I was doing some cleanup in my store yesterday and I saw my books that I used for storing vital information about Bitcoin in 2016 and 2017, these books have some good and bad memories behind them.
When I started my Bitcoin journey years ago, I had nothing, yet, a day will not pass by, that I will not stare at Bitcoin value online, I came to know about Bitcoin when I was looking for how to make money online, and my desire to have some Bitcoin in my wallet grew so much that I started hunting for satoshis through faucets.
If you are into Bitcoin in 2016/2017 these faucets should sound familiar to you, I am sure that these faucets are not working anymore today, even if they do, its not worth it anymore.
I did this for a whole year, from the mid of 2016, claiming every hours and some are every 30 minutes, after a year of gathering some satoshis I ended up losing them all because of free wallet and xapo wallet, I don't know they are custodial wallets, I couldn't even tell the difference between an open source wallet and closed source in that period.
After losing everything, I started buying some Bitcoins using my pocket money, I was suppose to use the money to buy some foods and transport myself to school, I was so obsessed that I prefer walking down to school almost everyday, but in the end I had to go back and sell some part of the Bitcoin, because the suffering was too much, believe me, Bitcoin investment is not easy for those that have no good source of income.
I switched completely from faucets to airdrop in March 2017 and the result was way better than expected, I made my first 500$ through few airdrops and I quickly use it to buy some Bitcoin, I felt so happy and I abandoned free wallet and xapo and moved to Copay wallet, this was how I knew about recovery seeds.
In December of 2017 my Bitcoin have added good value, that same month was when my little brother got so sick and nearly gave up, I had no choice but to sell some of my Bitcoin again, because it got to a point where my parents can't afford the hospital bill anymore.
They were surprised how I got the money, I was asked some questions later as if I was in a courtroom facing a panel, they don't believe at first but later they did, we had an amazing Xmas, again, selling some part of my Bitcoin.
In 2018 the bear market hitted so hard that I sold all my Bitcoin, the biggest mistake that cost me, I expected Bitcoin to keep growing and growing, with some ignorance in my body, how could I have known that Bitcoin will be volatile at some point? Lack of learning and doing some research I guess.
I summoned my courage in 2018, I restarted my journey once again, by learning more than chasing, this was how I was able to finally understand more about Bitcoin, I should have known, and focus more on reading about every possible mistake someone could make.
Till this day, i am still unable to get the exact amount of Bitcoin I sold at the time, all because of fear and panic, I should have just held than let the bear market scare me out.
I hope someone learn one or two from my journey, if you can't afford Bitcoin, find a source of income first, enough to feed your needs and enough for savings or else you will go back to the last savior you have ( Your Bitcoin wallet) and spend it all to survive.
There is nothing that beats learning, maybe I would have had a different outcome if I focused more on learning. Because I will understand how valuable Bitcoin will be in the future.
