YOU ARE AWESOME!
As for FTN invite....i think it's all about "right post in the right time" (in other words, it's all about "luck"). I mean, a burlap bag essay buys an invite or even a 4 page long essay. Meanwhile, a person with 100+ rep points can't get an invite (he sure has helped enough people, right?) but a guy with less than 100 post can get an invite or even worse...someone who gets thrashed badly by majority of well known FSTers gets an invite just because he knew the "right" person. Also, i don't totally agree with "do not pm" thingy. When i first came to FST...i pm'ed 5 user for FTN: three of them never responded back, one of them responded saying not to ask him for an invite...and another asked me for proof and stuff...and at last, he said "you will likely trade it"...so it didn't work for me indeed but, lately there were two users who pm'ed many users for FTN and were successful with their FTN adventure.
I agree that making friends is more secure (in most cases time consuming too) way of getting an invite. But, it's not likely a guy with FTN invite will easily be your friend (not especially in a invite begging place like this)...they will judge you 100x before they even come close to you. On the other hand, the one without FTN will more likely hang around you...so the best option is to wait try to get an invite...meanwhile wait for one of your friend to get an invite...if they get an invite...your changes of getting an invite is 100x times better than asking in forum.
Good Luck!
P.S. hope you get what i am saying

Bookmarks