This is ksam (Kalu Samuel) and I am here in response to the call of my great friend, brother and mentor @starstrings01 – na Odogwu him be (“He is a great man”). 💪

I sincerely appreciate @rutablockchain and the Loving Hive ❤ community for putting up this wonderful contest. In fact, reading through the posts of many creative writers who participated in this contest, I have learnt from their unique and amazing experiences. This is something that you rarely hear or see on Hive, except when one marks a special anniversary on Hive.

When I received this special mandate from starstrings to participate in this contest, I began to wonder how to begin or where I will start from. Clearly, I could spot out different points that I can call “beginning”; or will I say, Beginning “of a new phase” or “of a new stage” on Hive.

These different “beginnings” are unique in various ways: be it in motivation, purpose, knowledge and actual activities on Hive.

So, I’ll like you to sit back, relax and enjoy this piece. You may grab your pop-corn 🍿 and chilled soft drink 🍸 if possible.

Cuando recibí este mandato especial de starstrings para participar en este concurso, empecé a preguntarme cómo empezar o por dónde voy a empezar. Claramente, pude distinguir diferentes puntos que puedo llamar "comienzo"; o diré, comienzo "de una nueva fase" o "de una nueva etapa" en Hive.

Estos diferentes "comienzos" son únicos en varios aspectos: ya sea en la motivación, el propósito, el conocimiento y las actividades reales en Hive.

Así que me gustaría que te sentases, te relajases y disfrutases de este artículo. Puedes coger tus palomitas de maíz 🍿 y un refresco frío 🍸 si es posible.

FIRST BEGINNING – OLODO STAGE

“Olodo” is a Yoruba word for one who doesn’t know anything.

😅😅😅😅

So, Yes! I was an Olodo!

Not a general Olodo ooo! But an Olodo who thought Hive was just about sharing contents and (if possible) earning from them.

I joined Hive 1 or 2 days before I made my Introductory post; that was around July 15 or 16, 2020, and from my introductory post, you’ll know that I had the fire burning. I also continued with this vibe even with $0.00 upvotes and engagements on subsequent posts. This was due to starstrings’ continuous encouragement and my desire to keep the fire burning.

Well, to an extent, I wasn’t discouraged by the low upvotes because I know that it wasn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. By that time, I already had experience in freelancing jobs. And I remember when I lost about $750 in 2017 after working for one month, writing at least 5 articles of 800 words every two days. I did this at the same time when I was writing my final project for my first degree. O well, multi-tasking is my super power (this is a story for another day).

My “Olodo-ness” was based on the fact that I didn’t realize that engagement, creating bonds and friendship on Hive were important and should be awarded the same or more dedication as we do to our quality contents.

I WAS an “Olodo” because I was poor at engagement, poor at creating bonds, poor at making friends on Hive and I had little or no knowledge about Cryptocurrency and the Hive Blockchain.

So, when I got little choked up with some real-life activities (outside hive), there was nothing compelling to make me stay on Hive, except starstrings' continuous push.

Well, I had my first break from Hive at this point.

💔

I also had my first withdrawal through starstrings. It looks small but it came at the right time. It was a life saver and I was so happy.

Bueno, hasta cierto punto, no me desanimé por los bajos upvotes porque sé que no era un esquema para hacerse rico. Por aquel entonces, ya tenía experiencia en trabajos de freelance. Y recuerdo cuando perdí unos 750 dólares en 2017 después de trabajar durante un mes, escribiendo al menos 5 artículos de 800 palabras cada dos días. Lo hice al mismo tiempo que escribía mi proyecto final de carrera. O bueno, la multitarea es mi súper poder (esta es una historia para otro día).

Mi "Olodo-dad" se basaba en que no me daba cuenta de que el compromiso, la creación de vínculos y la amistad en Hive eran importantes y debían ser premiados con la misma o mayor dedicación que a nuestros contenidos de calidad.

YO ERA un "Olodo" porque era pobre en engagement, pobre en crear lazos, pobre en hacer amigos en Hive y tenía poco o ningún conocimiento sobre Cryptocurrency y el Hive Blockchain.

Así que, cuando me atraganté un poco con algunas actividades de la vida real (fuera de Hive), no había nada convincente que me hiciera permanecer en Hive, excepto el empuje continuo de Starstrings.

Bueno, en este momento tuve mi primera ruptura con Hive.

💔

También tuve mi primera retirada a través de starstrings. It looks small but it came at the right time. It was a life saver and I was so happy.

SECOND BEGINNING - READY TO EXPLORE

The second beginning was the stage when I was ready to explore Hive.

I was still trying to manage my situation outside hive, yet starstrings was always there for me as a good friend.

