STEEM Forest - Do not let a good crisis go to waste!

I must admit it - I have been scammed or rather, I allowed to be scammed. A greed played a big factor on my part. I imagined that if the scammer delivered on his promise, my holding would increase significantly. I even calculated my gains and put them neatly in my spreadsheet to track my crypto net-worth. The potential gains turned quickly in real losses. 

Image source: Wikipedia

Before I sent any STEEM to the scammer I did my basic “research”. Recognized member of a community? Check. History of payments? Check. Backing of the whales? Check. Are the other people putting the money in? Check.  

What I did not realize, simply because I had no experience with it, is the fact that criminals like Carlos Cardenas can exploit Steemit.com to develop almost warm and fuzzy relationships with the community. This relationship has appeared authentic to me, also because it lasted over a long period of time. Cardenas is a petty thief. He does not have an intelligence or a vision to run a big scam that would net him millions, and that could happen if he had paid up several of bigger accounts. This may be a blessing. Being just a small-town scumbag, he’ll be happy with his second-hand BMW and a soulless girlfriend.  

I have never been scammed before (leave the government aside) and it was a completely new sensation to me. Although the financial impact has been significant the psychological one far outweighed the former. See, I really had to work hard to save up the money that allowed me to buy STEEM. I bought it high, at $1.20 and it was one of my very first crypto experiences. My first reaction was a complete loss of trust that extended into the Steemit community. I even started the process of powering down to leave this community. I considered completely crazy ideas like crowd-funded hitman, who would visit our scammer one night. Then @neoxian stepped in and thanks to his incredible generosity I realized that leaving Steemit and having thoughts of vendetta would be a mistake. I stopped my down powering. Although I have not recovered majority of my lost funds, @neoxian has performed healing for me. I no longer suffered, and I regained trust. This event became just a financial loss and that I can deal with. I am rarely on a receiving end but this time it was exactly what I needed. 

Now, what to do with this crisis? My personality does not allow me to just do nothing. To learn and grow I need to take some action. I must spin it, so that it becomes a positive experience not only for me but also for Steemit community and the world. With those thoughts, I was about to fall asleep last night when an idea occurred to me to plant a bunch of trees somewhere here in the city to commemorate this incredible event. I am not a tree planter. I have planted a handful of trees in my life, but I love trees and the world can benefit from more trees. Every tree that I plant will come with a QR tag that will point to this very article. Hopefully with time a small forest will grow. This way I will promote Steemit.com and this phenomenal community. The act of tree planting will help me heal and a new layer of wood will be added every year thickening the ste(e)m.  

I will report back here occasionally with my tree planting progress. 

Love