@Body_rolls

The plight of a working Nigerian youth Growing up, the goal was to get into a good university, serve, and get a good-paying job. That was the reality most of us wanted, and the reality our parents wanted even if it meant they had to toil and suffer in the hopes that we will achieve it. However, from the struggle we had to go through to get into the university, it was already obvious that the slots are few but the people in need of that reality are plenty. So we learned how to hustle, most of us read, prayed, fought for connection, and did all we could to get a slot in the university. Upon getting into the university, we realized that it was another struggle to remain at the university, for some, they could not afford the fees due to unforeseen circumstances and for some, they could not cope with the pressure of the substandard level of education and very uncomfortable learning environment, while for some, the thrill of the reality they wanted, had faded and they aspired for other things, and so some fell out of the race for a beautiful white-collar job. Through the stress, the heat, and the lack of basic amenities, ASUU and its strike wahala, we graduated. However, going through the 4 walls of the university had opened our eyes, we had seen the light, we decided not to focus on just white-collar jobs anymore, forward we matched, we ventured into technology, cryptocurrency, menial jobs, hairstylist, tailoring, so long as it fetched enough money to sustain us, we did it. The reality our parents dreamt for us no longer seemed feasible but for some of us, even though the dream of getting a white-collar job looked like a fantasy, we prevailed, and we kept working on the path our parents wanted. If serving our country was a necessity to get a job, well who are we not to do it, we served the country to the best of our abilities, collected our Nysc certificates, and walked into the Job market with open hearts and bright minds. Resumes upon Resumes, Cover Letters upon Cover letters, Interviews upon Interviews, few were lucky enough to get a good job 1 or 3 months after service but for most of us, years passed by. Some people abandoned their dreams of a white-collar job and focused on other things, some traveled out, and some had to learn a new skill, but for those of us that persevered, we got the job we dreamt of. If only we knew, that the Nigerian system affected everyone differently and in the same way, and getting the job of our dreams was not enough to protect us from the system, even for those who had focused on other things, it did not protect them. We are faced with the harsh reality of the country everywhere we turn, from the bad roads to the lack of electricity, to seeing the little boy with the handicapped leg begging in the middle of the street under the hot sun on a Monday afternoon. We accept the reality that our hustle and sweat of our parents is not enough to combat the country that is Nigeria.

Tale of a 23 year old murderer I remember when we first met, I was 17 and you were 23. I was at the cafeteria with Sarah when you strolled in, and for a brief second our eyes locked. Oh how gorgeous your eyes were, it was like staring into the sea, filled with endless beauty. I looked away and did not give it another thought because lets be honest, I was still in my awkward phase but you looked like a man, and from the way women gazed at you, I knew they agreed with me too. Imagine my surprise when you said hello, hello to me, amongst every other person, oh I was a gunner for sure, and that was how we started. Soon enough, you became my everything, you convinced me on what was right and wrong, according to you, being skinny was not attractive, so I had to take supplements to add weight, the way I dressed was not enticing enough, I had to wear revealing clothes, Sarah was not mature enough and she had to leave. I was still basking on the thrill of being chosen by you, that I did all you asked of without complaints. I talked only when spoken to, learned how to cook what you liked, even though you raped me severally I did not mind. See all my life, I had always felt unwanted, I was the 9th child out of 11, so nobody at home cared about me. I was simply someone that existed, I had never been called beautiful before, so when you told me I was beautiful on our second date, you became everything I ever wanted. Sometimes I wonder, if I had had a better life growing up, would I have fallen so easily for your lies? I do not know. On my 18th birthday, you asked me to move in with you, my parents were less concerned, to them it was one less mouth to feed, I was so happy. I started dreaming of our wedding and how our children would look like, little did I know, that was the start of all my troubles. It started gradually, for some reason, you got angry if I wore the clothes you asked me to buy, called me a harlot if a little skin showed, you decided that I was to stay at home with you every day and I had to ask for permission before going anywhere because according to you, my education was a waste of time and the likelihood of me amounting to anything significant was second to none. No one was allowed to see me, but then no one was likely to come to visit me in the first place. Then the abuse started, suddenly everything I did irritate you, every little thing was met with violence. At this point, I was not worried still, my father used to hit my mum, maybe this was what love meant, I was still the dutiful girlfriend. Then I got pregnant, I was so excited for you to come home, I wore the only gown you still approved of and styled my hair the way you loved, then you came in, she was everything you told me not to be, she was slim, tall, and attractive, she talked to you and you listened to her, the cloth she wore exposed her skin in a sexy yet delicate way, you told me that growing taller than you was disrespectful, so I had to start slouching. I hid in the bathroom and watched you with her, you were so gentle with her, you had never been like that with me, then you called for me, you told Hannah that I was your maid. For the first time in a long while, I talked back, I told her I was your girlfriend, maybe it was the child within me, or the jealousy I felt that gave me that courage but I talked, my voice even felt strange to my ears. Then you slapped me, then you hit me on my stomach, Hannah tried to stop you, but you pushed her away and kept hitting me. Hannah ran away and then you left, I was alone in my blood, there was no point going to the hospital, I knew I had lost the baby. I cleaned myself up and cried myself to sleep. Over the course of 2 years this continued, you would beat me and I would lose my babies, you never even knew about the children. But then Joy came, she was strong, no matter the beating she kept growing, it was a miracle, I gave birth to Joy on the eve of my 21st birthday. She literally brought joy into my life, when you saw her, you wept and vowed to change and you changed. The beatings stopped and peace returned, but after a year, you came back, the abuse continued. I wanted to leave, not for my sake but because of my daughter, each time you touched me, I could see the joy leaving her eyes, I started planning to leave. Then the day came, I thought you had gone to smoke with friends like you always do, unfortunately, you came back to get some change, and you saw me with my suitcase. You slapped me, I had never seen so much rage in your eyes, then you picked Joy and flung her against the wall. Even before her body touched the floor, I knew she was dead, you stared at the body in shock, I silently walked towards the bottle of acid, the one I got from one of the old car batteries because I had felt it might come in handy one day. You were sitting on the floor beside her body, I looked at those beautiful eyes, I imagined how our life would have been if you were different and I poured the acid into your eyes. You started screaming, then I poured it into your mouth, I watched as your beautiful body changed before my eyes, and then I called the cops. They asked me what happened, but I said nothing, there was nothing to say. The headline read "Deranged woman kills boyfriend and daughter", it was true after all, if I had left earlier, Joy would still be alive. Now I am 23, sitting in a mental facility with absolutely no hope for the future and you are in hell, where you belong.

