Then I will disappoint them greatly.

Seriously, I don't think a Medium sponsored $50K prize will attract much attention even inside Medium. I may not even read the winner's submission and I bet a lot of us are equally uninterested.

Nor is $50K life changing unless the winner is very poor. I've had a windfall of that much; it went straight into our retirement accounts. We can now survive a whole year longer after the other money runs out. Then we starve.