I explained my situation and challenge to him. Then he told me to come back to Hive and try to be consistent. He introduced me to the Blogging Challenge Community and encouraged me to join the 30days blogging challenge, so that I can write and blog about different subjects.

The blogging challenge was one of the best things that happened to me because I was able to get my bigggggggggest engagement on Hive in my second stage through one of my blogging challenge posts. And I'm grateful to starstrings for pushing me to write that post.

At the same time, I continued posting quality Musical contents in the Music Community. And right now, I remember the long conversations I had with @edje (the mod of music community and admin of Q-Inspired) and how he shared his experience in Africa. Every Musical post I made, was an opportunity to continue this conversation with him. But, I failed to check up his posts also 🥲 VERY BAD OF ME! O, well, I still didn't realise what engagement is and its importance in Hive.

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Starstrings also introduced me to @theycallmedan Call to Action posts. To be honest, I always looked forward to those posts from Theycallmedan and I checked his blog everyday so that I don't miss it. We were required to go on Twitter to make some publicity about Hive or to make comments on posts made by some Bigshots, telling them that Hive can fix the problem of account suspension and privacy of Web 2.0. Also to speak about Hive platforms like peakd, Leofinance, 3speaks and hivebuzz.

Honestly, I enjoyed those days and it was so educative, informative and lucrative for me.

☆ Educative because I began to understand the difference between Web 2 and Web 3; I began to understand decentralisation and centralization; and I began to learn how to engage in posts on Hive.

☆ Informative because I got to hear some information which helped in reshaping and reforming my understanding of cryptocurrency.

☆ Lucrative because I got $1 - $4 upvote from Theycallmedan for doing the Call to Acion🤸🤸🤸

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Starstrings mentioned in his post, requesting that such Call to Action initiative be continued. I think I support this because it is both beneficial to Hive and for those carrying out the action. On the one hand, it gives Hive more publicity and makes more people aware about Hive, which in turn brings in more investors and content creators on Hive. On the other hand, it is educative, informative and lucrative for newbies and those performing the action.

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At this stage, I was eager to explore every opportunity on Hive. But, in my exploration, I became so concerned about earning from my posts and comments that I forgot about engagement for the sake of bond and friendship.

I can't remember making any friend on Hive at this stage. But I can remember making my first "big" withdrawal on Hive, through the help of my mentor who has always been there for me. 😏

Well, with this vibe, I was actually heading somewhere and growing on Hive. But, this didn't last long because I had a big personal challenge which thwarted my growth on Hive and personal growth as well. But, I'm glad I'm somewhat better now.

This was the reason for my second heartbreak 💔 on Hive.

THIRD BEGINNING - ENLIGHTENMENT STAGE

Prior to November 2021, my knowledge of Cryptocurrency was at the level of buying coins via Roqqu and sending to Decentralized wallets like Trust Wallet, Metamask and Token Pocket. I had a Luno wallet also, but with the CBN regulations of Cryptocurrency in Nigeria and banning of accounts related to Cryptocurrency, Luno deactivated deposit and withdrawal functions for those in Nigeria. So I had to REST!

Well, I also tried opening and verifying my account on Binance, but due to Binance' tedious verification process, my account wasn't verified till close to 6months.

When I got the verification message from Binance, I was filled with Joy and it was as though I had a breathe of fresh air. I began making personal research to understand the pretty confusing dashboard of Binance. And my personal research increased my knowledge of Cryptocurrency from just buying coins at the Market price and sending to other wallets to a whole lot.

I also began to understand the Hive ecosystem better, then I realised what I've been missing 😭😭😭 At the same time, I was lucky that my elder sister got me a Samsung Galaxy A12 at that time. So I re-downloaded Discord Mobile App and reached out to starstrings one more time. WE were disappointed at me! But then, it was a situation beyond my control.

As someone whose patience and HUMBILITY (humble + humility) is second to none, starstrings agreed to put me through one more time. He didn't know I came prepared this time around 😅😅😅

I started by writing my Welcome Back post, and O boy! The upvotes increased my vibes no be small 😅😅😅😅😅

I began participating in Hive Open Mic weekly event, where I got to meet amazing musicians who encouraged me Musically and "Hivically." I've tried to participate every week not minding how busy my schedule is and electricity challenges, even when it involves waking up by 3am to make a video 🥲

I was also surprised when I heard about games on Hive blockchain where you can earn crypto and NFTs. I heard it through starstrings and immediately I began carrying out my own research, and in few days I understood the basics of Splinterlands. Infact, I did a 20mins tutorial video (and post) on Splinterlands game for Beginners and it earned me one of my greatest rewards so far.