Crypto exchanges (What is, How to Identify the best one for you, Benefits and Top 5 exchanges) Crypto exchanges are platforms where you can buy or sell cryptocurrency, these platforms can be used to trade one cryptocurrency for other assets, including digital and fiat currencies, for example converting USDT to Bitcoin, or Solana to FEG, They also act as an intermediary between a buyer and a seller and make money through commissions and transaction fees, they reflect current market prices of the cryptocurrencies they offer. No exchange is perfect for every user, it is best to evaluate your own interests and find an exchange that aligns with your goals. There are various things to consider when using an exchange, here are 5 things i believe you should look for: **Accessibility:** Your location may prevent you from buying and selling crypto due to state or national regulations. Some countries like china have banned citizens from accessing crypto exchanges, while some like Nigeria, allow u to access exchanges but ban you from receiving crypto or buying from your bank account. In the United States, there’s a lot of regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrency, and some states have instituted their own regulations. You can often find information about the geographic limitations of the exchange — as well as related accessibility factors, like national currencies accepted — on its website or within the terms of service. **Security:** The harder it is to create an account at a particular exchange, the better. Holding coins on an exchange means trusting someone else with that money. In most cases, if the exchange gets hacked or an employee steals coins, investors end up empty-handed. Cryptocurrency isn’t backed by any central institution, and your cryptocurrency holdings aren’t protected the same way as money in the bank or traditional investments. To ascertain that your crypto is protected, some exchanges have insurance policies to protect the digital currencies users hold within the exchange from hacking or fraud. Coinbase, for example, has an insurance policy worth 255 million dollars. Majority of Crypto exchanges will offer information about their security practices on their websites, even though no exchange is 100% secure and it can be hard to know which one is most secure, it might benefit you to consider exchanges that have been around for the longest time, have the most customers and through research have had the least amount of problems. **Coins offered:** With thousands of different types of cryptocurrencies in existence, no exchange can make trading pairs available for all of them.  If you’re interested in a popular coin like Bitcoin or Ethereum, you’ll probably find it on any given exchange you’re considering. But newer altcoins, coins with a very small market cap, or meme coins may require a bit more shopping around.  In general, the higher market cap coins have a higher likelihood of being traded on popular exchanges. Investors looking for more exotic, lesser-traded coins might have to search out smaller exchanges. **Liquidity:** If you plan to buy, sell, or trade your crypto, the exchange you choose should have enough trade volume to ensure your holdings are relatively liquid, meaning you can sell them when you want. This means an exchange must have a high enough volume of orders flowing through its order books on any given day. In order to get that volume, an exchange must have either a lot of users, or users who hold a large amount of assets on the exchange and trade them frequently. Crypto prices move very quickly, so when you use an exchange that doesn’t have a lot of trade volume, you could end up paying a higher price than you would on more popular exchanges. For example, say you decide to buy Bitcoin once its price falls below $64,000. If you’re on an exchange with a low trade volume, you may end up actually paying a different price than you think, if your purchase doesn’t actually go through until the price has moved back up.  **Exchange fees:** Fees may be a fixed price, but most times are a percentage of your trade. Some popular exchanges, like Cash App, charge fluctuating fees based on price volatility. Fees are most often times charged per transaction, and can depend on whether you’re the seller or the buyer. There may also be different fees depending on which currencies you trade. Make sure you understand exactly how and when an exchange plans to charge you for your crypto transactions before handing over your cash.  **Ease of use:** People who are new to trading might feel overwhelmed or intimidated by exchanges that have a complicated-looking interface with lots of charts and other information, most especially those that display order books. If that’s the case, a newbie-friendly exchange might be the best option. Some cryptocurrency exchange sites have “basic” and “advanced” views, allowing users to choose their layout. Others are designed specifically for beginners to avoid any potential confusion. **Benefits of Crypto Exchange includes:** **24/7 Operations:** Crypto exchanges servers are always available therby allowing people to trade 24/7. People can purchase and sell Bitcoin and other virtual crrencies on these platforms anytime, and this is a significant advantage of electronic money. The time barrier doesn’t have meaning because people can exchange virtual currencies anytime, anywhere. **Instant Settling and Transaction Irreversibility:** cCypto exchange allows you to purchase or sell Coins instantly. And you can’t undo a Cryptotransaction, and this differentiates it from bank transfers. Essentially, the exchange occurs immediately, and the network formalizes the change faster. Traditional platforms require days to settle a transaction. That’s why more people are opting for crypto exchanges. **Fractional Purchasing:** Exchanges allow people to purchase any fraction of this digital asset. For instance, if you want to trade or invest $523 in Bitcoin, you can do that on a crypto exchange without having to purchase an entire Bitcoin. Instead, you can buy a fraction of it, enabling even a small investor to start trading without spending all their fortunes. And this differentiates crypto exchanges from traditional exchanges that require investors to purchase a minimum of one stock or whole numbers. **Secure Interfaces:** Developers designed crypto exchanges with mobile and web users in mind. As such, they are easy to use and secure. Most exchanges are suitable for light clients in smartphones or browsers. And you can access them using any device, though they use safe, modern technology. The best crypto exchanges are intuitive, fast, and easy to use. The overall customer experience of the best platforms is excellent. **Top 4 Exchanges:** According to my research, here are 4 exchanges that are relatively secure, good news is I have texted them all and found them easy to operate. **Coinbase:** With a 4.5 play store rating, Coinbase has been dubbed the best exchange for beginners by a lot of individuals. The benefits include, beginner-friendly interface and easy purchase process, Strong user reviews and security ratings and its educational Learn platform rewards users with cryptocurrency when they learn about crypto. It has over 100 coins available for trade. Fee amount often varies based on purchase amount and method of purchase. Usually it is 1.99%, with 0.5% spread fee + 1.49% Coinbase fee. **Binance:** Standing at a 4.4 rating on playstore, the next on my list is Binance. It is a very well-known crypto exchange platform, if not the most popular. It has more than 100 different cryptocurrencies available to trade with a two-factor authentication. Binance has a Blockchain technology incubator called Binance Labs, which focuses on nurturing promising pre-ICO stage projects. It helps deserving cryptocurrency project teams by providing necessary funding for development, advisory resources. Binance also offers a site called a Launchpadfor hosting new and emerging blockchain projects and API interfaces. As of March 2021, 42 projects have been launched. It launched its own Binance Coin (BNB) cryptocurrency through an ICO in July 2017. BNB has a market cap of around $36.4 billion, as of March 2021. It is set to become the native currency of the decentralized Binance exchange. **Kraken:** It has a rating of 4.8 on playstore. It also has sophisticated trading features, like margin, may appeal to advanced users with high cybersecurity ratings. Kraken offers more than 80 crypto assets and it supporst traders in roughly 190 countries. Account minimum and fees varies depending on the cryptocurrency but fees usually range from 0% to 0.26% e.g., Bitcoin's deposit minimum is 0.0001. Margin trading lets you take on additional buying power with variety of educational resources and tutorials on cryptocurrencies, Over-the-counter (OTC) trading and account management support available and you can earn rewards for staking different assets. **Kucoin:** It has over 400 cryptocurrencies available for exchange and a rating of 4.1. It has very low fees (0.1%), you can also decrease trading fees by 20% by paying with KuCoin’s proprietary KCS stablecoin. It also Automated and margin-based trading available. It marketed itself as the people's exchange and serves one in four crypto holders worldwide. YOu can buy Crypto directly with fiat currencies, only partial KYC verification is required. You can also buy and sell Crypto on the P2P marketplace with zero fees. It also has futures and margin trading, you can earn KCS daily and also lend and borrow crypto. It has a Kucoin trading bot also. Other Crypto exchanges include: Square, Gemini, BlockFi,  Bitfinex, Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp, FTX, Uniswap (V2), Tokenlon, 0x Protocol, Venus, Sushiswap, Compound, BurgerSwap, Curve Finance and 1inch Exchange

