<p>CHAPTER FOUR</p><p>THE YEARS THAT TESTED ME</p><p>Growing up without my parents was not easy. There were many things I had to learn by myself, and there were questions I often wished I could ask my mother. But life did not give me the opportunity to wait for answers. I had to keep moving.</p><p>The years that followed tested me in ways I never expected.</p><p>I learned that being strong did not mean that I never cried or felt tired. Sometimes, strength meant waking up the next morning and continuing even when your heart was heavy.</p><p>I carried many memories from my childhood with me. I remembered working from a young age, helping my mother, going to the farm, selling goods in the market, and sometimes going without food so that my family could have something to eat.</p><p>Those experiences never completely left me.</p><p>Instead, they became part of who I was.</p><p>As I grew older, I started understanding the sacrifices my mother had made for us. When I was a child, I only knew that she worked hard to take care of us. As I became older, I realized just how much strength it must have taken for her to raise so many children while facing her own struggles.</p><p>I wished she could have lived long enough to see the person I would become.</p><p>There were times when I felt angry about my circumstances. I wondered why I had to experience so much loss so early in life. I wondered why my education had to stop when I was still young. I wondered what my life would have looked like if my father and mother were still alive.</p><p>But I eventually learned that asking “why me?” would not change my story.</p><p>I had to ask a different question:</p><p>“What can I do with the life I still have?”</p><p>That question changed something inside me.</p><p>I began looking at my past differently. Instead of seeing only the things I had lost, I started seeing the lessons I had gained.</p><p>My childhood taught me responsibility.</p><p>My mother's life taught me faith.</p><p>My father's death taught me that life can change without warning.</p><p>Losing my mother taught me to value the people I love.</p><p>And my struggles taught me never to take tomorrow for granted.</p><p>There were people I met along the way who encouraged me, while others disappointed me. Some came into my life for a short time but left lessons that stayed with me for years. I learned that not everyone who enters your life is meant to stay forever.</p><p>Some people come to help you.</p><p>Some come to teach you.</p><p>And some simply become part of the story that shapes you.</p><p>As the years passed, I became more determined to build a life that would make my mother proud. I wanted to prove to myself that the little girl who had struggled so much could still have a future.</p><p>I knew I could not change where I came from.</p><p>But I could influence where I was going.</p><p>Life continued to present challenges, but I had already survived things I once believed would destroy me. Every new difficulty reminded me of how far I had already come.</p><p>I was no longer the little girl standing helplessly after losing her mother.</p><p>I was becoming a woman who understood that life could be painful and beautiful at the same time.</p><p>I still had fears.</p><p>I still had unanswered questions.</p><p>I still had dreams.</p><p>But for the first time, I began to believe that my dreams were possible.</p><p>The years had tested me, but they had also prepared me.</p><p>And I was beginning to discover the person hidden beneath all the pain.</p><p>I was beginning to find myself.</p>
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.