I Made Friends With A 9 Year Old Because of Steemit

I was just sitting there, eyes glued to the computer screen, like any good millennial completely addicted to technology would do.

That's when I felt something brush up against my shoulder and snap me out of it!

I quickly looked next to me to find a little Chinese boy, who materialized out of thin air, with his face even closer to my computer screen than mine had been.

He was pressing harder into my side now so he could get as close to my screen as possible.

Seems the rumors about differences in personal space in China are true, haha. I didn't mind, though. It actually just made me laugh out loud. His parents were laughing, too.

His mom said in English "Maybe you should ask the nice lady if you can sit with her."

She assumed I was nice 😆 (okay, fine... I guess she was right. Sometimes I'm too nice... I've found out that's a thing).

So, what was so fascinating on my computer screen that just got this little boy to invite himself over to my table?

It was something steemit related, of all things!!!

I was on steemtools.com, trying to solve a little more of the mystery that is this whole "steemit" thing.

I just happened to find a tool where you can see 🐳s and 🐬s who are on steemit swimming through water. Check it out: http://steem.loadsup.net/sonar/

He thought it was a video game!! 😆

So here I am, trying to explain crypto, steemit, and whales and dolphins to a 9-year-old who barely speaks any English.

We will soon see China's youngest member on the steemit community! (haha, probably not... but wouldn't that be cool?)

I ended up spending the next 2 hours just talking with his family and we ended up having dinner together. They even paid for my meal. And, I got their contact info and have an invite to stay at their house if I'm ever around Hong Kong.

I never imagined that Steemit would bring me real-life connections in such an unconventional way!!!

I seriously had the best night with this boy (his name is Spark, by the way) and his family! I even ended up hanging out with them a different night, as well! YAY steemit! 😃

I like to call this one "half dab/ half fail":

Spark's English was so cute. He said "very very thank you" to me. And he said "you call phone of my mom and you ask Spark" 😆 so smooth with the older ladies!

This one's super blurry, but I don't care because I love Spark's face in this one: