Of all #Ulog posts on July 18th, 
Hive account@headchange happened to pick my post. She commented on my post Ulog #8: Cool walk on a bright day then came 
Hive account@cicisaja who was saying Hive account@headchange directed her to my post through the pay it forward contest. I looked for the contest and to make the story short, I'm in! It all started with #Ulog.
The contest is being hosted by 
Hive account@thedarkhorse though I gathered it will soon be taken over by 
Hive account@pifc (Pay It Forward Contest). It is a curation contest where curators pick two bloggers with good quality posts and have reputation 55 or below. The curator then curates those two blogs into a single post and comments the link of that curation post into Hive account@thedarkhorse current week's contest blog. In a nutshell, curators are promoting the two blogs to others who may not have seen the blogs.
So what gives? Other curators in the contest will go through the curation posts, then down to the two posts that were curated and upvote the posts. Not only will curators upvote but they certainly have the option to resteem. On top of that, curators leave encouraging comments to further inspire the bloggers - which I think is also very important. The contest aims to inspire and uplift the newbies or those who still have lower reputation level to keep blogging and keep contributing to the community, thus eventually gaining higher reputation score. As for the curators, there is certainly a corresponding prize but I believe that is already a bonus to them on top of the positivity that they spread throughout the community.
And since I am in to the contest, here we go...
When I joined Steemit, I got welcoming and encouraging comments (the real ones, not the copy/paste thing just for them to upvote their reply), had 121 followers and reputation level seven notches higher at 32 in just a matter of five minutes. I actually captured these on my very firt #Ulog post. That was awesome! After that, things slowed down and well, what am I supposed to expect when I do not know anyone in the community that I got into? I wanted to give the genuine warm welcome given to me back to new comers because I can imagine the feeling when a newbie steps in, introduces him or herself and nobody reacts. People may leave with frustration and I suppose majority would not want that. So I thought of visiting https://steemit.com/created/introduceyourself every now and then to welcome new comers especially those with good quality posts. This is where I got to know 
Hive account@andyalaby with rep 25, and 
Hive account@daniel4real with rep 38.
On his post, About me- Introduce myself to steemit, Hive account@andyalaby or Andy as he wanted himself to be called is a young boy in Venezuela who wants to flee his country because of the on-going crisis there. In spite of that, he kept this head together and focused on the positive things on how he can improve himself instead of ranting or pouring out his frustrations about his country. He wrote a fairly long self introduction (which I myself was not able to make up to this time) with the purpose of improving his English diction. He talked about doing his best to keep himself motivated and get back to his feet from sulking possibly due to bullying in his younger days. He even relayed his funny job interview experience and how he made it as his personal motivation in spite of failing the interview. It looks to me that this young boy is keeping his feet still in spite of what life throws at him.
Daniel, Hive account@daniel4real, is the first son of a family in Nigeria. On his introductory post INTRODUCE YOUR SELF, he talked about the challenges his family had to go through, up to the point of having almost nothing to eat, having a pair of sandals is taboo because they can not afford it and having an umbrella called for a family celebration. In spite of these, the family was able to see Daniel finish through secondary school. After that, the thought of continuing his studies was far fetched. Daniel had to go for manual labor at a young age. He mentioned he worked hawking meat which made me go through the dictionary because I thought Hawking is just a last name. See? Something is added to my English dictionary 😃. He talked about a very bad experience that made him cry when cons took his hard earned money. I think I would also cry if the same thing happens to me in the middle of my life crisis. But then that was part of the challenges that did not topple Daniel down. Fast forward to present, Daniel achieved his tertiary education. Whatever has come between the hawking of meat and achieving his tertiary education, I am sure Daniel deserved such hard earned achievement. And that calls for a celebration. Praise God!
The world needs people like Andy and Daniel to make it a better place to live. Kudos to these guys! May their tribe increase and may the Lord continue to guide them through.
For those who want to join the contest, please find more details here: Curation Contest - Week 16 of Paying it Forward.
You can also follow through and join the succeeding contests as it happens every week.
It is a "Thank God, it's Friday!" so keep calm and whisper TGIF, Steem world! Have a great weekend ahead.
