My crypto journey? It started way before I touched my first Bitcoin.

November 2016. Eighteen years old, just escaped hell with two younger siblings depending on me. No safety net. No backup plan.

I'd been grinding freelance gigs for months – coding, designing, whatever paid. Managed to scrape together a few thousand dollars. Enough to rent a shoebox. 260 square feet. Barely room to breathe, but it was ours.

That tiny apartment became our fortress. My siblings had beds. I had a laptop and a burning question: how do I turn this fragile situation into something sustainable?

That's when I started digging into crypto. Not as a gamble. As a lifeline.

(This is the prequel. The real story comes next.)