Disclaimer: My birthday was the 17th of November and I wrote this during that day but did not finish. I scheduled it to be published today, the 18th of November.

Hey everyone!

Yep, it’s my birthday today. I was thinking of doing something productive on my birthday, so I wrote down my thoughts and shared them here.

Some people might say that I am too young, but I feel that time flies fast, and now I am already 21 years old. I just want to reminisce about good and bad experiences from the past years and reflect on today.

If you can go back in time and talk to your younger self, what will you tell him/her?

I asked this question in Snaps and Threads…this is an ongoing small event I ran to celebrate my birthday on Hive and give back to the community even with small prizes. Go and join!

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My InLeo Thread: https://inleo.io/threads/view/anonymous02/re-leothreads-naaz9ybx?referral=anonymous02

My Snap: Join to my snap event

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Anyway, I still remember when…

I learned about crypto

I am always eager to earn money since I was a kid – I do not live in a rich or middle-class family; I would say that we are a bit poor and struggling financially. When I was in my second year of high school, 13 years old year 2016 – if my math is correct, I learned about Bitcoin.

Of course, it is the first crypto that almost everyone will know when they get exposure from crypto. I remember watching a YouTube video about Bitcoin trading at coins.ph (an online wallet from the Philippines) where you can buy and sell Bitcoin to gain a profit.

The video shows an easy profit demonstration, but the instructions are clear; I told my father to go to the nearest 7/11 and cash in my current money back then; 200 pesos (around 4 USD back then). Yes, I still remember that day and how much it was.

I tried buying and selling but as a kid, having that kind of money at that age and year feels like you are already rich! But my trade was unsuccessful – from 200 pesos, it became 160 pesos. I stopped immediately and learned from my mistake.

Having a money-mindset, I looked for more earning opportunities on the internet and found Bitcoin faucets. I waited – but yes, most of them are scams and I never got any profit from them. I remember the DENT app, a cryptocurrency as well, they had an app before and I withdrew twice from them – 2 USD worth of mobile data.

Such a good old days, a lot of learnings but not so profitable.

I started writing on the internet

Writing was not really my passion, I always hated writing. Hive was not the first platform that I tried blogging; there was a read.cash where you can earn Bitcoin cash from sharing your blog posts.

It was September 2019 when I discovered it, yes, pre-pandemic. I would say that blogging at that time was life-changing. The platform changed my life literally because I was exposed to different communities and there were more opportunities came in.

I earned a lot from the platform – joined a community, and became known in the platform. I saved a lot because of this and invested some of it. It was just last year, 2023, when I used all of it – I also lost my investment and pulled some out due to some financial needs that my parents can’t handle anymore.

It feels that I lived for 3 years because of it – until I discovered other communities such as Hive.

I still write here on Hive and earn a decent amount of money – but unlike before, the money that I am earning now on the platform was just powered up and invested for the future while 50% is paying for my internet.

I got scammed from crypto (and Axie)

If you count all the money that I lost from crypto scams and just being an idiot, it will be $1000+. I remember when someone invited me before to invest in TRON (TRX) staking. I staked my money (I forgot how much it was but around $20) without doing any research, days passed and the creator ran away with our money.

The worst experience was that I got scammed by Axie Infinity, I bought my own team during the peak of Axie and tried my luck, after 1 week of playing, I realized that it was not my passion and forte, so I decided to sell it.

I was hooked by the “buyer” and then scammed me. I was a complete idiot for sending my Axie to that person and until now, I wish he would experience the karma for his act.

You can read the full story here .

I started my website

It was July 2022 when I started launching my website. It was a complete experiment without having a concrete plan on how it works. I just decided to buy a domain and hosting then started my website.

I would say that it was a complete mistake because I did not earn from it and I did not get what I wanted or my initial plan and purpose of starting my own blog. I built my website to show my portfolio and work.

Then I decided to turn it into a blogging website. Until now, I regret buying a domain under my name, I do think it limits my SEO and it’s triggering my overthinking (as a private person, you will understand this).

It is still unprofitable and a bit inactive, but I still publish on my website sometimes. If it will not earn money until 2026 when I will need to renew my domain, I will abandon it and never pay for it anymore. As of now, it is milking my pocket and I don’t get anything from it perhaps my credibility on the internet.

I turned my $35 into $200+

I was actively investing in Binance Smart Chain tokens from 2020-2021 and learned about Bakery swap (BAKE) tokens. I did not research it before, but since it was a DeFi token which was popular before, I decided to buy some worth $35.

After weeks of holding it, the token’s price went up and I turned my $35 into $200+. It was actually about $900+ but I sold early and then hours later, it pumped more. I should have a $900 profit from it.

I bought back when the price decreased but until the project became dead after the 2021 market crash. Still, I had some realized from it and it was the most profitable trade and investment that I ever had.

A lot of things happened in the past few years but these are the most memorable ones when it comes to my online presence. I decided to look back from the past after celebrating my 21st birthday and it was actually a good habit to reflect and learn from your past.

Good or bad, it became part of our life and I think we should learn to look back and reflect so we can do, or don’t do the same depending on its outcome.

Thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: All images are screenshots, made, and designed by the author using Canva. GIFs are uploaded through InLeo built-in GIF feature.