And so marks the end of the Padauk Mini Awards...

These awards were initially created as a tribute to my beautiful son, whose favorite flower is padauk, a beauty that blooms during his birthday season (spring) in Myanmar. Every single word I write, step I take, and breath I breathe is for him, and he is the single most important human being in my life.

Yes, even over Park Jimin.

Yes, even over Starfield Jimin.

However, for this contest, padauk is more than just a flower; it is the budding strength in all of us. As writers, we must find our strength to persevere through the hardest struggles in our lives, and we tend to take said struggles and apply them to our works.

Padauk is a representation of how far we've come and how we're going to continue to blossom over the years. Everyone who entered this contest should be incredibly proud.

I was pleasantly surprised with this contest and how fun it was. Every contest I do brings fun and gives me a learning experience, but this one was fantastic, truly. One because I actually finished it in a relatively short amount of time (at least compared to how long my reviews are), and two because the vast majority of categories were really, really solid all around.

I'm not going to lie: of course I read stories and think this is not a winner, but I will also not lie when I say I experienced that significantly less in this contest than all of my others. You guys really slayed here, and I think you should be proud of that.

Of course, that made it difficult to judge since I wanted everyone to win during those moments, but it doesn't change that it warms my heart to see.

Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I am so, so excited to continue with my next awards: the WHO Mini Awards and the Oscars Awards. They've already published and have been for a bit, so there aren't many slots left, but I encourage you to check them out if you want more reviews and prizes from me (every participant gets a prize regardless of if they win or not for both contests).

I will also be finishing my FN Awards and the weekly contest soon, so this almost feels like the end of an era. Thank you for your continued support, and I hope to see you in the next awards!

Thank you again for being here, and I'll see you in the next one!

Important:

I will be checking every single form once a week to check for unfollows now that this contest is over. It is a permanent follow.

Remember, I don't post announcements often, and when I do, they're all important and packed with a crap ton of information regarding both contests and my works.

I host multiple contests a year, so your follow will not result in me spamming your notifs with things you don't care about. You'll be rewarded with access to all my contests (as I'm making the follow the only payment for most if not all of my awards moving forward), future services (like review shops and interviews), guides (I have a review guide being posted soon alongside my common writing errors guide), and anything else I may do, like communities and promotional services (I am planning a promotional shop at some point in the near future).

Thank you to those who respect this rule as it is one of the only things I ask for in return for an in-depth service, and also a professional service, as I am a professional reviewer in real life trained by multiple companies, Wattpad included, to give reviews. This is the thing I do for a living, as I get paid for these kinds of services irl.

Also, just a side note that I posted a read shop recently. You don't have to do anything to sign up for it. It's not read for read since I don't partake in that. So you don't have to read any of my books, post anything on your mb, tag anyone, etc. to participate. It's a completely free service where I'll read and comment on your work, often voting, too. I just want to read new hidden gems on the site, as I learn a lot about writing from doing this, so I thought I'd throw that out there.

So yeah. I think that about sums it up.

It feels weird to end this contest, as it's been a big part of my life, as all my contests have. But all good things, right? Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I'll see you in the next one.

And remember Jimin is really, really hot.

Bye!

~ Raven