🦁 EVMavericks - a pride valuing decentralization, public goods and education!

My journey begins there by winning a whitelist spot through the raffle for lurkers.

Here's a small yet very important tidbit that I feel is very valuable to share: I have actually entered the last lurkers list from 2 of my accounts. I only won the raffle from one. I'm glad that happened and it was for the best yet it's still important to note my entrances.

Why is it important to mention?

Because it highlights my thinking at that time pretty well. I thought of it more as free money—free ether. You just trade your JPEGs for free ether. And at worst, you can sell one to get free money while keeping the other one. Well, after winning the raffle with only one wallet, I had to make a choice. My mindset of just getting more ether was pretty dominant, that's why I was hoping to mint a rare one, a holy or a cyber. I remember deliberately looking at mints and just waiting a certain time before one is minted so I can try my chances, I was hoping it would increase my 'perceived' chances because I knew it actually had no impact on the randomness. Eventually, I ended up just going and minting one.

Ended up getting this clown one. In a way, it was very fitting 😅

So how has my experience been?

Well it has definitely convinced me that NFTs, at least some, aren't just stupid. You get too attached to it. It's not about the picture to me but about the community. And EVMavericks community is priceless.

While I was excited to join and there was a bit less stress to participate, unlike on Reddit, because I didn't really have much to add and there have always been amazing discussions. You know that feeling when you are the dumbest in the room and while you are happy to be there like a sponge on the wall and learn everything, connecting with those people in the room makes it x69 times better!

One of the first struggles, which still comes up nowadays when I reevaluate my life, is figuring out where you fit in the community and in what role. Obviously, you can even question whether the roles are needed and whether you want to fit or not but let's skip over that for now. Since EVMavericks wanted to build and with the ways DAO works, contributing in a concrete way has been really valuable. I'm sure the DAO itself has been quite a challenging and learning experience for all of us.

So while I was still quite new to the Ethereum ecosystem on a practical level and to the community, there were not many practical things for me to do. Some people started talking about other NFTs and projects and I thought, "heck why not?!". I was wrong before, and now holding a lion was proving me wrong then what if I'm wrong about other projects in the ecosystem. Eventually, we created a specific chat for those purposes that included less serious' discussion. It is called - degen chat!

So in a way, shitposting was the only thing that I was doing. It would take me over 6 months to realize the value of shitposting and having that specific place as degen chat which seems like an unnecessary room yet has had quite a crucial piece in the community.

As time went by, I made many friends and found other ways to contribute to the communities within and outside.

However, I'll be honest, I've flip flopped a lot between being bullish and bearish on the whole DAO and project.

Nowadays, I'm still finding my balance within life in general and, thus, with how EVMavericks as a community plays a part in my life. I do my best to keep up the EVMavericks Weekly by noting the few most important events.

This is just the beginning for EVMavericks and me.

As you go along with me on this journey of reflections, more pieces will be put together, and we will circle back to EVMavericks to cover all other aspects!

Next up: Twitter Followers!