My first experience with Crypto Currency and Steem Dollars

I figured I'd share this story of how I started in Steemit and where I am now. As my profile states: I'm an education student currently in university. I'm trying to finish my degree while coping with grief and various mental ailments that come with it. I have been slowly progressing through it, but grief is a life long battle. I expect ups and downs much like the crypto currency market.

I have a friend who has been using Steemit much longer than me and was always edging me to join the community and share my writing. He knew I enjoyed writing poetry and prose, but kind of lost steam because my blog was not getting a lot of views or feedback. I realize it was difficult to reach out, but it was never a thing to make money on. It was simply something to share my stories with others to help them, to entertain them, to enlighten or inspire. It wasn't until I started posting on Steem that I began to notice such a great community and rewards for the content (I'm still learning to utilize the site effectively).

I recently created a short story entitled "New York Nameless." I sat down after class. It was a cold day here in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. I said to myself: "I'm writing a short story tonight." And so I did. 6 hours later I have New York Nameless and I realize I am still a piss poor editor even having editing experience for a community news paper in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It was surreal the response I received in 24 hours. My story was on the trending page. My friend who goes by the name @travisacid on here had messaged me on facebook. We have been personal friends since elementary school. He was telling me how my post had earned something like 90 dollars. I was thinking what the hell? I was overwhelmed. I can remember blasting my favorite track from Queens of the Stone Age's new album Villains (Head like a Haunted House) jumping for joy. I was feeling a bit down that day as a girl I was dating had recently split with me so this was a nice pick me up to see the post and people enjoying it.

For a few days I was not thinking about the monetary value of the post. I was just happy with the recognition I had received. It was not until Sunday when I began to finally do some foundation research into crypto currency. I had noticed that SDB was worth quite a bit and my pending payout was hovering around 120 dollars. I still had no idea what that meant or how much money it was equivalent to, but I was eager to find out.

Today I added my rewards to my wallet and noticed my balance. I then looked at the market looking to move my SDB's so I could compensate auto bills. I'm a student and living on a very limited income. I can't remember the last time I actually bought myself something without feeling guilty. I'm a big reader too so I haven't even picked up any new novels to read. A cheap old 10 dollar novel. It was strictly business regarding income while I am in school.

I started learning about how to move currency. I seen the drop-down bar saying transfer, but I had no idea what I was doing. Thankfully I exercised patience in some sense and read about doing it properly with the help of @travisacid yet again. I managed to move my SDB's for Bitcoin and then move the Bitcoin to cash.

Needless to say I was able to pay for my winter tire replacement from my story. I'm still in awe. My hands shake as I write this because it seems surreal that I earned anything for my writing. I never think of myself as a decent writer. I just write, and hope for the best. I still can't believe, but the one thing I do know is that I look extremely forward to creating more content on this platform. I am just about nearing the end of my final exams for this semester which will allow me a solid 3 weeks off from studies. I intend to write maybe ideally one short story a week if possible.

If anyone would be interested I'd be willing to do a user request of a particular genre of short story that they would like to read in the near future? I can't promise it would be amazing given my talents seem to lie within drama, but I have studied literature, extensively so I'm sure I could whip something up.

Alas,
Thank you all

You really helped a young man who has been struggling with by far one of the darkest moments of his life and I feel for the first time in months that there is so much more goodness, greatness and warmness to come.