A group of users has questioned (again) the little fortune I got here in my journey at Steem. I actually have anticipated that to happen and so it did. When I was writing this, I just remembered the golden memories. How I had fun that time spending almost all of my time on Steem.

_{Creative design thanks to Canva, logos from @utopian-io and @sndbox}

It's been 3 days since I haven't posted here and today will be the day I am expecting the 50 shirts to arrive. I have shared 1/3 (33.33 Steems) from the support of @stephenkendal's PromoSteem initiative 100 Steem to the Laguna community.

Last Saturday was a day full of exhaustion. Friday night when we grind with my squad for the upcoming Mobile Legends tournament (until 4 am) then slept a couple of hours for the 10 am tournament hosted by my Barangay (Gun-ob) for a game that I was very familiar with during my college years - Skrib-age (other terms: Boggle / Word Factory). I was supposed to be winning but the rules were changed during the finals (deduction for every word that can't be found in the dictionary). Luckily, I still got the 2nd position which I won P2,000.

Sunday was another exhausting day. I had to finish the carpentry work (and supervision) to finish the fence I am making for the lot I purchased for my mom. I had to leave in the afternoon to play basketball at our Sitio with my friends and neighbors. Once I get my salary for my freelancing jobs, I'll start my application for electricity.

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This time, I'd like to share how my journey on Steem has been gold and rock. What I had with Steem before was the accumulation of my experiences and opportunities that happened during my stay.

The Start

I was a full-time 4th-year Electronics Engineering student and a full-time call-center agent at that time. I was on my On-the-Job training when I had to decide I'll quit my job because it's very exhausting for me. I worked as an ECE OJT at 8-5 pm then work from 10 pm to 6 am from Monday to Friday. I had to quit because there was a time I slept while driving lol + my mother slapped me for over-working lol.

Steemit was introduced to me during our OJT company tour with my little knowledge about cryptocurrency. All I knew that time was all about trade and wait for the value to rise and a minimal search for the coin's use case. Bitcoin at that time was priced at around $1200 to $2000, yes, very cheap.

I started writing on Steemit without a niche to bring. I'm not good at writing because all I like at that time was Mathematics. So I wasn't able to produce decent articles. In fact, I had been commented by @cheetah once for copying content from a book by Bo Sanchez.

My earnings that time was very low, ranging from $0.05 to $0.80 per post. I was very happy to see my introduction post worth around $2.00+ that time. Thanks to a former friend who introduced Steemit to me. I didn't feel the exhaustion of producing content with minimal rewards that time because I was happy and excited to see my first big earning soon. I still produce content (and didn't apply for other jobs) with a little hope that Steemit can help me solve my financial woes for my education.

When I started college, I didn't want my mom to be stressed with the fees at school. I studied in University of Cebu, the largest private institution in the Philippines. We just agreed that I must have baon of 50 pesos per day that includes food, transportation, and snacks.

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The Transition

It was roughly around 2 months when I first grabbed had my first $10+ earning on Steem. It was when @donkeypong made a post about international steemit members and growth communities where I made a translation in Filipino. I just made around $15 that time and I was locked out of heaven. Finally, my first good earning on Steemit for around 2 months of blogging.

I didn't know a bigger opportunity will come. I was about to enter my class at 8:30 for my Industrial Electronics subject but since I was very early to arrive at school around 7:30 am that time. So I spent my 30 mins at an internet cafe and as usual browse Steemit then discovered Steemit Chat. I tried searching @donkeypong that time and he was there, we had our conversation about how I was doing. Then I started sharing my plan of introducing Steemit to my friends in college and share an amazing opportunity to my friends by *providing Free shirts, free pins, flyers, and placards, and most importantly a presentation about Steemit.

Then, a series of meetups and presentations happened. More and more users who joined Steemit from our university. Very happy to see more posts coming from the Steemians in our area.

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More Opportunities Came

_{Photo credit : @sndbox when I had my interview}

I was then nominated to be one of the @sndbox members at that time, an incubator of communities and creatives. Since I was one of the group of Steemians in the Philippines who launched campaign efforts to introduce Steemit and also pushed charitable and community events fully funded by Steem.

The @sndbox membership paved a way to me save Steems and SBDs. At that time, the price wasn't that big and the months of August to November 2017 were one of the worst bear markets in the crypto world.. Steem was trading at $0.10-$0.17 that time with SBD having less than a dollar each. But I continued posting and writing articles aside from my full-time studies. Steemit was the reason why I was able to continue college until I graduated.

_{This was my GIF created by @sndbox for their members}

Then the opportunity of @utopian-io came - an account aimed for open-source contributions. During utopian's starting phase, the moderation wasn't that solid and we're lucky to be there. I really earned big at that time because of my Weekly analysis report using Steem SQL and that I accumulated Steems and SBDs sitting at Bittrex.

_{One of the charts I presented for my weekly Utopian Behavior Data Report post here}

Until December came in. The price of most coins went nuts. Bitcoin went crazy at $20,000 each. The pump started with SBDs where everyone became shocked when SBD was at $3, then it came to $6 (where I sold most of my SBDs). Then later it suddenly pumped to almost $20 each. This was the time where I saved big because I was fortunate I didn't cash out all of my earnings. I withdrew what was supposed to be enough for me for my school needs.

I was also fortunate not to enroll on a subject alone, which would cost me around P37,500 for just a subject. I could've sold all of my SBDs at around $1 at that time. I didn't graduate in March because of the behind subject I got when I was working + studying. I graduated in the Summer instead.

The good thing I did that time was when I powered up my earned SBDs. Yes, that's correct. Some of my SBDs were converted to Steem then I vested into Steem power. I was very fortunate to believe in Steem at that time and got 7,000 in Steem Power.

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What I earned on Steemit was all of the chances and opportunities I did not miss. I persevered, poured all of my time Steeming. We became so much active and hype here and that everyone was having their chance to participate in lots of initiatives launched all over the world.

I forgot games (DOTA), I missed the chance to reunite with my childhood friends because I was too focused on Steemit, but it paved the way to finally help my family. We had a merry Christmas at that time and it feels so great to see the happy faces of your family.

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The problem was, I didn't know there were people who feel mistreated. I was accused of using people for my own benefit. I conducted meetups because I wanted to have a strong bond and at the same time create content for it. But never I assured them to gather rewards. In fact, I am not sure if I'll get support or not. We just pushed things in the hopes of bringing attention to the public.

As I've always said, we have our own journey on Steem. Your journey will not stop on just the meetup alone. It will be an eye-opener for more opportunities that you can have. It's your time to explore the platform and know where you need to belong, know what you'll do to receive the attention we all want - because attention will get you rewards and support.

You should not rely on your fate on someone. I've always told that we need to seek opportunities. It's been a long journey for me to find the things that I can be noticed of. I crafted my own blogs, pre-planned them, spent countless hours thinking about what I would post next, I spent the time when I could've just studied and hangout with my friends. In short, I sacrificed because I know I'll reap what I have sown soon.

I'm still connected with my childhood friends, fellow Presidents in my college days, co-officers of the association I was in charge with, the department I worked as a working scholar, my co-workers in my BPO days, co-employees when I started as an Admin Engineer after passing the boards, I still have Steemit friends, and co-working scholars way back college. I am not left out, a few were just removed.

So if we're still connected, thank you. If we're not, I still thank you. We have our own journey here. I've learned my lessons and I'm taking myself to the next level. So right now, I'm not surprised if people would just bug me again. I'm here to listen and explain my side. It's time-consuming, but I guess it is part of life.