This week has been dedicated to celebrating the great milestone of this noble community, which is achieving the 100th week of the featured edition contest. The past 100 weeks of consistently participating with the HL prompt have been great with lessons learned, mistakes made and corrections taken, achievements, and even some misconceptions, especially in my early days in the chain. Today, I am going to discuss the above subject and how it has been with me and the journey so far.
It's been a great opportunity to exchange ideas with my fellow authors here, reading their different views on the same topic for the past 100 weeks. Getting to know each other through their posts is the easiest way to connect with people here in the chain, and the connection has to be genuine through engagement, and that's one sensitive thing that the Hive Learners community encourages every member to embrace. Engagement is part of the HL rules, and I saw the need for it and learned how it could connect us with people in the chain down to our real lives for good. It's one important lesson I've learned so far from participating in the prompts and applying it to the best of my capability, and I didn't limit it to this community alone but to the hive in general.
"Put in your best effort to your work, learn to design your own image through Canva or capture original images sometimes, think about your topic, and take your time to respond to the given prompt" are other lessons I've learned during the course of this featured edition. This was actually taught by one of the HL team members during our Saturday hangout, and it's a nice lesson I have embraced so far. I also learned the importance of staying consistent and committed to my activities here in the chain, and lots more..
Moving forward, wow, I have achieved a lot in the chain. I was someone who could not write up to 100 words before. I hated to write long articles. I was wondering how people write long articles on a given topic. What will I be saying to make an article long? It was a hassle. When we began with the HL featured contest, the minimum word count was 300, if not 250. Later, it was increased to 350 and finally to 500. Sincerely, it was a big challenge for me at first because my writing skills were nowhere to be found. It's amazing to see how far the contest has sharpened my writing skills. I no longer struggle to develop my content, even though I still have to sit down and think about it. Before now, I will draft whatever I want to write on paper, reading, canceling, and virtually struggling to put my thoughts together.
However, HL prompts made me a deep thinker and pushed me to develop new understandings about the topics, and as I continue to connect with knowledgeable people here, learning and growing better have been my cases. My creative side too was activated, and these are nice achievements so far. I have really improved from what I used to be.
Mistakes are bound to be made. It's just inevitable sometimes,but we will learn from our mistakes. One of the mistakes I made back then was the wrong use of images that didn't relate to the topic I was discussing. Once it's beautiful, it can go. Haha, I will make sure to source it, but looking at it, it doesn't fit in with my topic. I was lucky to be corrected by a good hiver, and I have kept improving since then. Several times, I made mistakes with the use of HL tags, and it made me miss curation. I am better now with those mistakes.
Talking about misconceptions, I started blogging and saw how most of the old hivers were getting nice upvotes in their posts, so I thought that high upvotes were meant only for the old hivers, and until I became an old hiver,I wouldn't be opportune to earn high. I later got clarified about these misconceptions. Actually, anyone can earn high in a post once in a while, provided you remain original with your work.
So far, it's been a great journey with the HL community. I learned a lot through these contests; I have experienced growth, and I have learned from my mistakes. I am so grateful for my achievements so far.
A big shout out to our Amiable HL team for their great effort to see that this community stands out. Thanks to all those who have stayed active and kept contributing to the success of this community. I am looking forward to celebrating the 200th weeks of featured editions with you all🎉.