Since then, I became interested in BLOCKCHAIN Games and this interest led me to @psyberx, a First-Person Shooter (FPS) game which is still in its development stage, but we expecting the Market place to be live in a month's time 😉 I've also written so much about it 😉😏

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I also went back to @theycallmedan profile to check if the Call to Action initiative was on going, but it wasn't. However, this led me to my discovery of The Community Token Talk #CTT, where Theycallmedan and some other great Hiveans discuss about pertinent issues in Hive Community and other social media platform. The discussion cuts across Centralization and Decentralization, Web2 and Web 3, Censorship, some great articles in Leofinance (most especially from @geekgirl) and some interviews on YouTube and Twitter. I was faithful in watching the weekly episodes and dropping wonderful comments and my opinion as well. I always felt happy when Dan mentions my name in newer episodes as part of the commenters. But I had to stop watching the 1hr or 1hr30mins videos because my data subscription kept finishing way earlier than the due time.

Desde entonces, me interesé por los Juegos BLOCKCHAIN y este interés me llevó a @psyberx, un juego de disparos en primera persona (FPS) que todavía está en su etapa de desarrollo, pero esperamos que el Mercado esté en vivo dentro de un mes 😉 También he escrito mucho sobre él 😉😏

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También volví al perfil de Theycallmedan para comprobar si la iniciativa Call to Action estaba en marcha, pero no lo estaba. Sin embargo, esto me llevó a descubrir The Community Token Talk CTT, donde Theycallmedan y algunos otros grandes Hiveans discuten sobre temas pertinentes en la Comunidad Hive y otras plataformas de medios sociales. El debate abarca la centralización y la descentralización, la Web2 y la Web 3, la censura, algunos artículos estupendos en Leofinance (especialmente de geekgirl) y algunas entrevistas en YouTube y Twitter. Fui fiel a ver los episodios semanales y a dejar maravillosos comentarios y mi opinión también. Siempre me sentía feliz cuando Dan mencionaba mi nombre en los nuevos episodios como parte de los comentaristas. Pero tuve que dejar de ver los vídeos de 1 hora o 1 hora y 30 minutos porque mi suscripción de datos seguía terminando mucho antes de lo previsto.

Ever since I came back, I focused more on making friends, disturbing @chosenfingers, preparing for @mayorkeys wedding, salivating over @mistural food-kitchen and bringing in my village people on Hive 😅😅 @onos-f I'm not talking about you ooo 🤣

I've also met great gentlemen and ladies of Hive both "onlinically" and physically.

In all, I've come to realize that when you transcend from the level of "just earning" on Hive to a level where you build relationships and friendship, then that is the Beginning of your growth on Hive.

I appreciate all those who I've come to know on Hive from various communities, including my lovely Spanish community @espavlog 😁 who have been accompanying me in my journey of learning Spanish.

I'm grateful for the experience so far - for my TRIAD BEGINNINGS which has shaped my experience and understanding of Hive today.

I remain ever grateful to ODOGWU Starstrings01 for his constant support and guidance; and to My Grand Mentor Josediccus (He is the mentor of my mentor 🤣🤣🤣) for giving me big man understanding and wisdom to navigate Hive well well.

Con todo, me he dado cuenta de que cuando uno trasciende del nivel de "sólo ganar" en Hive a un nivel en el que construyes relaciones y amistad, entonces ese es el Comienzo de tu crecimiento en Hive.

Aprecio a todos los que he llegado a conocer en Hive de varias comunidades, incluyendo mi encantadora comunidad española @espavlog 😁 que me han estado acompañando en mi viaje de aprendizaje de español.

Estoy agradecida por la experiencia vivida hasta ahora - por mi TRIAD BEGINNINGS que ha dado forma a mi experiencia y comprensión de Hive hoy.

Permanezco siempre agradecido a ODOGWU Starstrings01 por su constante apoyo y guía; y a Mi Gran Mentor Josediccus (Es el mentor de mi mentor 🤣🤣🤣) por darme el entendimiento y la sabiduría de hombre grande para navegar bien en Hive.

I am open to exploring more on Hive, making more friends and to shame my village people (especially @omosefe 😒).

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I wish to call @chosenfingers @benii and @onos-f to speak about their humble beginning on Hive.

Thank you for reading my looooooong experience up to this point.

NB: I cannot but tag theycallmedan, edje and geekgirl for their huge impact in my Hive journey 🥰 And I remain ever grateful to them for the role they played. 🙏

Estoy abierto a explorar más en Hive, hacer más amigos y avergonzar a la gente de mi pueblo (especialmente a @omosefe 😒).

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Quiero llamar a @chosenfingers @benii y @onos-f para que hablen de sus humildes comienzos en Hive.

Gracias por leer mi taaaan larga experiencia hasta este momento.

NB: No puedo dejar de etiquetar a theycallmedan, edje y geekgirl por su enorme impacto en mi viaje a Hive 🥰 Y sigo siempre agradecido a ellos por el papel que han jugado. 🙏