Happy 4 Year Blockchainiversary to Me!

 If I had taken a 4 year course, by now, I'd have another diploma. I would have taken a course in Education since I found out that my passion is in teaching. Or maybe if I had taken Master's education, I'd have a Master's degree in some field or something. Well, I didn't. All I did was take an unsure step towards blockchain blogging. I did not know what I was getting myself into. A friend of mine just told me that if I like writing, I could go write my thoughts and what have you's in here. Looking back at my first posts brings so much cringe and shame. My friend did teach me the basics like don't plagiarize, source your photos properly, don't copy and paste someone else's work, and interact. That's it. Then I was thrown into the pool with that little knowledge as my life vest.  #### Learning the Ropes When I was just starting out, I was told that I needed to find my niche. And because in the blockchain, you can write about anything under the sun, finding a niche meant a daunting task for someone like me. Along the way, I learned how versatile the blockchain environment is. At first, I thought that I could easily earn money here in Hive (I joined Steemit then jumped over after the Hive fork). Take note of the word *easily.* That was the selling point of everyone I met. But then crypto dropped. That's when I learned and realized that it's not all about blog to earn. There are other ways to earn. And furthermore, there is so much more about Hive than just earning money. I learn at my own pace. Which basically means when it comes to topics circling about technology, I will need to have a tutor that will answer all of my questions or at least lead me to the right direction.  #### Meeting new People I asked a lot of questions. But being shy and timid that I am, I most often talk to my close knit. I learned about the Tagalogtrail community. The people in there became my friends because we all share the same love for writing tagalog stories. Almost week after week, we release different tagalog stories some for our Tagalogserye, some just because we felt like writing another story. We also hung out quite a few times before the pandemic happened. Then I met the people in the Needleworkmonday community. This is one of the best communities in Hive. The ladies in there are all very supportive and really very nice to everyone be it new or old in the platform. The ladies out there really made me feel welcomed when I first joined the needleworkmonday community. I was feeling very insecure about my newly found talent. It was the first time I held a crochet hook and yarn after a long time and their comments and words of encouragement made me feel like it's alright to start a new hobby and continue with crocheting. The people at the Hive PH community have also been one of the reason I lasted this long in the blockchain. I met a lot of new people in the community. The several islands in the Philippines would have made it impossible for me to meet these people but lo and behold! I now have friends from several different places in the country. I even knew a lot more fellow Filipinos living outside the country!  #### Discovering my Passion I mentioned earlier about having to find a niche and how I felt about sharing my very first crochet project. That was when I discovered my passion about crochet. Not only did it help me relax, it helped me learn new things. Everytime I work on a project, I learn a new stitch, a new technique, a new way to do old things. As my kid is growing up, I slowly learned that another passion of mine is teaching. I remember playing pretend teacher when I was young where me and my friends take turns acting as the pretend teacher but we do teach each other real school stuff like Math, English, Science, etc. Right now, I am very passionate about our homeschooling journey and thanks to the Homeedders community, I found individuals going through the same thing I am going through right now. I learn from their posts and hopefully, they do too in mine. I am also very grateful for the people behind this community. Right now, I'm trying to learn more ways to make our homeschooling not just fun but fruitful too. Hopefully, I get the chance to finally share the things I learned from the webinars I am attending.  #### Onboarding and Helping out New Members I know how it felt like to be lost in the woods when I was starting out. It's tough being a lonely fish in the sea. Trying to take in a lot of information could be very challenging for someone as clueless as me when I was starting out. Although I still have so much to learn, I am delighted to have joined the Incubation team in charge not only of welcoming newbies but also helping them start up in the blockchain. It could also be part of my passion for teaching, I love guiding the newbies and helping them understand how the blockchain works and explain it to them the simplest way I could. I guess it also helps that I have a 5 year old kid that asks a lot of questions endlessly, I don't really mind the endless questions I get from the newbies. I have an onboarded member who often apologizes for asking *"stupid questions."* I'm like dude, it's fine, I answer questions from a curious little girl day in and day out. And just for the record, there is no such thing as a stupid question.  #### Paying myself and paying it forward No matter how much one says that they only blog in the blockchain just because they love posting, sharing, or simply blogging, it still boils down to the question *"How do you earn from blogging?"* We put an effort on our posts so that we can be noticed. We build our reputation so that we can later earn. It will take time for some. Some are lucky and well informed and have the know how about crypto so they get to cash out sooner than everyone. As for me, I experienced cashing out only after 3 years in the blockchain. It took a while, I know. I had to build my HP up first, slowly, since the first three years of my blockchain blogging was bear season and I had no idea what in the world I was doing. But when I started *paying myself* for my blogging, it felt good, energizing, and inspiring. Right now, I am typing this blog in my Hive financed laptop while our laundry are loaded in my Hive financed automatic washing machine. There are quite a few helper machines I bought with my Hive earnings. Cleaning the house is a lot easier now with my robo vacuum cleaner. My crocheting has been a lot of fun especially now that I was able to buy my favorite crochet hook using my Hive earnings. And the biggest buy that I ever made out of my Hive earnings, the motorcycle which will be used for a tricycle business especially now that the restrictions are being lifted, it will help a lot with the finances. Of course when blessings like these come to us, it is always good to give back. Helping out friends in need, not just financially but also emotionally is always a good way of paying it forward. I used to be in that place where I have no idea where to get the next batch of meds for my Pa, or if my family will have a proper meal, all while trying to explain to the collection agent that I need more time to pay for the money I owed. These experiences help keep me grounded and motivates me to do more and give more whenever I can. #### It isn't over yet I can say that what started as my doggy paddle into this vast ocean that is the blockchain has brought me far from where I started. I can say that at this point, I already have built a small raft enough to keep me afloat in the waters. And unlike a 4-year course, this blockchain journey isn't over yet. Right now, my priorities are shifting. I will soon have a gradeschooler and the learning method that we chose to use requires a lot of time, patience, energy, and flexibility. But I'm still here. *It will just take some time before I reply to your chats and comments but I'm still here.* Still Hiving. Still loving Hive.