Some people don't fly. Some of us don't want to fly. Some of us just want to disappear.
<p><img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000106775.jpg"/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p>There were two of us</p><p><br/></p><p>I sat in the light.</p><p>He sat in the shadows just beyond it.</p><p><br/></p><p>We never spoke.</p><p>Not once.</p><p>But the space between us told a story no one else noticed—because no one else was looking.</p><p><br/></p><p>I sat near the windows, always chasing sunlight with my eyes. I had a soft voice and a softer heart. People liked me. Teachers said I was kind. I carried a notebook full of half-finished poems and whispered promises:</p><p><br/></p><p>"One day you will fly too."</p><p><br/></p><p>I said it like a prayer, to classmates who cried in bathrooms, to the mirror when my own hands trembled.</p><p>I believed people were meant for more. Even the broken ones. Especially the broken ones.</p><p><br/></p><p>He sat in the back, stitched into the silence like part of the wall.</p><p>No one remembered when he transferred in.</p><p>No one noticed when he stopped raising his hand.</p><p><br/></p><p>He wrote, too. But not poems. Not hope. Just a quiet unraveling.</p><p><br/></p><p>"One day.</p><p>I am gonna grow wings.</p><p>A chemical reaction.</p><p>Hysterical and useless."</p><p><br/></p><p>He etched it into his desk with a bent paperclip.</p><p>Small, jagged letters.</p><p>Not meant to be read.</p><p>Just meant to exist somewhere outside of him, where the ache might be quieter.</p><p><br/></p><p>While I dreamed of lifting off the ground,</p><p>He dreamed of vanishing.</p><p>Of becoming something the world couldn’t touch.</p><p><br/></p><p>I talked about the sky like it was waiting for everyone.</p><p>He stared at it like it was mocking him.</p><p><br/></p><p>I said:</p><p>"You'll get there. One day. We all will."</p><p><br/></p><p>He thought:</p><p>I don’t want to get there. I just want to stop being here.</p><p><br/></p><p>Then, one Tuesday. It rained like grief.</p><p>And he didn’t show up.</p><p><br/></p><p>The teachers murmured.</p><p>The students shrugged.</p><p>Only I noticed the absence like a hole punched through the day.</p><p><br/></p><p>They found his body three days later.</p><p>Alone.</p><p>Cold.</p><p>Clutching a notebook warped with water damage and blood at the edges.</p><p><br/></p><p>Most of the pages were blank.</p><p>Except the last:</p><p><br/></p><p>"One day.</p><p>I am gonna grow wings.</p><p>A chemical reaction.</p><p>Hysterical and useless.</p><p>But at least it will be quiet."</p><p><br/></p><p>They held a memorial.</p><p>Flowers. Speeches.</p><p>A moment of silence that stretched like a noose.</p><p><br/></p><p>I sat in the front row, fingers clenched around the only copy of his words.</p><p>I didn’t cry.</p><p>I didn’t speak.</p><p><br/></p><p>I just stared at the sky,</p><p>and for the first time,</p><p>it didn’t look open.</p><p><br/></p><p>It looked cruel.</p><p>Empty.</p><p>Indifferent.</p><p><br/></p><p>After that, I stopped saying it.</p><p>"One day you will fly too."</p><p><br/></p><p>Because some people don’t.</p><p>Some people fall.</p><p>And some wings never grow.</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p>
Some people don't fly. Some of us don't want to...
At the end of the month, we give out prizes in 3 categories: Best Content, Top Engagers and
Most Engaged Content.
Best Content
Top Engagers
Most Engaged Content
Best Content
We give out cash prizes to between 7 and 20 community members with the best insights in the past month.
The winners are picked by an in-house selection process.
The winners are NOT picked from the leaderboards/rankings, we choose winners based on the quality, originality
and insightfulness of their content.
Here are a few other things to know for the Best Content track
1
Quality over Quantity — You stand a higher chance of winning by publishing a few really good insights across the entire month,
rather than a lot of low-quality, spammy posts.
2
Share original, authentic, and engaging content that clearly reflects your voice, thoughts, and opinions.
3
Avoid using AI to generate content—use it instead to correct grammar, improve flow, enhance structure, and boost clarity.
4
Explore audio content—high-quality audio insights can significantly boost your chances of standing out.
5
Use eye-catching cover images—if your content doesn't attract attention, it's less likely to be read or engaged with.
6
Share your content in your social circles to build engagement around it.
Top Engagers
For the Top Engagers Track, we award the top 3 people who engage the most with other user's content via
comments.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Engagers" tab on the rankings page.
Most Engaged Content
The Most Engaged Content recognizes users whose content received the most engagement during the month.
We pick the top 3.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Contributors" tab on the rankings page.
Contributor Rankings
The Rankings/Leaderboard shows the Top 20 contributors and engagers on TwoCents a monthly and all-time basis
— as well as the most active colleges (users attending/that attended those colleges)
The all-time contributors ranking is based on the Contributor Score, which is a measure of all the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
The monthly contributors ranking tracks performance of a user's insights for the current month. The monthly and all-time scores are calcuated DIFFERENTLY.
This page also shows the top engagers on an all-time & monthly basis.
Below is a list of badges on TwoCents and their designations.
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