Unofficial Challenge Winners: What would you do if you were rich?

In February, my daydreaming inspired me to open an unofficial challenge asking folks in the Vocal community what they would do if they were rich.

The rules were simple: No fiction. No AI, not even for photos. Publish in any Vocal community (except fiction). No minimum word count, but please don't make me read more than 1,500 words. Otherwise, the world was your oyster, and the prompt was open to interpretation. Much to my enjoyment, one person even wrote their submission as a poem.

With three pre-planned prizes to give and a few very close ties for the categories I shared in the original challege post, choosing the winners was hard. There were many dreams I wanted to support, and I definitely saw the creativity I was hoping for when I chose to minimize the challenge's limitations.

I boxed myself in for judging more than I did with the entry requirements. But a challenge must have winners, and I did promise to get this wrapped up by the end of March. So without further ado...

The Winners

Choosing which reason this entry would claim one of the $1 tips was difficult, but knowing it was a winner was a breeze. I thoroughly recommend the read.

Sara Wilson's entry provided a contender for most entertaining read, but ultimately, her entry about anonymous superhero behavior in her own personal style earned her the $1 prize as the a writer whose goals I wanted to support most based on her story.

For the $1 prize for most entertaining read, Kendall Defoe provided a story taking the idea of virtual reality to the next level with dreams of going fully digital.

Kendall, it is certainly not the same, but your writing is helping you live forever somewhere on the web, at least.

Finally, Tina D. Lopez covered the basics before delving into the choice that makes her the $3 winner for most creative answer to the question: hiring the most brilliant minds to work toward a miracle cure for negative feelings.

Tina, whether your dream team is working on a mental health cure or a lower-level emotional fix, I'm in. Sign me up. Take the $3 prize as the first contribution to funding your journey, and if your dream outcome from riches ever does come to fruition someday, please share with the rest of us.

Unfortunately, a few entries were disqualified for AI image use, but the challenge was otherwise a fun experience that I hope to host again in the future.

Thank you to everyone who decided to participate in my unofficial challenge. Winners' tips will be sent out shortly, and all submissions can still be found linked in the comments of the original challenge post.