Love in the dark: Balance between two worlds Recap: This is the second episode of love in the dark, in episode 1, Rose finds out about her family's tradition of dreaming about the love of their life for months before actually meeting the person, and finds out her supposed mysterious knight in shining armor has been dead for 5 years. Rose was dazed, she simply stared at the woman, she could not think of anything to say. Dead? How? maybe her mother was wrong? perhaps the woman was lying? She described the man to the woman once more, repeating the same features she had memorized earlier, the response was the same, according to the woman, his name was Bryan. Bryan was 27 at the time of the accident, it was on his birthday, he was at the zebra crossing waiting for the traffic light to turn green when a drunk driver in a bid to get to the other side before the orange light changes to green collided with him. He hit his head on the pavement and died instantly, the driver absconded, attempts to trace him have been futile. Rose was perplexed, there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered, even if what the woman said was true and her mother's tradition turned out to be a fluke, the important question still remains, why on earth would she be able to see a dead man? She had no idea how she got home, she had no idea what to think, fortunately, her mother was home, twice in a row. Janet was shocked at the state she was in, where was the happy, bubbly girl that left in the morning and why was she staring at a sad, gloomy girl. She helped her get changed and promptly gave her some sleeping tablets because it was obvious she really needed to rest. Rose slept for 4 hours, she woke with a slight headache but she felt way better before, more importantly, she could focus. Thankfully Janet was in the sitting room, she explained the day's ordeal to her, skipping no parts. She was amazed at the fact that Janet did not seem surprised, she only nodded all through as if agreeing with what she was saying. After her explanation, the only thing Janet did was sigh and say "It is well, I hoped this would not happen to you too". Rose thought her mother must be joking and had to ask her to repeat herself, the response was the same. Janet then told her about her family, she said "Growing up, my mother never hid anything about her side of the family from us, it has been a tradition for the ladies in their family to be gifted with sight. The sight was different from everyone in the family, some could see the future, some had premonitions about bad things that would happen, some could only see who they would end up with and the special ones could see the dead. My mother hounded us and prepared us, always missing different herbal medicines for her children, both male and female. She was a very opportunistic woman, she wanted to be the first person to produce men gifted with sight, she also wanted her girls to be special, to be able to see the dead. We were never allowed to live like normal children, we all had to stay indoors, recite enchantments and wait for the sight. My brothers were never blessed with it, my mother verbally abused them day in, day out, hoping that would ginger them to see, it did not work, they eventually left the house when they turned 18. On my 15th birthday, I had a dream, I saw your father, I knew I had been blessed with seeing my future lover, but I did not tell her, all she would have done was abuse me and call me useless because I did not have the special gift, It was better to endure the same abuse giving to my brothers, when i clocked 18, I met your father by chance when he came to fix the leaking taps in the house. My Sister on the other hand was blessed with the ability to see ghosts, a blessing that soon became a curse. It started on her 13th birthday, she woke up and upon seeing apparitions in her room, she screamed and came downstairs, my mother was elated but my sister never remained the same. Cara started having mental issues, she did not have the emotional strength necessary, the ghosts talked to her. They often told her story about their past lives, their deaths, some had even gotten reincarnated 5 times. On her 16th birthday, tired of seeing them, she took her own life. However, I think you are blessed with both my sister's and I's gifts but in your own unique way. You can only see the ghost of the man, you were supposed to fall in love with. It is both lovely and sad. I purposely shielded you from it all because i was scared you would turn to be like my sister, I had hoped you would be spared from that blessing which is a curse for some". Rose for the second time in a day, was short of words. She literally had nothing to say. All she did was cry, she could not even put a name to the emotion she felt, she cried and her mother comforted her. Her mother told her all they had to do was figure out, how to communicate with the dead man, just like her sister used to. Episode 2: part 1, This episode is not yet complete, It will be completed tonight. You can find the beginning of the series using this link https://read.cash/@Body_rolls/love-in-the-dark-248e30cc Thank you very much, please leave a comment, it will mean a lot.

Love in the dark Rose woke up drenched in sweat, she had been having the same dream for months, about her mystery man. She checked the clock on the dresser, and just like she expected it was 1 am. She headed to the kitchen, hoping the sound of her bedroom door would not wake up her mum. "One of the disadvantages of being a 23-year-old woman still living with your parents is the lack of privacy, but at least I get free meals once in a while and I don't have to pay for rent", she thought. She proceeded to make herself a cup of coffee and plunged into deep thought. She didn't know how to describe her dreams, it was not a nightmare, but she knew she was always scared for some reason. He was always in the shadows draped in white, and he always came to her when she needed help. She did not know what to make of it, why she would be scared of her presumed savior, but all she knew was she was scared, probably because she never saw his face. Her mother's voice woke her up, she had dozed off, so much for the coffee. She had to freshen up as quickly as she could and head to school where she worked as a teacher. It was a part-time job, she planned on going to law school and she needed all the money she could get, her parents could barely afford to sponsor her through college. She loved her job and sometimes considered taking it up as a full-time profession, but she knew she would not be contented with being a teacher. After an uneventful day, well as uneventful as teaching 3rd-grade students could be, she headed home. She was lost in thought, trying to calculate how much she had saved and how many more months she needed to work when she saw him. He was what she could describe as beautiful, not movie-star beautiful, but beautiful enough to make you sigh. She ogled his body and started imagining things she could do to his body, she had to remind herself how she would feel uncomfortable if a random passerby had sexual thoughts towards her. She felt like she knew him intimately, it was weird because that was her first time meeting him. Fortunately for her, he did not notice her, she stored a mental picture of him in her head and went home. On getting home, the first thing she noticed was that her mother was around, this was a big surprise because she was always in the office at this time of the day. Her mother's name was Janet, Janet hugged her and asked her to sit while offering her a sandwich. This was why their relationship was more like sisters instead of a mother-daughter relationship. Her mum was always so soft-spoken, gentle, and kind, she was also empathetic to know when something was wrong with her daughter. Janet proceeded to explain that the reason she came home early was that she heard her screaming at night, and that wasn't the first time, she needed to know the details of the dream. Rose was perplexed, however, she told her. Janet informed her that in their family, it has always been a tradition of dreaming about your spouse before you meet them, it made the whole love at first sight extra special but the only reason she was confused was that the dream was always romantic, but Rose's dream had violence in it. Rose remembered the man she had met earlier and how she felt she knew him, she then informed her mother that she believe she had met her future lover already. She just had to find him. Mysteriously, she slept peacefully that night, she woke up feeling refreshed and happy, and for the first time in a while, she felt like she had a new purpose. She even put on makeup today, contrary to how people believe people use makeup to make themselves more attractive, Rose only used makeup when she felt happy. Rose was of average height, with a very attractive face, she had wide eyes and a heart-shaped mouth, she had a beautiful set of teeth, and had been told several times that she had a wonderful smile. Rose was blessed with natural curves, she had beautiful brown skin that glittered in the sunlight. On her way to school she noticed a few more stares than usual, she was not surprised. Happiness radiated through her all the day, and whatever shenaniagans her students tried to pull went unnoticed by her, she was in dream land with her beautiful man and nothing could spoil that for her. On her way home she literally glided to the spot she met him yesterday, hoping to see him or ask about him,on getting there, she met a woman and after introduction and a series of questions, she discovered that the man she thought she saw had been dead for 5 years, the day before was his 5 year rememberance service and he died at the spot she saw him, hit by a drunk driver. Note: This is a series, Episode 2, is here https://read.cash/@Body_rolls/love-in-the-dark-balance-between-two-worlds-e64fc1b7

