Ever since I had heard about SteemFest I knew I wanted to go. No doubt it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event, in a debaucherous town with awesome people, united by a common interest: STEEMIT!
Why even hesitate?
Well: money.
In Romania, the average monthly salary is about 500 euros and the Amsterdam weekend will be about 500 euros, so it wasn't a sum that I can just spend it and forget it. If you are coming from a different part of the world 500e might be more or less important so everyone has a different money question. If money was no questions, I'd have just done it instantly. As it was, I had to spend a few days thinking about it.
Another thing to consider is "opportunity cost". Even if you have money, you might use them better somewhere else: investment, savings, a rate on that dream house....you name it, there's always an opportunity cost to spending [ unless you're super rich or something ].
So, being the neurotic person that I am ( did you know this about me?! :D ) I asked around and debated with friends. Then someone said something along these lines:
"You can do all kind of things with those money but at the end of the day, you can't buy this experience"
And something just clicked in my mind. How true is that?
Because being part of Steemit is, for me, about community first! I "met" so many great people around here that I'm just so excited to meet in real life! I know that no matter what, the experience will be worth it. ( also, you get 1000SP so that's not nothing either )
But on a larger scale, it led to a small paradigm shift for me. From now on, I'll remind myself only one thing before I decide on spending money vs saving money:
Experience >> Money
So, if you are not yet sure if you should come to Amsterdam - 11th, 12th, 13th November - for SteemFest, ask yourself how much do you value this experience. If nothing else, you'll get to meet ME! ( and @roelandp and @ned and so on so forth )
I hope I'll see a lot of you there and I can not wait!