If you ever took to my bio, you would know that this month in 2017 is when the light of the chain found my clueless self. The universe, algorithm and dear old Facebook would flash an ad by this exicted man about some community that would welcome my financially unstable self at 2am.
I remember struggling with severe insomnia those days. And it is during one of those long nights that I met one Jerry Banfield in a 'passionate' Facebook ad/video. He assured my unskilled self how the community is a place one could grow as they were being 'compensated'. He promised that the least I'd be making in a day regardless of the obvious lack of skills would be 100 dollars. And that if I was consistent then there would be more.
This was Steemit he was selling.
I hurriedly joined because who wouldn't want to be making a hundred dollars per day in a third world country. I didn't bother to read the FAQs or I would've picked a better username like @blackween. I still wish I could f* change it but here we are.. But honestly, I came for food. For rent. For simple basic needs. And yes my ignorance led me into following a bunch of cloutchasers and the undeserving trending page lot.
After reading a few introductory posts, I decided to drop mine.
When the margins of the upvotes got 75 dollars, I was over the roof. Nothing could contain my going to Banfield's comments to post my testimonials and remind him to visit my posts just like he had promised in his videos.
I remember the frustration setting in after the second, the third and the fourth post scored cents and I wasn't getting his attention in his sea of comments. Desperation is what drove me to edge of figuring out the mechanics of the rewards system in the community which then helped me figure he had a kind he was replying to and I wasn't it.
The disappointment sent me offline two months before coming back determined to internalize how it all worked.
I remember unfollowing him and a bunch of other blockchain celebrities but still struggling to find my tribe until I found Steemchat thanks to reading FAQS. While there, I would meet people who introduced me to my tribes. To the slow growth side of things where hard work might take a minute to be noticed but eventually it does. To amazing poets who have helped me grow as one and challenged me in the process.
Life wasn't and hasn't been hearing any of it but I still curve time to come here three years later.
The growth is tremendous. As a person and as a restless doubtful spirit. The chain has freed me and enslaved me too. It has given as much as it has taken. Beautiful souls with diverse strengths have crossed my path thanks to this wild community. Mental health and social pressures have seen it fit to turn some of these encounters to memories.
What I love is having this newfound knowhow. The opportunities in these life changing crypto projects. And thats why though I got off the Steemit train, I can be found in Hive. But I to blame for forgetting to explore and so Leo came and created an entire crypto ecosystem as I played with prose and poetry in the backyard without realising it.
And still life wouldn't allow my writer to show off because mothering comes first.
But I am making time and hoping to invent more. I am also actively collecting some POB as I listen to the ultimate shiller until I can finally make some money online. Banfield may still owe a 20 dollar upvote three years later but I am so glad that he at least dragged me to the crypto space. At least I can now say there is some hope for the future and I bet thats a good thing.
Here to crawling towards the crypto light. Three long years later.
wambuku w.
...edited pixabay background.