Just another day in a 3rd world country On my way to work this morning, I was stuck in traffic, I was thinking about my schedule for the day when suddenly there was a commotion just beside the Danfo I was in. The first thing i instinctively did was to hold my bag tightly and brace up in case I had to run, on further inspection, I realized that a man had fallen asleep in his own car. His doors were locked, engine running and he fell asleep right in the middle of the road. It was interesting to note the different reactions to this case, there was the Danfo driver who concluded that the man must have been returning from a night club simply because he was a young guy driving a nice car, according to him, young guys who drove that kind of car are mostly fraudsters, so in his opinion, the man must be drunk. The lady besides me was more empathetic, wondering out loud and mentioning the possibility of the guy having a stroke or any medical condition that might have made him unconscious. Then there were the area guys, who for once in Lagos showed me that there is good in everybody, they gathered around him trying to seek for means to open the car windows and help him, even though majority of the people in the bus I was in said it was because they wanted to steal the valuables in the car. Call me naïve, but I chose to believe it was because they wanted to help. I, on the other hand, was more focused on trying to get help for the man by searching and dialing the number of police officers online. Luckily the man in the car woke up, as if from a trance and sped away. People in the bus laughed and talked about it non stop till we got to the park. However, that little incident made me think. On a normal day, Police officers and health workers should be the first people we should run to in cases like this, but while I was trying to get their phone numbers, the woman beside me tapped me not to stress myself, because apparently there were some officers 10 vehicles ahead of us but they were more focused on illegally harassing innocent drivers. If we had succeeded in opening the doors, there might have been the need to rush him to the hospital, but the roads were completely blocked. Also the probability of the man's car being safe once the locks were opened is zero to none. Profiling is one of the greatest dangers we face as a country, you are judged based on your appearance, a fashionable girl is a slay queen, a fashionable boy is a yahoo boy, very fair and beautiful girl is most likely an ogbanje, a man with a tummy and in kaftan is probably a wealthy man while a slim man in normal cloths is a poor man. 75% of the time, they are wrong but it has become so ingrained in Nigerians that this habit is hard to stop, left to the danfo man, he doesn't care if anything happened cause of his certainty that it was a yahoo boy. Going out everyday in Nigeria remind you that at the end of it all, you are all alone and no help is coming from anywhere. But as a people, we need to do better, cause at the end of the day, the man you refused to help today might be you tomorrow. Sometimes, some people willingly cause traffic for no reason, forgetting that someone somewhere might need to get to the hospital as soon as possible, and also area boys have their own usefulness when the need arises.

The bridge between happiness and sadness Imagine walking down the road, happy because something exciting happened to you and suddenly you just become sad, for no reason, no explanation. This happens to me almost everyday, one minute I am happy, next minute I am sad. Sometimes I can pin point what made me sad, and most times it is something minute, a random comment from a passerby, a random video i saw on my phone, a homeless person by the wayside or a bad attitude form someone. For people like me who struggle everyday to be happy, to not give into the sad thoughts that always lurk in our mind, it takes a great deal to smile, and when we smile, it is the most beautiful sight in the world. It really sucks when you have no control over your emotions and any little thing can affect your thoughts and actions. The funniest thing is that it takes more strength to come out of a sad place than a happy place. The most annoying thing is when people ask why are you sad? why don't you try to smile? No Karen, I smiled earlier when I saw your cute little baby until you mentioned how fat I have become. It really takes nothing to be kind to the next person, to mind your words because everybody is different and we react to different things in multiple ways.

How to start a career in Tech The world has we all know is now a global village, thanks to the internet. The influx of technological devices has given birth to a world way different than the one we were used to and with this change came a wide range of career options. With Covid-19 wrecking havoc on a lot of things last year, the job market was not spared as well. A lot of people found themselves jobless and without a definite career path. One of the benefits of a tech job is as long as you regularly update yourself, there is always another job waiting for you. Technology keeps evolving and as it evolves it keeps giving birth to new career paths. In this article, I am going to focus on the 5 most lucrative jobs/skills in tech as of today. Kindly note, no matter how easy a skill is, you must be willing to read and dedicate a quality amount of your time to learning, perseverance is also needed. The beauty about learning a tech skill is that it never goes to waste and after learning, there are endless job opportunities waiting. **TOP 5 TECH AREAS TO LEARN IN 2021** **Artificial Intelligence:** Artificial intelligence(AI) is no doubt in vogue in 2021. The use of AI is extremely necessary as organizations strive to deliver seamless services and forecasting abilities. AI has revolutionalized companies that the need to hire people proefficient in it continues to increase. Multiple businesses have uncovered the value of AI, therby using it to enhance tasks related to workforce planning, simulation modeling and demand projection. The programming languages in popular demand for artificial intelligence are Java, R, Python, tensorflow and natural language processing. As someone who is going into tech it is recommended you learn one of these languages in order to be relevant and climb to the top of your game in 2022 and beyond. **Data analytics, Data Visualization, Data Engineering:** These are 3 seperate jobs and even thought they are connected through data they mean different things. Data analytics is the science of analyzing raw data so as to draw out conclusions from the information produced. Data analytics helps an organization to optimize its performance. What data visualization does, is simply to provide a visual context, so that people can better understand the significance of data. For example: turning spreadsheets into graphs or charts, thereby creating a pictorial representation, so that the charts and graphs can better be understood. Data visualization as a skill is mostly employed by a data analyst. Data engineering on the other hand is what enables data science to exist. Also, data engineering enables the build of tools and infrastructure that data science relies upon to conduct its work. These jobs are consistently and constantly in demand yearly. It is predicted that revenue from this tech skills, will grow from $5.3 billion in 2018 to $19.40 in 2026. They are employed by various industries like the federal government, banking, manufacturing, professional services such as: accounting firms and financial advisors make use of this skill. It is also important to note that due to the influence and advantages big data offers, they have earned a top spot on Linkedin’s emerging job reports, for three consecutive years. The languages in popular demand for data analysts are SQL, R, Python and Microsoft excel, while for data visualization are Python, Java, R and C# and for data engineering, scala, swift, python, SQL and Apache. **Cybersecurity** Because so many organisations now rely on data, it's critical that it's safeguarded as well. Dealing with vast volumes of data, some of which may be very secret necessitates knowledge of cybersecurity, which is a top issue for computer organisations. Cybersecurity is a necessity in any business because the company's reputation is built on its data. There are many benefits to learning cybersecurity, for one it pays extremely well, it is an evergreen industry so there is unlimited potential for growth. It isnt a boring job and there are a lot of work opportunities which can lead to you traveling around the world. Even though some employers might not necessarily require you to code, it is advisable to learn assembly language, python, javascript, C and C++. **Block chain:** Block chain was originally invented for the digital currency-Bitcoin, however it has evolved. Block chain is no longer used for only Bitcoin, it is now used for crowdfunding, file storage, identity management, digital management, peer-to-peer payments, etc. In 2020, the blockchain skills that are in demand include cryptography computing, networking, database design, and various programming languages such as Java, C+ to Go, solidity, JavaScript, and Python. Those skilled in blockchain earn a lot annually, clinching not less than $150,000 per year. Statistically, demand for blockchain engineers increased by 40% from 2017 to 2018, and tech giants such as Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook are currently working with blockchain. **Project management** The ability to establish professional plans can help individuals to manage projects, set goals, and collaborate with others. A natural ability to deal with people and projects can be extremely beneficial in gaining a leadership position in a tech firm. A project manager to have in-depth knowledge about the project he's managing, project management is about communication and psychology. A good project manager can work in any field. Programming languages are just a detail. You can learn these languages or skills by reading books online, taking udemy and Coursera courses, and reading on www.w3schools.com

