My journey into crypto began the same way it did for many others, by succumbing to the immense peer pressure that is: word of mouth. It was 2013 when I first heard of the digital currency called Bitcoin. We were in high school and my friend was using it to buy drugs of the Silk Road. Weed was illegal back then and he had to use this "untraceable" currency, on the dark web and have the drugs shipped to his house in used DVD cases. Being a 17 years old, I was obviously interested. However, the whole process was too complex and risky for a kid that just liked bumming a hit every now and again off his friends. In 2013, 1 Btc = $200, What a missed opportunity.

Fast forward 4 years and Bitcoin was beginning to hit mainstream awareness, meaning that I would see articles on Reddit and Facebook about every month or so. Still, it wasn't until later in the year when I was on my semester abroad in Australia that I had my second real exposure to the currency. "I'm living off my profits right now" said a Dutch friend I made while travelling through New Zealand on spring break. He had quit his job and invested everything in Crypto (not recommended) and was now travelling all over the Asian Pacific living off of his crypto gains. We parted ways but I kept in touch as he drove up the Australian coast with a minivan he had bought, cuz y not?

While hearing about his way of life certainly had peaked my interest, I was too poor and too busy finishing up my college degree. Nevertheless, the thought of investing and my friends lifestyle would remain in the back of my mind, surfacing whenever we would message and catch up. Spring of 2017, 1 Btc = $1500.

6 months later, I was graduated and back living with my parents, but I had managed to find a nice little paid internship. As I wasn't paying rent and my minimal wage was tax exempt, all of it went straight into my bank account. I finally had some money sitting in the bank and not a week later did I receive a message from my Dutch friend that simply read: "You should buy ltc now."

Litecoin? What happened to all this talk of Bitcoin? My friend kindly explained the benefits of this Bitcoin fork that allowed for quicker blocks and faster payments. At the end of the day however, it was the price that convinced me. Only a $150 to own my very own coin, I was sold. 1 Btc = $8,000, so I bought 3 LTC and called it a day.

Since then it's been a rollercoaster ride. The first weeks were glorious, I bought in right before Bitcoin and the alts went exponential. It was thrilling seeing my LTC value doubling in a matter of weeks. I was on an investor's high, throwing money at random projects and seeing green no matter what. I felt invincible!

But we all know what happened next. Many new investors, myself included got addicted to the rush and bought in when BTC hit 20k. There was talk of 40K in 2018 and who didn't want to double their money? Instead, the bubble burst. A huge and necessary correction, one of the biggest in Crypto's history occurred and it hit me hard. BTC fell from $20,000 to $6000 in under two months.

Now luckily I had listened to the sage advice which is "Never invest more than you can afford to lose" and while it still hurt a lot, I was not crippled. Instead I bought the dips and kept holding every penny I had invested. I used the opportunity to learn. I researched new projects, re-read white papers of the projects I had already invested in. I learned about dollar cost averaging and kept buying the dip as it sunk lower and lower. It was a rude awakening but one I and the rest of the crypto-space certainly needed.

Looking forward, I will continue to invest in projects I see value in. The market is already bouncing back as I type, and so it becomes harder to deny that we are in the early stages of what will likely become one of the biggest technological revolutions in the history of the humankind. It is for this reason, that I plan to, and I urge you, to continue holding strong like my friend, the flying Dutchman. Today 1 Btc = $10,500.