Hallo everyone!!!

After boarding the plane with peace09, speedyfalcon, coolbluealan, and avisioner, we landed to Boston after a pretty chill flight where I texted babyhamster a bunch, watched reels, and played Brawl Stars.

Upon landing, speedyfalcon’s mom told us we should not wait for pi271828 and sdash314 since “Due to rush hour, Lyft prices would go up.” Thus, we left with our own Lyft, and left sdash314 and pi271828 on their own, against their own opinions. (I literally protested against this, let’s see if speedyfalcon gets jumped later tonight.) Then, when pi271828 arrived, I accidentally gave speedyfalcon’s room number instead of ours, and we started running from pi271828 when he was chasing and ding dong ditching us. avisioner was sprinting for his life from pi271828, and it was honestly a fun experience. I think I burned a lot of calories and laughed a little too much.

Eventually, we got some dinner at either Shake Shack or Felipe’s, and then went over to Friday Night events. Upon trying to register, we were approached by the people in charge because since NCSSM has an HMMT team and avisioner and coolbluealan go to SSM, they are double eligible, which would make our team unofficial. Thus, we spent the next hour tracking down NCSSM coaches to get them to agree (which would result in us being official), panicking, figuring out a script, and yelling about how NCSSM “opped on us” (They didn’t really, but at the start it REALLY seemed like they opped on us because they were the ones who snitched to the HMMT officials). Eventually, we worked everything out because peace09 is the GOAT and knows how to effectively communicate, and life was good.

There were like 10 minutes before the next block and what we had left, so I joined back to where quasant had been for the entire time, and met babyhamster in-person for the first time. She was like “OMG HI MATHNERD_101” really loud during the estimathon, which was really funny, and I sat there for the free boba, just for babyhamster’s team not to place Top 6 and not to get boba. Unfortunately for me, this also meant that I didn’t get boba, so sadness.

After that whole situation where we almost got DQed (and the less scary situation where I didn’t get free boba), we went to Math Bowl. brianzjk was running this event, so as members of his team the previous year, we were kind of obligated to go. I was on a team with speedyfalcon, Skyler, and someone else whose name I don’t quite remember (I’m writing this two days later so my memory is a little foggy). During the qualifier round, speedyfalcon lowkey sold and sillied a few questions, whereas I had a 100% correct rate for all the problems I solved! We barely made it to the Math Bowl round as the 10th seed out of a 10 team bracket, so we were really excited (Go team dinglebinglers!). It turns out that Skyler had literally won National Science Bowl, and since the Math Bowl round was in a Science Bowl format, we were feeling pretty good. Aaand then we made Semifinals because Skyler absolutely carried the heck out of us and answered all of the questions (I kid you not, the rest of the team answered a total of 0 questions in every single one of the rounds.).

Finally, after we lost in Semifinals and failed to advance to the finals, speedyfalcon and I went downstairs, where we saw a bunch of things, such as peace09 talking to MathJams, akliu rizzing up sdash314 (jokingly, they’re both male), and some other… sights. We eventually tried to collect our team, but people kept getting lost (i.e. avisioner kept wandering off to talk to other moppers, quasant wandered off to go with her mom, etc. Eventually, we found each other (except for quasant, who had left earlier with her mom (and had given us a panic attack in the process). sdash314 connected to our speaker, and we played some music on our long walk back to our hotel.

After arriving, I called LY and we talked for a little bit before playing Brawl Stars with her. Eventually, it was time to sleep, and I hit the sacks. During the night, I basically didn’t sleep. I slept from 12-4, before not being able to fall back asleep, resulting in a total of 4 hours of sleep! Yayyyyyy!


Day 2:
The next day was competition day. In the morning, I was pretty energetic after a nice cold shower, and I was ready to go. After eating a nice healthy breakfast of two granola bars, I watched peace09 absolutely FUMBLE LIKE BAKER MAYFIELD IN THE WILD CARD ohhh my- this kid. He spent an egregiously long time trying to formulate a response to a cisgender XX chromosome human, and it was highkey funny seeing him tweak out over it all. quasant ended up leaving later than us, so I saved her a blueberry muffin while she managed to trudge her way into the entrance (took her long enough -_-). After a lot of laughs and seeing some people being really… socially… odd… (To those two kids who were “orzing” each other, please like… find a life. Thank you.), it was time to compete.

Team round went pretty cheeks. quasant and I were assigned to P1, which ended up being so much harder than I had anticipated (Like last year’s Team P1 was lowkey slight whereas this year I could NOT figure it out). quasant and I therefore didn’t contribute much, and we spent the majority of the team round trying to squirm our way into partials on the later problems. I’m not entirely sure if this was successful, since I don’t have the score distros yet.

Individual round was just a disaster for me. For one, because I was so tired, I thought 1+2+3+4 = 9 for the ENTIRE Geometry round, and then I just could not mentally think for anything else. I’m sure if I re-took the rounds I’d drop a MUCH better score, so… maybe we won’t be getting 4 hours of sleep next year… I ended up being the weakest link by 1 point this year, making me the weakest indiv for 2 years in a row, which lowkey pissed me off because I was confident that I wouldn’t be the weakest link this year. Time to lock tf in now.

