New Horizons...regrets...FOMO (Travel and Cryptocurrency)

begin Chapter 1 {New Horizons...regrets...FOMO}

As i embark on this long-overdue trip travelling across Europe (visiting a minimum of 13 countries in 7wks), i cannot but regret how i had procrastinated for so many years about this travel. There was always a reason to put it off. Kind of like the regret i have with bitcoin sometimes. I heard about bitcoin through my work colleague about 3 years ago (we are now in June 2017) and my response was..meh! He on the other hand was waiting to see if bitcoin price would drop any further from the $200 it was back then, before he jumped into it. Needless to say, both of us did zilch!

Fast forward 3 years later and we are both staring at each other wondering why neither of us had pulled the plug now that we've seen the current price of bitcoin I would like to blame my friend for not really pushing the idea assertively enough but to be honest, i never really gave it a second thought, even though we were both technical people, active in the industry, i just didn't take bitcoin seriously, so i never investigated

Bloody hell, London is hot in June!! I was here in April last year and it definitely was not hot like this! London has always been my first stop before going anywhere in Europe, as this is where i grew up, made life-long friends, plus i still have family dispersed all over the place, so it's always nice to stop by and say hello. One thing i do in London that i never do in Atlanta though is chocolate binge. I just don't know what it is with the chocolates in London. I just find them too addictive. Not so good for my waistline.

About a year ago, another friend of mine started telling me about blockchain technology and how it will revolutionize the tech industry and every other industries for that matter. Again, my reaction was...meh! What is wrong with me?! By this time i was knee deep in Oracle, AWS, big data and it's ecosystem and Python programming. Somehow, my curiosity was never piqued by bitcoin then, and it wasn't piqued by blockchain now. Was it the people delivering the message that made me not take them seriously? whatever the reason, normal life continued.

:(
I really thought i would be one of the first buyers of the civic token crowd-sale event. I logged in exactly 3hrs to go which gave me plenty of time move myself from my buddy's flat in Hitchin to the Marriott near heathrow airport for my 9am flight to Zagreb. On embarking bus 111, i told the lady to give me a shout once we got to the hotel (as this was my first time at that Marriott) and she promised to give me a shout, so i proceeded to sink my teeth fervently into BTCnews app for the latest gossip in cryptocurrency news. As i looked up 25 mins later, knowing something was amiss, as the lady was still immersed in meaningless
banter with a passenger ( she had been since i boarded). I went up next to her and said...'you forgot about me didn't you'. She looked at me with her hands over her mouth. 'i'm so sorry dear, really sorry. We passed the hotel ages ago'. Well, can't really blame anyone else but myself for not paying attention.
Needless to say, by the time i got to the hotel and logged on, 80% of the max 33 million sale limit had already been sold and i am sitting in a long ass queue, hoping it doesn't sell out before i get my turn. UGH!
:(

Both blockchain and bitcoin came up again in May and for some reason, this time, i paid attention. i was curious. What had changed? I really couldn't put my finger on it. Needless to say once i started on YouTube to get more info on both, i think i came up for air 3 weeks later and i had finally seen the light and i was mad it had taken me so long and was fearful that i had missed the boat completely.

end chapter 1 {New Horizons...regrets...FOMO}