Hello everyone, I am a junior in college. My writing is average, but I still want to share the story of me and a friend over the years, and how we both stepped into the crypto world together.

My friend and I are high school classmates. Back then, we were both honest students who just focused on studying, and we didn't know much about the crypto scene. Until one day, when we overheard seniors chatting casually, and suddenly I heard about DOGE, a meme coin that became popular. I was quite interested, so with the help of relatives at home, I took out all my savings—3,000 yuan—and bought some DOGE spot.

That was the beginning of my journey into crypto. My friend found out I made a small profit, and although he didn't take it too seriously, we encouraged each other. In the end, we both got into a pretty good university.

In college, we went our separate ways—he studied film production, and I chose business administration. Later, he got a girlfriend, and life became a bit tight financially. We reconnected over the crypto topic. During that time, we researched the market together and bought a lot of spot when ETH dropped to the low of 1300. After making some money, we both felt like winners, as if the whole world was in the palm of our hands.

However, in the end, it was just small gains and losses. Later, he was busy exploring video ideas, and I was caught in a cycle of exams and competitions. Gradually, we lost contact.

Until that night, he told me he had come to terms with things. He recounted that cold winter, the embarrassment of pushing a cart in the rain at four in the morning wearing thin clothes, those days of only six hours of sleep a week, and the exploitation by unscrupulous bosses who paid only 500 yuan every two days but still deducted 100. At that time, he couldn't even scrape together 100 yuan to have a decent meal with his partner.