My story

Greetings fellow steemians, I'm so excited to be joining this community!

I'm a Peruvian-born citizen of Earth who currently resides in Morehead City, North Carolina with my loving wife and my two beautiful boys as well as our Brussels Griffon and tabby cat. We recently moved to North Carolina from Brooklyn to be closer to family (two boys are a lot of work!) and so that I could pursue a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences. My lifelong passion is the study of sharks, especially related to their conservation. I am on a scholarship paid for by the Peruvian government and will return to Peru with my family upon graduating to start a career researching sharks there. My dream is to aid in protecting sharks from the threats they face in Peruvian waters. Our family is vegan and we strive to develop traditions that are centered around compassion and care for the earth and all its inhabitants.

I have recently developed a fascination, dare I say borderline obsession with blockchain technology. This comes from a couple of different, and somewhat opposing angles. While I by no means consider myself to be the most tech-savvy member of the community, my research has exposed me to some coding and I have seen the power computers and mathematics have to improve our lives firsthand. Online communities are often proudly free and open-sourced with an ethos of collaboration and sharing that give me hope for the future. On the other hand, I have some concerns with the way some technology is affecting our society, especially with some of the tech giants and how they seem to control our lives these days. This recently caused me to end my presence on Facebook, but I do still admittedly use Twitter (selacophile_dad) and Instagram (martinbenavides1). When I heard about a decentralized social media platform, however, I thought, "this is what I've been looking for!"

Having lost my father at 16, I've struggled with depression/anxiety and/or addiction for most of my life (I'm 32), but I consider myself extremely fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family that have always and continue to love and support me. I'm at a point in life where I seek restoration and transformation, for which spirituality and ancient healing traditions have brought me great comfort and wisdom. I am also striving to give of myself in the service of those who are less fortunate or share a need for healing.

It took me over a month to finish writing this (almost 2) so I don't want to oversell my contributions to this community, however I hope to be able to share my experiences in life as authentically as possible on this platform. I find I spend a lot of time deliberating, dividing myself and censoring some of my thoughts and feelings on other social media platforms and I want to try to avoid that here and really present myself as I am: the good, the bad and the ugly. Because I just celebrated my birthday and had a week long vacation to celebrate my son's birthday/July 4th, I can honestly start on an upbeat note! Thanks for reading and I look forward to exploring this new community with you all!