5 top Crypto Coins to invest A lot of people either made or lost millions in 2021, due to great investments or poor decisions. One thing i have discovered over the year is that you can loose millions when u sell a good coin or hold a bad coin during dip periods. Here are 5 coins that are sure to bring you profit, if you can resist the urge to sell during dip. From the market flunctuations this year, it is safe to say, dip will always happen and some coins never rise from it, the coins listed below are coins that have survived every dip, and most times break new high on return. **Bitcoin (BTC):** Although there are hundreds of cryptocurrencies in active use today, Bitcoin is by far the most popular and widely used with a market cap of 1,058,649,760,572 ($) with a price of $56,321.91 as of the 13th of October, 2021. It was founded by Satoshi Nakamoto and it is the original cryptocurrency. I personally love bitcoin because no matter how low it falls, it is absolutely certain it will rise back. Bitcoin's price was just under $24,000 in December 2020, making an increase of 224% from the start of that year. It took less than a month for Bitcoin to smash its previous price record and surpass $40,000 in January 2021. Bitcoin eventually reached a peak of more than $64,000 on April 14, 2021. The summer, however, saw prices fall by 50%, hitting $32,000, and as of today, it is on its way back to 64,000. The beauty about bitcoin is that it is a very good investment because no matter how low it falls, it will rise back. As always in cryptocurrency, perseverance is key. https://www.moneycrashers.com/cryptocurrency-history-bitcoin-alternatives/ **Ethereum (ETH):** ETH was launched in 2015 and it is the 1st crypto with a programmable blockchain. It is the second-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over 353 million dollars. Through Ethereum, developers could make decentralized apps (dApps) which are used for Decentralized Finance(DeFi) which are platforms that provide financial services without a middleman, such as a bank. They're also used with Non Fungible Tokens(NFT) which are digital assets that people buy and sell as collectibles. The price growth came from technological developments that caused much excitement among traders. ETH has grown from 0$ in 2015 to 3504$ as of today. **Binance Coin (BNB):** BNB is a cryptocurrency that can be used to pay and trade fees on Binance which is one of the largest crypto exchange platforms in the world. Binance Coin currently has a market cap of 64 billion dollars. BNB has moved from beed used just for trades on Binance, as of today it can be used for trading, payment processing or even booking travel arrangements. Its price in 2017 was just $0.10; by Sept. 30 2021, it had risen to over $382, a gain of more than 382,000%. **Solana (SOL):** The Solana (SOL) platform was founded back in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko. The SOL token is the native currency in Solana’s ecosystem. Solana solves the many traditional issues that earlier blockchain technology experiences. Solana displays a new structure for verifying transactions and a more efficient consensus algorithm. The platform will definitely be a strong competitor with Bitcoin and Ethereum with a rising market cap of over 41 billion dollars. Developed to help power decentralized finance (DeFi) uses, decentralized apps (DApps) and smart contracts, Solana runs on a unique hybrid proof-of-stake and proof-of-history mechanisms that help it process transactions quickly and securely. Launched in 2020, SOL’s price started at $0.77. By August 2021, its price was almost $140, a gain of about 18,000%. **Fanthom (FTM):** FTM is the first Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based smart contract platform in the world. This fourth-generation blockchain provides developers and users with some significant upgrades in terms of functionality and usability. It's developers keenly focused on creating a reliable, secure, and fast network for transactions.  The final goal of the project is to one day become the “*nervous system for smart cities*.” The developers envision a day where these living metropolises leverage Fantom’s core protocols to remain connected and conduct daily business. In addition to its infrastructure goals, Fantom seeks to become a top-performing decentralized finance platform in the market. With 80% of the FTM tokens already in circulation, the Fantom blockchain currently boasts $4.5 billion in market valuation. However, the decentralised applications (dApps) facilitator is considered an alternative currency (altcoin for short). However, FTM has surged significantly for the most part of this year. Coming in at $0.01723 on January 1, FTM has surged more than 8,500% this year.

How to Focus on Daily Activities Funke had made a schedule the day before, she even had a dream about it, but after doing the first task, she found it hard to complete the remaining tasks no matter how hard she tried. She went to bed that night feeling sorry and disappointed in herself. She tried again the following day but she could not focus long enough to complete two tasks in a row. Feeling sorry and sad once more, she gave up, she had always had issues focusing on something for longer than 30 minutes and she thought a schedule might help her accomplish that. A few of us have to go through periods where we can't seem to focus on anything, from something as minute as a house chore or something as big as a work project. Sometimes it happens every day, and sometimes it happens once in a while. I have discovered that the first step is acknowledging the fact that it is difficult to concentrate on things for a long period and accepting that. Then proceeding to gradually condition the mind to focus. Funke acknowledged and accepted the issue, but then decided to force her mind which is wrong. Making lists of things to do is an excellent idea, but in between the list, there has to be breaks, most especially for things u love doing. If you notice that when u lose focus u tend to sleep, try to concentrate for hours at a stretch with the thought of sleeping when you are done at the back of your head. You use delayed gratification, that way you can concentrate while also giving the mind what it is used to. Also, another way is positive reinforcement, when you notice yourself losing focus, commend yourself for what you have achieved, understand that it is ok to zone out, and slowly cajole yourself to going back to the task at hand. Make time to do the things you love doing, try to develop your interests and talents, also try to practice relaxation and meditation. Get plenty of exercises and also talk to your friends about what is going on. I used this little method of mine and now I am able to concentrate for a long period of time without taking little breaks in between. When you use delayed gratification, at a point your mind starts to learn how to focus more and in the end, you do not need to reward it.

