Here we are again careening through the air in an aluminum tube, this time we’re Brooklyn-bound. I’m strung out from getting too little sleep, we nearly missed our flight, yet I couldn’t be more content. I inherited the vagabond gene from my father so this freedom to travel has been a dream come true. I'm beginning to get a little more comfortable existing within a vortex of chaos. Afterall, home isn't a place but a feeling you can carry around with you.

One of our bags were representing Steemit, the other donned the dreaded, “heavy bag tag.”

For the next two weeks the HardFork team will be working hard to further craft the script and work on other aspects of the project. My wife and I are just narrowly missing Consensus, hopefully we can catch that conference next year.

The view from our balcony.

I’ve logged more airline miles since I discovered Steemit in 2016 than in my previous forty-four years combined. Every time I take off from Minneapolis it reminds me of my very first flight from Columbus to Minneapolis in 1995 when I was twenty-four years old.

I flew alone and had no idea what to expect. After takeoff, when the plane leveled to cruising altitude, it didn’t feel like it had enough velocity to stay airborne and my heart nearly beat out of my chest. I looked around to see if any of the other passengers were panicking and when I saw no one was I finally calmed down.

Little did I know boarding that flight would change the entire course of my life. To make a long story less of a bore, I met a girl (who ended up being my first wife.) After meeting online earlier that year we had a long distance relationship for five months.

The plan was she would come see me in Columbus for a week, I would visit her in Minnesota then we’d decide on our future. At the time I was just beginning to get published in some local Columbus newspapers, going to college, and working in a distribution center for clothing retailer, The Limited. During this weeklong trip to the Twin Cities I made the decision to take another chance…leave everything I had ever known to start a new life in Minnesota.

During the past few years I’ve often thought about how different the trajectory of my life would be now if I would’ve stayed in Ohio. As with every decision we make in life, there’ve been both good and bad aspects. Leaving everything that was familiar forced me out of my comfort zone. Who knows? If I hadn't taken that chance I likely would have been satisfied getting small pieces published in local papers and may have retired from The Limited.

Fast forward to the summer of 2016. I found out about this new social media site from a Facebook friend. She said you could get paid for your writing. I took a chance and registered in June but for some reason the password didn’t work and I forgot about it and carried on with my life.

Thankfully, something nagged away at me to give it another try in early July. I emailed Steemit support, they helped me get access and I began posting. I’ll never forget how exciting it was to be part of that first wave of writers on this platform! There was so much to learn -- markdown code, opening a crypto exchange account, a Coinbase account, and, sweet Jeezus, the anxiety-inducing experience of that first cryptocurrency transfer. Thankfully I had some amazing teachers.

Taking the chance with Steemit led to too many blessings to count. The most valuable blessings of them all are the wonderful people we've met.

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“Success is a series of glorious defeats.” - Mahatma Ghandi

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Where is all this rambling leading? Hopefully to something useful. If I had to choose the one bit of advice gleaned from my forty-seven years on Earth it would be to take as many chances as you can. In my experience the recipe for success is comprised of 1/4th’s talent, 1/4th’s hard work, and 2/4th’s luck. The more chances you take, the greater your odds. I don’t feel that I’m particularly talented, I simply got lucky. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you.

Mahatma Ghandi said, “Success is a series of glorious defeats.” Never be afraid to stumble, failure lays the foundation of both humility and compassion. If you think you’re tough, if you feel you’re strong, like you have all of the confidence in the world and don’t need anyone’s help then I would venture a guess that you haven’t even began to test your limits.

How do you know you’re taking enough chances to find true success? Your whole being will tell you. You will feel butterflies in the pit of your stomach, your might brain may scream, “What the hell am I doing?”, or your heart could possibly feel like it will pound completely out of your chest from fear. If you’re experiencing something in the range of these emotions then I'd say, yep, you’re probably on the right track.

Yours in the Chain,

Eric

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Steemit Blockchain Memory Project Rules of Engagement

• Share any significant memory you’d like to. Think about things that have shaped who you are or may be unique in some way. Think about memories you’d like your great-great-grandchildren to read about....now write posts about these memories in your Steemit blog.
• Use proper tags (see below)
• Share a link to this post in all of your Blockchain Memory Project posts so others can find the rules.
• Share your posts with your friends and family on external social media outlets (optional but encouraged).

Tag Suggestions

We want your memories to live on forever. We also want those memories to be searchable by those who might be looking for them in the future.

For this reason, I suggest the following tags for your first four - “Story Life Blog BlockchainMemoryProject”.

Your last tag should be very specific to what you’re writing about in your post, something that will help people who are searching for it on the internet.

I'll be sharing memories of my own along the way.

Prizes

Each month I will comb through the posts tagged with “BlockchainMemoryProject” and choose my favorites. The post owners will receive a surprise in their wallets...a portion of a monthly prize of 10 Steem! Note: all rules of engagement must be followed for your post to qualify.

As always, I thank you for reading.

Yours in the Chain,

Eric

Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series @hardfork-series. Did you miss our last post? If so CLICK HERE to read it!

*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
My book on meditation, The Perfect Pause, is priced at $12.99 (paperback) and $4.99 (eBook). Buy the paperback and receive the eBook for free!

Connect with Me

www.ericvancewalton.net