Wow. Its nice to see my name on the list

When the merit system was introduced in the forum, I thought that it was hard to get merits and that ranking up is not possible, but one thing I believe now is that anyone who is genuinely interested in the forum apart from the bounties can eventually rank up, it's just a matter of time.
Yes you can make it

Personally, I was still a newbie when the Merit system was implemented and i wasn't a regular poster until towards the end of 2018 and some parts of this year but i still managed to gather 307 Merits.
I believe if I had been a much more regular poster, The activity and Merits would be enough for me to be a hero member by now.
What i realized is that so long as you are a regular quality poster, who is willing to learn and help others here, merit will always come your way.