How I found somewhere I belonged.
Before Web3, I struggled mentally, not knowing what my future might look like. Depression wrecked my ambition. Thoughts of self-doubt clouded my mind thanks to cPTSD & PMDD.
I got into Web3 in September of 2021 when I was dabbling in the NFT community. I quickly saw how kind the community was. At the time, I mainly collected art on Tezos because it had accessibly-priced works and a fun community.
Over the next few months, I explored the technical side of Web3. In March of 2022, I stumbled across a tweet made by @camiinthisthang. In her tweet, she was looking for more women & nb builders for a hackathon. I never expected a tweet to be as impactful as hers.
I pressed the reply button and started writing to express my interest. I remember becoming hesitant because of the aforementioned self-doubt that I carried. But, something inside me was telling me that I needed to try this — I submitted my response. Best decision ever.
Not long after I replied, I had a dm with a friendly message & a Discord invitation. I accepted the invitation. Upon joining the server, I saw many different women searching for teammates. I started browsing the spreadsheet of teams, looking for a team with an opening.
We had several meetings about going through the hackathon process, as this was the first hackathon for many of us. We later split off into calls with our team and planned a project! We hacked daily until the deadline, then submitted our project.
The hackathon ended. We waited for the results & all of the teams were wondering what was next for all of us. We held a town hall meeting which would be another big turning point. From that meeting, we decided to turn our hackathon groups into something more: an organization.
This was the initial founding point for @womenbuildweb3— we started working on our whitepaper, defining core values and goals of what we hoped to accomplish for future women and non-binary builders in the space.
I had gone from someone who was chronically ill mentally to someone who was pursuing knowledge daily. I decided I wanted to become something bigger and serve a purpose— I started dreaming of helping empower others with our mission. I felt so good.
I cried a bit because I don’t remember ever feeling so happy. I had just found somewhere I belonged — a community with big dreams and even bigger talent. I felt so inspired by our organization that I dove so hard into learning more. They gave me the drive I needed.
I also had hoped to use sharing as a means to inspire others to learn. There’s a place practically for everyone here, whether you know how to code or not. If you had told me that one tweet would turn into all of this, I wouldn’t have believed you.
After this, we continued working hard on WBW3 and came up with our first larger-scale project: 30 Days of Web3, a curriculum rich with information about how to create an RSVP dApp on chain.
We wanted to start educating others on the Web3 world and technologies.
By the time our 30 Days of Web3 program launched, I had written about 6 sections of our curriculum. I felt so excited about the launch. This was big for us!! We have now had thousands of participants. My mind was blown!
My self-confidence started growing, & as it continued to grow, I felt the darkness that had plagued my mind start to fill with light. I found it easier to fight back against negative thoughts that previously held me back from taking a leap of faith down a new path.
So what now? I continue learning something new every day. I can now think bigger than I ever have before, and I am so thankful for all of the wonderful friends and connections I’ve been able to make so far. I’ve learned so much, and this is only the beginning.
I also get to do awesome stuff for @breshnagame now — which is like a Canva for creating fun educational games. Working with @gamingfordev has been a dream. She has been so inspiring, and I love her energy. There is so much for me to learn from her.
I want to be able to learn more so that I may continue to educate others as well. I know this is only my experience, but I hope to make an impact and help others believe in themselves.
If you’d like to read an in-depth article about my first hackathon experience, you can check it out here. If you're interested in 30 Days of Web3, you can check it out here.
*This article was adapted from a Twitter thread by CuddleofDeath.eth*
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