Well,
Must confess that I have been delaying this post for some time. But I guess that If you're reading this I should have been able to achieve my objective.
I would like to apologize in advance if you encounter any grammar mistakes in my writing. English isn't my primary language and learning foreighn tongues have never been one of my strenghts.
To understand 'How has Steem impacted my life' first I should be telling a bit more about myself. I've realised that I could divide each of the periods in 'eras'.
Take in consideration that every period it's a 'very' concrete season of self-learning and maturation. Like different chapters of life, or the different chapters of a book.
Said that, sit tight, take your coffee and enjoy the read.
The 'PreSteemian' Era
Everyone at home is a entrepreneur or have some kind of relationship with the finance world.
Thanks to that fact, I developed an early interest in the world of 'finance'.
This was a trend that have been maturing from a long time (childhood-wise), and like many people here, I love real-time strategy games like Age of Empires and massive multiplayer games like Ogame & Tribalwars.
Spent a lot of time playing these kind of games whereas most of my environment just watched me as freaky boy who always prefered to spend time in front of a computer playing video games rather than in the outside playing football or other 'supposed funny game' like the other kids used to enjoy.
Most of my happiness was a exchange with my parents, which never understood me at all. Basically I 'agreed to' exchange 'good qualifications' at school and barely three afternoons a week (minimum) of extracurricular activities just to be able to invest all my remaining time into video-games and '1-login-a-day' into my online multiplayer games accounts.
Not long ago I realised that all of those things had one keyword in common:
Time & Resource Management
I loved the fact of 'train soldiers' or 'send ships to loot' while I was at school... Well, franky... I had no other choice. But overall I can't complain. I had a happy childhood after all.
Let's skip a few years from that point.
Eventually I started studying at college a degree in physiotherapy. It was a very interesting subject at the time, but my time there has a major drawback: Non-fixed schedules.
Maybe it doesn't sound that bad, but think about it:
Non-fixed schedules meant impossibility to look for a (physical) side job.
For my luck, we still had a decent financial situation at home and my parents we're able to afford a lot of my expenses at that time. I was a bit of a clever student, and I was awarded a scholarship three of the four years of college.
Anyway, it wasn't enough for me.
I'm a bit of a nonconformist, and was at this time (2012) when I started studying about trading and investing and wasn't far away in time when I started allocating some spare money from savings/birthdays into online ventures.
It wasn't easy at all. And during this season I made tons of money and was scammed two things alike.
One of the craziest things that happened to me is to invest in 'penny stocks' of a online startup called 'MyTrafficValue'.
To summarize: invested like 1000$ in 2013. Lost half in a few months. Put in another 500$.
Watched my money multiply x50 in 2014.
Now tell me. What a 19 year old scumbag have to do with ~50.000$ ??
I cashed out some to end my degree in a peaceful way & to travel a bit.
But lost most of it in the same way that I earned it in the next couple of years. It's a bit of a shame, as I also discovered bitcoin at this point.
Incredible to think that I bought my first bitcoin for ~200$. Had like a dozen in late 2016. I must confess that I lost all of them in a scam ICO. Look at this screenshot from my coinbase acc.
But well, who could Imagine that this beast could run up to ~20.000$ just a few months later... I don't have any regrets. I 'only' lost previously 'earned' money. And all the experience gathered at the point taught me the importance of bitcoin & blockchain technology.
Which brings me to the next chapter...
The Chaos of the BullRun and 'finding Steem' Era
May 2017. Alts popping up. New ATH every other week. I was a scared trader unable to move because all of those gigantic gains & ICO's we're 'too good to be true'. At least I was there. I still told to myself. I was an early observer.
Lost literally THOUSANDS of dollars and 5-10 BTC in a short period of time and only had 'dust' in my wallet. ~0,17 BTC and some bills in real life (nothing unmanageable).
Kept a closer eye while I keep learning about BTC & markets in the summer. Some of my 'online friends' we're literally millionaires while I was broke as f*ck. But tried to keep a positive attitude without going full 'yolo' to margin trade at Poloniex.
October 2017. Discovered Steem thanks to a friend who started posting here. Fell instantly down the rabbit hole and started reading the whitepaper and all that stuff. I remember that I just bought 1000 STEEM at ~1$ each and the experience felt amazing. SMT announced by ned, then STEEM started pumping like crazy up to 5 - 7,5$ ranges.
I remember that I made a lot of calculations on that period. I thought that we would 'just' keep going up. A 50$/STEEM felt realistic to me. Bull delusion. (It's called a bubble for something, right? Irrational exuberance at their finest expression).
I paused/cancelled almost all the things going on with my life. Returned to my parents home. Decided to spend some time (ended being all of 2018) chasing clouds trying to 'catch the next big thing'...
Depression Winter & Power Down Era
This is how I felt the second half of 2018.
Thought Steem was doomed due to bidbots, abuse, the constant delays in SMT, Steemit selling & firing 70% of employees...
Gained a lot of weight, I didn't care what I looked like.
Yes, I learned a lot. But I lost everything (financially speaking). Again.
Felt drowned.
Started a Power down & took out like 75% of my STEEM around October-December 2018.
Slow, slow and painful months.
But then, innocently, I discovered myself hanging around there. I realized that I liked that place and enjoyed reading some people here... maybe for that reason, never quit from this space.
After all, consistence & stubbornness is one of my best qualities :)
Then...
'Spring is coming' Era
Early 19'
Got a new job, some significant changes in my personal life (BIG changes, but better for other day).
Started going again into gym. Started losing unnecessary weight.
Suddenly price didn't matter at all and community slowly more.
And started accumulating STEEM. Came MIRA, elipowell, Steem-Engine, Actifit, Splinterlands, Tribes...
Soon Steemit going out of 'survival mode', me accumulating more. Altcoin prices going down & down. Didn't mattered as I was full covered and was able to invest and DCA.
Mid 19'
Steemleo, EIP, SPS,NFT's, SMT testnet... Impressive development taking place and even more decreasing prices.
I need more. i have to take part on that.
Meet 'newsteem', Meet the 'newme' Era
Ans this is how I define the last months on the Steem blockchain. I'm finding a 'new me' that was born with the 'newsteem' mindset.
I just accumulated the incredible amount of 10.000 STEEM. This huge sum it's a dream come true for me. I'm very happy and I'm excited to see how the next months/years unfold here.
I've learned to take things more easier, to enjoy reading, to enjoy the process of learning, the importance of a low-time preference when investing.
To help others.
To value the 'true' value of community.
To help yourself.
Isn't that enough of a usecase?
Have you noticed? Everyone in the crypto space tries to develop the best tech to (next) attract users.
We ('re) the community and we are here. We achieved the most difficult part of the plan. Now we need to decide who we want to be and in what direction we want to go.
It's clear, I'll be selling some in the next top, but I'll be there until the chain stops. Community as a hole is unstoppable.
Today more than ever.
Steem ON.
You can follow me on Twitter
(5% beneficiary set to steem.dao)
