Learn, Grow, and Appreciate.

I was a barista at starbucks before I was introduced to cryptocurrency on July of 2017. I was talking to another worker as I was making some ones drink. A regular customer that I talk too when he comes in, heard me tell the worker I wanted to switch programs for university (I was studying Computer Science and graduated).

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The customer told me "sorry for being nosy, but I heard you are switching from Computer Science. May I ask why? That stuff is interesting."

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I told him that it drives me nuts already in school, so I can't see myself doing this stuff as a day to day job in the future.

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He took his drink and sat down. I took my break and I saw him reading a book on blockchains. He asked if I know anything about distributed ledgers? Lol I said All I know was Bitcoin had something to do with it. Then I asked, do you think I should buy some? He laughed and said well you're asking a customer having a coffee on investment advice. He told me to read up on blockchains, Bitcoin and the different ways of storing them; and the next time I come Ill ask you some questions and I'll tell you.

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The smirk on his face made me feel that he wanted to tell to buy for some reason. I ended up buying bitcoin a few days later, then I noticed there was thousands of cryptocurrencies. I am new, so I didn't know. I thought it was just bitcoin lol. Since I already bought some bitcoin, I started reading up on the rest.

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Next time he came in, he asked me if I did some reading and I said yes. So he asked me a few questions, pretty basic questions. Got the answers right and then told me he will be sitting here to drink his coffee.

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So we chatted for a bit but I was really wanting to buy other cryptocurrencies when I realized there was more than bitcoin out there. He was insisting I stay in Bitcoin because I was new to this stuff and to make sure I know the difference with Bitcoin and others that had the word Bitcoin. I remember him describing it as a "digital referendum". I picked up on a few names of other cryptocurrencies he mentioned (not going to talk about them because this is a Bitcoin subreddit).

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November 2017 comes around and I am in shock. I never had that type of wealth before.

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The next time he came in, he came in laughing. I kept telling him how I am having a hard time believing what I am seeing. Obviously I asked him the holy question, when should I sell? His answer was, this is all because of a hype around a tradition exchange called CME, that wanted to integrate Bitcoin Futures, maybe when those futures go live? Who knows? And literally leaves.

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So I did exactly that. I realized I never thanked him. I really appreciated someone talking to me like that. I was a foster child, I never had such a conversation that helped my life in a positive way. The next time I saw him, I thanked him so much that I was embarrassed. I asked how can I return this to show appreciation? Can I give you some money? He giggled and asked how old I was. I said 23. Then he asked if I was going to quit. I said yeah soon! He said don't. He told the only way I can return this favour is if I sponsored a child from an organization that sent pictures of the things they bought the poor child with your money. Analyze the picture, and look at how much they appreciate it and what you did for that child. The freaky part is, he does not know that I was a foster child. I said I will but can I pay you. He said he didn't need my money. He told me, remember our talk about education? I said yes. He said, maybe learn about programming blockchains or use the technical skills to do research on Bitcoin. "Education is not a paper, its a resource that you can use however you want."

Submitted May 15, 2019 at 05:37AM by throwthisawaynow0 http://bit.ly/2vYDa29