After a nice lunch with speedyfalcon at Chipotle, we had Guts round. I think that I contributed significantly for the first rounds, but then I struggled to keep my eyes open during the last few. I was genuinely like drinking massive amounts of a Chipotle drink to try to sugar high my way through the round, but it didn’t really work. The mental aspect of HMMT gets me once again, I guess.

After Guts, pi271828 and I played football for a bit, and it seems my arm strength hasn’t gotten too much better since last year, though my accuracy and spiral has (as well as endurance, since I didn’t get shoulder problems this year after 5 minutes of playing catch). pi271828 lowkey ego farmed from peace09 by absolutely blasting peace09 on every single route he ran only for me to throw the ball short

Since there was still time to burn, sdash314, quasant, and I went to the boba shop, where the other two people got boba (I didn’t get any because my stomach was slowly recovering from 1. The inordinate amounts of chipotle I’d eaten and 2. The inordinate amounts of drinks I’d consumed in a short period of time). We grabbed it, quasant met up with some mathcamp person (This was a common theme I think she was stopped by like 200 people or something it was pretty darn crazy), and then we left for awards. We got there just in time to see the end of Logarithms or whatever the MIT acapella group is called, and then we watched integration bee. Integration bee was mad interesting because Yusuf (I think that’s how you spell his name?) was absolutely busted. Like someone please go into the dev portal and nerf this man at integration because what the heck? Finally came awards. Nobody from Team Dinglebinglers won anything (sad), but that’s ok because the real award was the friends we made along the way! peace09 left midway through awards to catch his flight, WHICH ENDED UP GETTING CANCELLED AT 3 AM SO LIKE POOKIE WOOKIE LITERALLY COULD’VE STAYED WITH US OVERNIGHT AHGHHHHH I’M SO MAD.

After awards, quasant, sdash314, pi271828 and I went to Chipotle. We grabbed our food, continued clowning peace09 for fumbling harder than the Warriors in the 2016 NBA finals. We lowkey ganged up on him, and we used pi271828’s phone to each send him a lengthy blurb on why we thought he fumbled and why he should have [redacted]. Right when we were about to leave for the hotel, I met with plang2008 and that was pretty cool despite only having a short interaction with him.

Returning back to our hotel, quasant, sdash314, pi271828, and I sat in the hotel room, continued flaming peace09, talking, flaming peace09 some more, and then quasant met LY for the first time on FaceTime, so that was pretty darn cool. Uhh yeah it would’ve been so much more fun with peace09 in person because then we coulda yelled at him in person instead of over text. At like 11:00 pm, quasant and pi271828 left, and then soon after quasant texted me “Omg I just realized how hard peace09 fumbled” and then EDGED ME BY SAYING “Oop I gotta go sleep now.” THAT TICKED ME OFF BROO LIKE SHE HAD NEW INFO AND SHE MADE ME WAIT TILL THE NEXT MORNING. I lied in bed and fell asleep really soon, and was woken up by avisioner and coolbluealan arriving back into the hotel room from their MOP Meetup. After a little 5 minute wake-up, I immediately fell back asleep.

Day 3:
I woke up to the sounds of avisioner and coolbluealan getting ready for Sunday Morning events, and then freaked out and gave up on going to them because I was far too late (I’m not showering and getting ready in 3 minutes LOL). So, my plan was to talk to quasant then leave for the airport with sdash314 and pi271828. The first part was a success, I [redacted] and then we talked some more about how peace09 fumbled and then we went back to [redacted]. Lowkey [redacted] had me in my feels, but like it’ll be alright. As we were talking, IT TURNED OUT THAT OUR FREAKING FLIGHT HAD GOTTEN DELAYED SO WE HAD TO PANIC AND BOOK ANOTHER TRIP. We figured it out, and our new plan was to go from BOS to Maryland and then have a 5 hour layover before going from Maryland to RDU. So, I quickly went to MIT with quasant and her mom, where we realized that the Sunday Morning events were in a DIFFERENT location from last year, so I helped locate quasant and her mom to the MIT Dome, where they took some pictures, and then we went to the actual destination. The issue was, it had been raining all morning, so it was absolutely flooded basically everywhere. Thus, my shoes and socks got absolutely soaked because there were pool-sized puddles littered all over the ground.

After arriving, I basically just messed around the entire time since we’d only be there for an hour at max. I sat with avisioner, coolbluealan, speedyfalcon, and quasant before there was a The Beauty of Math talk. I wandered in and out of it, getting interested then immediately bored the second I walked into the lecture hall because the talk was kind of mid in my opinion. Eventually, everyone left, and quasant and I went on a walk together to the second floor, where we met up with FlyingPig7 and angie., where they were playing Fish. This was actually the first time I met up with FlyingPig7 in-person, which is really cool (I still need to figure out who runs his freaking spam account). I ended up having to leave, because speedyfalcon’s sister, who would be taking us to Chipotle for lunch, showed up. Handiccraft, who was here for some conference, said that she wanted to come with us, but her mom forced her to stay in their hotel room, so she couldn’t come with. How unfortunate. speedyfalcon, his sister, his mom, and I ate Chipotle before Ubering over to the airport.

