I came across bitcoin in 2013, around the Cyprus crisis. I joined bitcointalk, reddit, people were tipping coins everywhere - I think my first satoshis were from tips.

I remember there was a Forbes journalist who was trying to live on bitcoin for a week, and we were all excitedly following her story. She actually managed to live on bitcoin back in 2013 - not sure that would be possible now with all the merchants dropping BTC because of the fees.