Congrats in advance, I am pretty sure you will achieve on your goal within a week or month.
I hope no one takes this thread as a begging for merit, that's not what this is at all.
No, not at all. I never considered merit begging such as motivational post. I realized that it's not very easy to achieve on that position after implementation of merit system. There is a lesson for newbies,
"If you think, you can do. And success for you." So everyone have to think that they have to do. If they do then success for them. It's very simple, if someone just think, oh merit earning is very hard and I can't do it. Means they are not encourage to contribute for forum.
However, hope you will help also some newbies with your smerit so that they will more encourage about their contributions.
Best wishes for your coming rank. Same for me also since I am very close for Legendary

Have a nice day.