How I Scored $20k by Having Fun

My name is Mike Smith, and I want to tell you a story about how I managed to score $20,000 during the pandemic, thanks to a black notebook I found in High Park.

First, a bit about myself. I am a singer/songwriter who lives in Toronto, Ontario. I perform for a living, mostly at small, intimate venues like coffeeshops or niche restaurants. My music is a mixture of folk and rock, so I am able to please a good variety of listeners. Paying my bills was a struggle at the best of times, but things really went south for me when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, and suddenly I could no longer perform for a living.

When the news hit and the lockdowns began, I had a moment of panic. If I can't perform, how am I going to afford rent, food, and pay my other bills? I was already in some debt that I had to take out for expenses like a new acoustic-electric guitar. Not for the first time, I was facing the prospect of homelessness square in the face, and it was terrifying. There was word on CBC about financial assistance being provided for Canadians, but no word yet on what would be provided. The only thing that was sounding certain was that we were going to be in this pandemic for at least 6 months. Shit.

Frustrated, I walked down to High Park to walk around and clear my thoughts. I found it helpful to relax when times get stressful. As I was walking down a path, periodically taking drags from my vape pen, I came across a park bench and saw a black book sitting on the seat. I stopped and looked around, but I didn't see anyone close by this could belong to. Curious, I sat down and opened it up to see if there was any indication of who owned it. Maybe I could return it to them. Unfortunately, there was no identification information, it was just a personal notebook. But flipping through the pages, I saw them say "I manifested the money I wanted!" and I sat upright. Okay, they have my attention! Flipping through it, there was a lot to read. I looked around me again, but no one seemed to be headed towards me to retrieve the book. I decided I would take it home and read, but would make an honest and earnest effort to return the book to its rightful owner -- if I could figure out who that was.

Well, the book read like a bunch of bullshit, about how being and staying in a good mood could bring you anything you wanted. But since I was kind of desperate, I was willing to try anything at this point. I grabbed my bills and looked at my bank account, debt, and what I had in my pocket. Some math later, and I realized that about $15,000 was what I would need to get by for the next 6 months, $20,000 if this was going to last the rest of the year. I looked down at the notebook and said, "I sure hope you know what you're talking about." But I closed my eyes and said, "I want to manifest $20,000 to cover me for the next 9 months. Please make it happen."

I started making a regular routine of going to High Park for an hour or two each day. It was just an easy way to clear my head and calm my emotions. In spite of myself, I started enjoying the brisk spring air. I started trying to think about alternatives to performing live. Lost in thought, I sort of wandered off the path and towards a cherry tree. Something at the base of the tree caught my eye. It looked like a dead leaf from autumn that hadn't been cleared away, but it looked weird somehow. I moved closer and realized it was a Canadian $100 bill! Yoink! I glanced around as I tried to subtly pocket it. Finders keepers, right? Now I was in a much better mood. Holy crap, I already found $100! Maybe there's something to this after all?

I talked with some musician friends, and some of them told me that they had already been performing on Twitch, so they were just doing more of that now and hoping for the best. I had a webcam for chatting with friends who moved away for university or college, so I figured I could probably do that. It took some time to figure it out, but I started streaming on Twitch. I had no presence so I had no expectations of if this would even generate income, but it just felt good to play and pretend I had an audience, even if I had zero viewers. So I just did it for fun. Over the next few weeks, people started to find me and I managed to become a Twitch Affiliate. Now people could donate "bits" and subscribe to my channel, which generated some small income for me. Some people even gave cash donations! It worked out to $20 a week when I started earning, but it started to generate a bit more as time passed. Tracking the money I was coming into started getting tricky at this point, so I started making a list.

A couple weeks into the pandemic, Prime Minister Trudeau announced the Canadian Economic Recovery Benefit, or CERB for short. It would be a taxable $500 per week benefit that Canadians out of work could apply for, for a maximum of 16 weeks, the equivalent of 4 months. Since I wasn't eligible for Employment Insurance, this was such a relief! But it wasn't available quite yet. Eventually I was able to apply, and felt great that this was going to score me $8,000 by the end of the 4 months. This was a huge relief, let me tell you! It took a few weeks to start receiving the payments, but I was so grateful!

During the cherry blossom season at the start of April, they actually shut down High Park for almost 2 weeks. Since walking in the park was not an option at that time, I started just walking around my area. I happened to find an OLG scratch ticket on the top rim of a garbage can. I picked it up and looked it over, and realized it was a winner for $1000 and hadn't been signed yet! So I went into the convenience store and redeemed it for the prize. Holy shit, this was amazing!

When High Park opened again, I started going out and sitting on a park bench with my guitar, just strumming and playing whatever came to mind, trying to come up with some new songs. I wasn't trying to busk, but some people started tossing some loonies or small bills at me. I was just doing it for fun and a change of scenery. I tried telling some people I wasn't busking, and they just said, "Keep it." So I just kept minding my own business and periodically collecting what people were tossing at me.

One day, a guy just younger than me came by. I had seen him a few times, passing me. He just got a guitar for his birthday and kept hearing me playing and was wondering if I could give him lessons. I said sure! We weren't sure how long this pandemic would go for, but we agreed to meet once a week, sitting at opposite ends of the park bench, and I'd give him a 1 hour lesson for $50 a week for 12 weeks. He said that sounded reasonable, so we started doing that the next day.

Near the end of the 4 months of CERB, the pandemic was still ongoing, and the CERB was about to end. Just in time, Trudeau extended the CERB for another 8 weeks, or 2 months! I felt like a million bucks, so I decided to take the TTC downtown and walk up Bay Street, pretending I was one of the rich guys working in the financial district. It was windy and I had to duck into an alcove for a moment because I hadn't quite dressed warmly enough. Looking down at the ground, I saw a brown men's wallet. I picked it up and looked through it. There was cash, credit cards, and ID. It would be wrong to keep this, but since the guy's ID was in there, I was able to track him down to a condo on Wellesley. I buzzed up and a woman answered. I asked if it was the home of the guy and she said yes. I said I found his wallet and I wanted to return it. She said she'd be right down. A nice looking woman in her 40s came down to the front door and asked to see the wallet. She looked through it and rolled her eyes. "Rick is always losing things." She looked at me and said, "Thank you, for this. You were even honest enough not to take anything out of here, so tell you what. Here's... he has $500 cash in here. Just take it. He could've been out a lot more than the $500." I blushed and thanked her for her generosity, and could not believe my luck.

About the same time, the guitar lesson session was going to end, but the pandemic clearly was not over. He asked if I would agree to another 12 week session. I said sure! We had already agreed that when the weather was bad or if it got too cold, we'd use Skype for the lessons instead. The day that happened was also my birthday, being a Leo, and when I checked my mail I had some cards from family members in Manitoba, where I'm from. Inside the cards, I had some cash gifts and some gift cards, which came to about $200. Did gift cards count as manifested cash? I decided they did, so I added that to my list.

When the CERB ran out, I had manifested the $15,000 I had needed for that 6 month period. My Twitch performances were taking off, and just as my government assistance ended, I started earning $400 a week from Twitch. By New Year's Eve, I had manifested $20,000 over the course of the previous 9 months. I picked up the black notebook, now far more worn out than when I found it, and decided I couldn't keep this to myself any longer. But I would wait until the spring before I passed it on. Because chances are, someone else could use this knowledge.

So if you're wandering in High Park later this year in the spring, be looking for a black notebook on a park bench. You really can manifest money just by having fun, and I am living proof.