Struggling with crypto (Tips about Crptocurrency) As of this time last year, a bitcoin (BTC) was worth about 3000 dollars, as at the time of this article 1 BTC is 56000 dollars. This sudden boom in the BTC market brought a lot of limelight to the crypto world combined with the fact that alt coins like Ethereum (ETH) and Binance coin (BNB) also increased tremendously over the past year. There a lot of exchange platforms with which you can use to trade cryptocurrencies, platforms like Binance, Kucoin, Luno and Trustwallet can be used to store, buy and sell these coins. Crypto has made a lot of young individuals millionaires overnight and this hype has led a lot of people into the crypto market. For a lot of newbies, the temptation to panic buy or panic sell is really high, take for instance buying BTC at 60000 dollars and going to bed, or going offline for just a day and then coming back to see it at 45000 dollars. You invested 2000 dollars into BTC and you discover you have lost about 300 dollars, the temptation to say no, let me just sell this is very high, this is how people accumulate losses. Cryptocurrencies are an investment and different people all over the world hold different amount of coins, as cryptocurrency continues to gain ground and more and more people trade with crypto, the probability of the coins continue to rise is very high, no matter how low it falls during a bullish market. The deal is no one knows when a coin will dip or rise, we can only speculate according to trends and information we get online, information like a major BTC holder decides to sell most of his assets might most likely cause a dip in price. That is why monitoring trends and information is important as a crypto trader. this article is basically to give specific advice based on my experiences. If you ask any major trader, you would always be advised to invest what you can afford to loose and what you might not necessarily be in need of for awhile. Cryptocurrencies can be highly volatile and you can lose money as fast as you gain. There is the normal buying coins and keeping them till you are ready to sell, then there is trading on futures and spots which are more volatile. Before your coin might gain significant profit it might take a long while, not all coins produce profits immediately. It is best to invest an amount you can make do without just in case. Make sure you do what you understand and what works for you, do not jump into any coin or token just because you heard about it, make your own research, study the trend and don't be swayed by screenshots of profits. If you do not understand the basics of a coin or don't understand how to trade it, it is advisable not to do it till you learn more about it. Be patient, it might take a while to find an opportunity that will work for you. Do not buy coins that have risen so much in value rapidly over a very short period of time, a coin that pumps fast will surely dip. Always wait for the dip before buying, do not jump into a trade, profits are made when you buy a cheaper coin and sell at a high price not when you buy at a high price and sell at a cheap price. The cheaper you get a coin, the more profits you make. Recently people are investing more in alt coins, projects like doge which started at 0.0$ in 2013, it is currently at 0.6$, those who invested when the coin came out or was listed on popular exchange platforms and were patient enough to hold would have made a tonne of profit. New Projects like Solana, Cake, and FTM are promising projects too. This has led a lot of individuals to jump on every new coin or token with the hope of it making over a 100% profit, however, some times coins worth 1 $ when listed might end up falling back to cents after being listed and pumped because the probability of people to sell after gaining from a coin is very high, some times after a coin is being listed, it does not pump but continues to dip. therefore avoid jumping on a new coin or token that has just been listed on popular exchanges, the best time to get a coin is before listing or 3 months after listing, take enough time to study the coin and figure out if it works for you. Learn to take profit, not everybody can be holders, do not wait for the coin to reach maximum price before you sell, pick a price you feel ok with and sell, do not worry if it goes beyond the price, you can always get an opportunity to buy later. Basically, these are not financial advice or things set in stone, they are just things I have learned based on my experiences which have always worked for me. You can always join WhatsApp and telegram cryptocurrency groups to get more information, follow trends on twitter and read more about Crypto, I hope this helps. I will be talking about how to get free airdrops and the basic meaning of crypto terms in my next article.

Learning and Unlearning Some of us grew up reading romance novels, some of us loved the ones where the man is always portrayed as a strong, handsome individual with excess money but a lot of emotional baggage and the woman innocent, chaste, pure often poor but with a heart of gold. The woman mostly falls in love with the man because she's in a helpless situation and somehow needs the man's help and the man oh bless God sees her as a challenge, an object, he rids her of her innocence, while tormenting her emotionally, but the woman stays taking care of him, helping him to deal with his baggage and when she can't take the emotional abuse anymore she leaves. Suddenly the man realizes that he loved her from the beginning and makes it his mission to get her back, he tells her he loves her and promises to treat her better. She comes back and they make beautiful love and the author makes us believe they leave happily ever after. When I was younger, I read a lot of books with plots like this, I sucked and still suck at remembering names and titles so I can't cite an example. But narratives like this where some women are stuck with a savior's complex. Believing they have to stick around and the man will get better. even if he treats her like shit, she has to stay, she has to help him survive, she has to fix him because men can be fixable. The truth is everyone is broken in different ways, no one is completely whole, but it is no one's job to fix someone else. Even if you want to try, you always have to remind yourself that it is not your job to, because you can only try but a man that doesn't want to be fixed cant be fixed. Instead of spending a whole lot of time fixing someone, it is ok to love them and still walk away because you know it is not your job too. This same narrative applies to men, who were trained to believe that women can never be physically or emotionally abusive that they end up staying with an abusive partner because they find it hard to leave. It is never easy to leave or to unlearn things that we believe but we have to try, because that is what life is all about, learning and unlearning, no one should have to stay in a difficult position just because of past believes that no longer apply in this world we live in. People tell you to be happy in the moment, forget about everything, just enjoy it, go with the flow. they do not tell you that the signs you saw when you were trying to be happy in the moment will come back to bite you in the ass. No one tells you that no moment can last forever. It is ok to leave, it is ok to unlearn and it is ok to love again.

