The same feeling happened on seeing this, I felt those applying afterwards has missed this chance of having their work acknowledged. Yet like in the other case, it didn't happen, OP kept the vibe on and real .
Yes, I will keep this topic open for a while and people can still apply here for a Merit by dropping quality posts and I will review it. 
So, it's still time until this round will be closed.
Thank you for keeping this open, and thank you for disturbing to my post. First time ever and it was really lifting.