when my country's politics went crazy with our president Dilma Roussef impeachment. A few months before this political movement, the market prices for farm supplies went up each day, the inflation was absurd. And then the government broke a contract for milk supply with the farmers of our region. The government was our main client and this made a lot of farmers go bankrupt. Me included.
So I had to sell my cows before I couldn’t provide for them anymore and had to postpone this dream…

It took me some time to get up on my feet again. But with the love of family and friends, there is no low that can take us down. So after a time, I was able to make a plan C. I learned a lot about new therapies and how to treat animals at the farm. So I went back to my school books, took the college test again, and started the second graduation, now in Veterinary Sciences.

But I’m a grown woman now and need to provide for myself, at least. So here comes plan D, or a remake of plan A. 😅👵 I moved to Brasília, the capital of my country, to study veterinary and then I applied for a doctor’s degree in Molecular Pathology at the same university. Here in Brazil, you can get a scholarship to help you pay your bills while on post-graduation. But not everyone gets this aid, there is a selection and only the first position gets it. There weren’t a lot of other job options that allowed me to study at the same time. So I studied a LOT and got the scholarship! This way I’m able to continue with my second graduation and work as a post-graduate to pay my bills.

Things were doing great now with plans C and D, but as always life is waiting to make a surprise!

I had an opportunity to study in Havard for a year, this is every biology scientist’s dream! So I got everything ready and then... coronavirus arrived. All the frontiers were closed and this dream was also postponed for a few years. No matter what, even if I never get there, it is great to just know I’m a good enough researcher for this opportunity, which helps a lot with self-confidence. 🥰

After almost two years of the pandemic, I’m facing a new challenge. My scholarship is supposed to end in September/2022, but University was closed this last year and I was unable to do my research. So my salary will end, but work will continue. I need to find an alternate source of income that allows me to continue working on my research and still graduate in veterinary! I’m almost finishing it and would be very sad to need to quit at this moment.👩‍⚕️😓

To lift the spirit a little, here is me chilling in the lab waiting. We spend most of the time waiting for something on protocol, like while you incubate a cell with some compound:

And here enter Splinterlands on my life! I found this amazing opportunity on the crypto world and life started to sound possible again 😆😆😆

I was bored playing LOL when I saw a video about Axie and how you could make money as a gamer! So I made my research and concluded that Splinterlands was the best choice for me. In contrast with other NFT games, I was actually enjoying myself playing Splinterlands... Also, the risk was lower, since I had to invest just $10 to start playing.

I was a little lost at first, but then I watched Clove’s stream and started following all the streamers I could find. This gave me a lot of knowledge and I finally started to grow my account.

You can just skip to this part, I talk too much

I’m playing for almost two months now, started investing $10 in one account and now I have 3 accounts and around $320 invested in this game. To be fair, I bought $40 of SPS with the money I made on another P2E game, and I won around $40 in prizes on Splinterlands Twitch Streams.

There are people making more, for sure, but I’m very happy with my account’s progress and my hope for Splinterlands is that it will help me pay my bills next year so I don’t have to quit the veterinary graduation. I know this is a risky business so I’m trying not to put all my hopes on this boat, but I’m really excited that finally, it is possible to make money with the time I spent playing games. It may not be enough to pay the bills next year, but I’m confident it will help a lot. I just can’t see Splinterlands failing like I’m afraid other NFT projects will. Even in the worst scenarios, I still see hope for profits with Splinterlands. So that’s why Splinterlands became a new hope in a way for me to keep pursuing my dreams. 🤩🤩🤩

That’s it guys, I’m really happy to get to know this community! Playing this game and chatting with the #NoSleepGang on Twitch takes my mind out of future problems and helps me deal with anxiety. At first, this was a plan E to provide money so I can continue with plans C (veterinary) and D (research), but now it is also something to give me joy and relieve day-to-day stress. So thank you all, guys and girls from #NoSleepGang! Even though I don’t really know any of you, this community has my affection already. ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

And here is a picture of my dog playing with me to get more upvotes! If you made it until here reading all my drama life, you are probably more resilient than me. 😄😄😂😂 So thank you for all this attention and affection in some way.

This is Chewbacca, he passed last year, but really enjoyed his life while it lasted.

• If you also struggle with anxiety, depression, or others, do not hesitate to ask for help. I know it is not always easy or possible to get professional help, but always try to. If you want to chat I'm here, and if not, know I'm sending a positive thought on your way anyway. It is not easy, but it is possible to enjoy life. The people in your life is also your greatest strength ❤️

And the usual shoutout to the people that make it possible for us to get to know each other and enjoy this community, our amazing streamers:

@clove71 @splinterlandshq @marcuswahl @siutcase @godislove777 @bulldog1205 @gameboyali @niclamus @sgt-dan @drabs587! @rentaw03 CmmndrBawang @SilentXNecrosis @BokiCa80 Splinternews @OhMyGood @Skyn @Sunny @Puditang2300 @cryptollamatv @adikar @theconfusedminer