Needs and Wants Bimbo was at home on the 14th of February (valentine's day) preparing to start her daily activities, she had earlier hoped that 2021 was going to be the year she'd feel loved and celebrated on that day. The previous year had been the worst year she had ever experienced, losing her mum who was the breadwinner of her family to the corona Virus was the most devastating thing she had ever experienced, she was just a year old when her father died so she did not really know what it felt like to have a father. She automatically became responsible for her siblings and had to be the strong one in the family. On a normal day, valentine's day won't have really mattered to her, seeing that it was just a day, but this time, she craved the attention of someone special, someone that would celebrate her and be proud to show how much he loved her to the world. Instead, she knew that she would spend the major part of the day selling Lacasera and Gala to motorists on the busy streets of Lagos. She exchanged her thoughts to a neighbor who just happened to pass by at that moment. The neighbor laughed at her and called her naive, he said that only little children take valentine's day serious. Bimbo felt so little and unseen, she felt that probably her neighbor was right, so she spent the day thinking of how to be less naive while hawking Lacasera and Gala in the hot sun. Bimbo's case is just a scenario I created to shed better light on why valentine's day matters to some people. For people like bimbo who have lost the people they love the most, the desire to feel loved becomes more obvious on that day to them probably because of the way they see the way other people are being loved on that day. For some, it's just the need to feel part of the multitude, to just do something that every other people are doing so as not to feel left out. For some, it is a day to show their loved ones how special they are to them, to publicly or privately express their love. while for others, it is just a day. It doesn't really matter how you feel on that day, whether you want to be loved and all, it doesn't change the fact that it is just one day. That doesn't negate the fact that how you feel matters, but love isn't a one-day thing, love is a continuous thing. The need we feel to experience stuff doesn't just stop, for Bimbo who feels the need to feel celebrated on that day, that need won't stop on that day, she might probably end up feeling the need for someone to take some of the load off her back, her need might change the following second, hour or day. Needs and wants are a constant thing, the need for food, the want for Jollof Rice. It changes every day. Whenever you feel the need for anything be it love, attention, time, food, water, do not berate yourself, do not look down on yourself, do not let what other people think get to you. Recognize that needs and wants are valid, no matter how trivial it might feel to you. Valentine's day has come and gone, whether your needs were met or not doesn't matter, just know it wasn't meant to be. Keep on recognizing your feelings, keep on acknowledging why you feel the way you do, keep in mind that other people's needs might be different, always keep in mind that your needs and wants are essential to you, and never let anyone take that way from you. Your only focus should be how to make your needs and wants happen.

A tale of Nigeria Woes I was about to enter a bus this morning and the first thing I noticed immediately I entered was a man looking visibly disturbed, he was shouting and crying at random intervals. Being new to Lagos and with everything I've heard about Lagos, I quickly dashed to the front sit, hoping that at least it's easier to escape while sitting alone in front. When the bus began to move, I started to regret my actions because I could have just stayed back and not entered the bus. I proceeded to lean far away from my seat and far away from the driver, body Close to the door just in case. Lol Living in Lagos comes with paranoia, everything scares you, you learn to judge every little action anyone to you makes, you tend to not trust anybody, you have to learn how to ignore, how to survive, how to react swiftly, how to make prompt decisions. You learn how to sit for long hours in traffic on wooden chairs in what used to be a bus, in what used to be a beautiful bus but has been reduced to a ridicle of it's former self, you learn how to walk for long distances because there is no easy means of transport on that route, you learn to hold your bag very close to you and to distrust anyone staying very close to you, you learn how to work extremely hard under tough conditions for very little amount. The man that was visibly disturbed began to explain his woes, apparently he was robbed just that morning, on the bus he took before the one he was in. He was helpless and did not know what to do. That's how this country robs us all the time, suddenly and without respect for humanity. You work round the clock and your boss can just decide to not pay you full blaming it on coronavirus. Like you did not know there was coronavirus when you asked your employees to come to work everyday and at normal hours, you have no choice than to accept it because to complain means you getting fired and being without a job in Nigeria is not a good thing. You decide to travel to your home town to see your people, you lose count of the number of accidents on the road because of the bad road, you decide to go to work in Lagos and fuel tankers are falling on the road. You decide to sleep at home, heat and mosquito wants to finish you. The country robs you of the most basic of all amenities. How do we react, by being afraid of our fellow man, by loosing trust in humanity, by accepting it all and praying that it'll all be better.

BTC 201 Hello my people, this is a continuation to my previous article BTC 101, in this article I'd be explaining crypto currency a little bit and why you should invest in it. After Bitcoin is a crypto currency and I can't talk about BTC without first enlightening you about BTC. In my next article, I'll be focusing on BTC investment options. Have fun while reading, I'd love to get feedback from you. Why Invest In Crypto currency? A lot of people have heard of crypto currencies eg Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple(XRP) and so on. Yet they feel skeptical as to whether it is an investment worth risking their money in. They're wrong in numerous ways. Let's start from the top, shall we? What is a crypto currency? A crypto currency is a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority. Dcentralized crypto currencis such as bitcoin now provide an outlet for personal wealth that is beyond restriction and confiscation’. Beyond restriction and confiscation means it is only accessible by you. It is safe and secure. It can not be hacked into. Why crypto currency? Well, it's the easiest way to enrich yourself. Gone are the days in which one has to work hard and sweat to get money. Now you can be on your phone or system and be earning an income every day or better still, every hour. Take Bitcoin for instance, launched in 2009, the price of one Bitcoin remained a few dollars for it's first few years and as at the time of this article, December 7th, it is worth 19257.50 dollars Stay with me here. Say when Bitcoin came out in the year 2009, you purchased about 10bitcoins. That would have cost no more than 50 dollars. The same Bitcoin worth 50 dollars then will be worth 19257.50*10 which is 192,575dollars. That's a profit of 192,525 dollars for doing absolutely nothing, just from investing in cryptocurrency. Now the prices of cryptocurrencies fluctuate, yes, but they'll definitely rise higher in the nearest future. Some predict that a Bitcoin will be worth about a hundred thousand dollars in some years. Do you really want to miss out on such great opportunity? There are some cryptocurrencies available to mine on your phone at the moment. My favorite is Pi, it is promising and easy to earn. Let me explain what I mean. Pi is a cryptocurrency created by Stanford graduates. It is not worth money yet but there are strong hopes that it will soon. It has about 9.5million active users. How do you earn? Easy. You register and you click the earn button every 24 hours to confirm you're not a robot. Like that, your Pi keeps accumulating. Personally, I'm on 2000Pi. Imagine Pi attaining the value of 100 dollars in some years. That's 200,000dollars gotten from doing nothing, just investing in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is the future. It is already recognized as a means of payment. In a particular country(the name is refusing to come to me at the moment), they already have Bitcoin ATMs. If you think waiting for the currency to reach a very high price is a long wait, you might as well become a trader (buy when it's low and sell when it's high). Again, cryptocurrencies are safe, secure and easy to make money from. They are the future. Invest wisely.

Hair Care 101 Why you shouldn't use eggs on hair The benefits of using eggs on our hair is something our grandmothers and friends can't stop gushing about. Well there's more you should know about using them . If you have a sensitive scalp prone to dandruff and itchiness, this article is for you . An egg contains 6 gram of protein and while the white part is made up of more than half this percent , the yolk is made up of fat and less precent of protein. The excessive use of Eggs on hair can lead to protein overload which means an imbalance between the level of protein and moisture in the hair. This imbalance can lead to dry hair , hair loss and itchy scalp . Also , excessive use of Eggs on a sensitive scalp makes the hair lose its shine and become stiff and dull looking so if you want to keep those shiny curls , stay away from eggs. If you're also prone to dandruff outbreaks, egg is something you should avoid as the dryness of hair can lead to build up of dandruff on scalp . Yes they make your hair look shiny and curly after you wash them off but what goes on underneath the root of your hair a few days later is what really matters . However this notion doesn't apply to everyone as what works for A might not work for B . Study shows that some people tend to be more sensitive to protein than others are . In conclusion, eggs are a great source of protein and they have a lot of benefits but we should take into consideration, not just what is good for our hair but what is good for our hair and scalp . If applying eggs is still an option, an increased time interval before another application, is advised .

Body Positivity BODY POSITIVITY So you think you're too short? Someone somewhere is hating on his or herself for being too tall. You think you're too fat? Well guess what, people are out there taking drugs to help them gain weight. You think you're too slim? Go to the gym and see what people are passing through just cause they want to lose weight. What don't you like about yourself? Your eyes? Your nose? Your lips? People do surgery everyday just to have that thing that you so dislike. Let me share a story with you. At age 10 I was weighing about 65kg. Although I was the last girl in a group of four girls, I was the fattest. I went through series of self hatred. I wanted to lose weight so bad I went on hunger strike. The end result was ulcer. Yes, I got ulcer from the starvation I put myself through. I still feel the pains now, years after. It sounds like a cliche when people say you have to love yourself but trust me, you do. You keep comparing yourself to people, you wish God made you differently. You're only harming yourself. The way you are is beautiful. There's no such thing as too short, too tall, too fat, too slim. The way you are is perfect. The first step to growth is you loving yourself. Remember I'm the fourth daughter of my parents? Well I always compared myself to my sisters. How come I'm dark while they are all light? How come I'm fat while they are all slim? It wasn't until I let go of self hate that I realized that there's beauty in everything. It doesn't matter your skin color, size or shape, you are beautiful. Embrace your beauty, stop being negative about yourself. BE POSITIVE ABOUT YOUR BODY TODAY!

BTC 101 Hello my people, this is a short series about Bitcoin. It consists of different parts, my intention is to educate about Bitcoin. Most people know about Bitcoin, we use it in fact, but do we actually know Bitcoin, well this is just the introduction, I'll keep updating the article and posting more about it as time goes by. So enjoy this very short intro for now. Recently a lot of payments are made using Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) is a crypto currency that allows transactions to be carried out without using a middle man such as financial institutions. It is digital and allows instant and swift payment. There are no physical bitcoins only ledgers that contains transactions and balances. It is a virtual currency that uses peer to peer network. In a peer to peer network, files can be transferred from each peer to another without the need of a central server because each peer can act as both a server and a client. Benefits of Bitcoin include: Versatility, it can be used to purchase items, exchanged with other users, it can even be swapped with other currencies, User Identity Protection, it facilitates fast, easy and reliable payments, low cost transaction, easily accessible, it is not easily traceable. While Bitcoin has a lot of benefits and the benefits are what majority of us focus on, it has it's own disadvantages too because everything that has has an advantage comes with a disadvantage too. Disadvantages of BTC include: Bitcoin can not be used for transactions in physical stores because it has no physical form, except the physical store supports online crypto currency payment, BTC can't be used, if perhaps you buy BTC and the seller doesn't provide the full BTC or something occurs Along the way, there is no refund process, hence no buyer protection, you can be exposed to scammers and fraudsters. While it's harder to steal BTC than cash, it doesn't mean it doesn't occur, wallets can also be lost. While the fluctuating price of BTC can be an advantage it can also be a disadvantage, it's all determined by the side you fall into. Although BTC has it's disadvantages, they are disadvantages faced by other transaction currencies too. Investing in BTC is one of the greatest financial decisions you can ever make. As this short series go longer, I'll be talking about investment options and trading options. Next on our short series is to talk about how BTC works.

Adulting 101 The presence of courage is not the absence of fear, it's the zeal to do it regardless of being afraid. There is a thing line between been brave and being foolish, when you make a decision defying logic and in the end it works out positively, we assume it was bravery at work, but when the outcome is negative, we most times believe it's foolishness have defied plain logic and reasoning in the first place. Growing up we are confronted with making decisions everyday, these decisions make or mar you. We sometimes make decisions based on logic or on impulse or on pre-existing conditions. Some times we hope or have faith that we made the best decision, at other times we doubt whatever decision we make. How do we know when our decisions will turn out to be brave or foolish, how do we know what way to make the decision, how do we know if it's logic or impulse that will work. With Time, we learn to differentiate, we learn to make decisions based on previous knowledge or on observation. We learn to know how to balance our decisions well to reflect bravery. And we also learn to have blind Faith in ourselves, to hope no matter what, that our decision brings out positive results. As we continue to make good and bad decisions, we hope to get to that stage.

Everyone Pretends Most times, we pretend to be what we are not, we sometimes pretend to be more than we are or less than we are. We act like we are ok with living the way we do, we act like words do not hurt, , we try to hide our emotions, we wear clothes to project a certain personality, we try to act like we aren't in love. It's a brutal world and a little bit of weakness can make you extremely vulnerable to your fellow human. No one knows who might be willing to use it against you. When we go out, we most times have to keep our normal personalities at home and put on a tough exterior until we get to a place were we can be free again. In relationships, the one who loves more, the one who is weaker gets hurt faster. So it's a struggle, a struggle not to appear too needy, too clingy, too emotional, too in Love. The person who acts tough can be seen as heartless, loveless and without emotions. We try to act normal, most times playing a script we imagine should work. It all gets to a point where everyone gets tired of putting up a facade, where we decide to be who we are regardless of whatever we get to face. We'd all get to that point at a time, that point where we are so comfortable with ourselves and our personalities that we know how to balance it all, that we accept the negative aspect of our personalities, that we realize everyone pretends sometimes and whichever way we decide to live, either by pretending or being ourselves, Nobody really cares except you, cause in the end, it's your life and you determine the way you live.

In a lost world Waking up every morning is a blessing, we close our eyes with plans or thoughts about the next day while most times forgetting about the uncertainty of us having the ability to open our eyes. Each second we go about our activities and each second that we use might be our last. Everyone knows we'd all die one day,but we don't know when, I dare say most people will give anything to know the very hour we'd die so that we can plan towards the future. Imagine living in a community where the certainty of the next day grows slimmer each second, where the country keeps growing insecure and poor. Where security is starting to become a thing of the past and value for life is a myth. A country where it's easy to get frustrated, it's easy to lose hope in life, it's easy to forget the blessing that each day brings, it's easy to forget the Joy of life. Imagine how people live in illusion, people living in disdain wondering why anyone would want to end it all, condemning people who actually end it all. The hypocrisy of it all, we all have different threshold for different things, we all have the same misfortune the country brings affecting us in different ways and different ways of adjusting to it. Some people are unlucky to have other personal things to sort out, other personal issues to deal with. We all feel overwhelmed sometimes, we feel lost, we feel alone living in an empty world. It's ok to feel this way, no one knows what each person is really going through, even though we live on the same earth, we live in different worlds. We just have to find that little bit of hope to get through each second, and when that hope is gone, we hope that we'd find the strength to go on regardless.