The airport was pretty mid. The only interesting part was that I mis-interpreted the socks that the vendor was selling to be 40 dollars when in fact it was 14. So, I bought a new pair of “aloe-infused” socks for both speedyfalcon and I (It came in a two-pack) to replace our drenched and now uncomfortable socks. I still have these socks on, and they are sooo cozy ahhhh. I talked to quasant through text a lot at the airport, and idk if quasant is going to read this, but I was lowkey being a little stubborn and whatnot. Apologies, quasant. We ended up having to board, and I was kind of in my feels the entire plane ride. It’d been a pretty poopy day with the weather and the whole sock thing as well as just some personal stuff (Ex: I was so so so tired), so I was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.

Upon arrival into BWI, avisioner, coolbluealan, speedyfalcon, his mom, and I got food at the food court. speedyfalcon and I got Chipotle (Chipotle at an airport is lowkey cool) while the other 3 got food from a Chinese restaurant. We ate before doing our own thing, with me playing Brawl Stars and writing this blog post, avisioner playing tetris on his phone, and speedyfalcon and coolbluealan playing 1v1 trackmania. Eventually, we all had to charge our things, so we went over to a new area, where we currently are. The others are playing Landlord (A chinese card game) while I’m writing this post (I’m SLAVING for y’all so y’all better like this jawn up and comment PLEASE).

This year, I hated HMMT. Not the tournament itself, but just what happened at the tournament. I hate the fact that we almost got our official team status revoked .I hate the fact that I’m so stupid and bad at math. I hate the fact that I work so hard at something just for someone else to do even better despite putting in 0 work, only to choke that opportunity that they had away nonchalantly as if nothing happened. I hate the fact that I suck at everything I put my heart into. I hate the fact that the weather sucked today. I hate the fact that [redacted]. I especially hate the fact that I [redacted] despite [redacted]. But that’s ok, right? It’ll all be OK. SURELY, RIGHT?!

I leave with this. I’m now motivated to do math again. Just thinking about [redacted] pisses me off SO MUCH that I’m motivated to do my stupid AIME Geo OTIS unit again. Just thinking about the fact that I was the worst person on our team in Indiv despite there being a NON AIME QUAL ON OUR TEAM pisses me off so much that I want to relearn the Intermediate AoPS books again. Just thinking about the fact that I wasn’t in the Top 3 AIME scorers at Enloe fuels the fire in me to lock in for State Math. So maybe HMMT was good for me. I came to the fact, and accepted, that I’m a fraud in literally everything I do. I’m a fraud academically, socially, and physically. I have literally completed the trifecta. It’s time to get to work.

Now all there is to do is to work and believe.

Quote Log:
“Tip of the day? Imma give you my tip of the day” -sdash314
“I really need that long stick now…” -speedyfalcon
“TSA asked me if coolbluealan was under 12 years old or not” -avisioner
"I HAVE A BOMB" -coolbluealan in the airport

OH WAIT I COULD USE "MEETING PEACE09 IRL" that would've been good...

After a 30-minute drive with SH, KY, and khhu, we finally arrived at Duke. Upon arrival, I was immediately greeted with SpeedyFaclon and LL (who goes to enemy opp traitor school). After getting my unbelievably mid T-shirts from a 10-minute-long line, I played poker with some teammates. Funnily enough, before I was dealed in, they were using phones from other people as chips, and I posted an Instagram story about it. Poker was alright since we really only played one round where I went all in because I thought someone was bluffing (they in fact were not bluffing)... uhh yeah it’s fine haha.

While I was grabbing my backpack since I’d left it at my old hangout location, I saw quasant, who talked to me a little about how life had been, and I gave her two doge stickers cuz doge = good. Upon departing from quasant, I met up with majix0418 and JS, who I’d be eating lunch with. After a bit of waiting, Power Round and Team Round loomed over the horizon.

Power round went... not great...ok… minor rant here KY and SH were locked OUT during the round because KY had candy so he was just eating that (he dislikes power round greatly) and SH was lost in the sauce.

The team round went a little better because KY decided to do problems and not eat candy lol. We ended up solving 8 problems and guessed on P9 and 10, but I know we got problem 3 wrong because WFeng goofed.

Then came lunch. Since I’m allergic to sandwiches (L gluten allergy), majix0418, vsinghminhas, JS, and I walked over to Duke’s Dining Hall, Western Union, to eat. We grabbed our food and then left. I also got a mango iced tea, which is free (yayy) while majix0418 and JS got a Mango Lassi from the Indian food station where they ordered. I spent 12.78, whereas both majix0418 and JS spent over $18 so it was definitely a win in my books. After walking back to the math building, we separated from each other. I joined back up with the Enloe teams, whereas the other three ate together.

After I finished eating a delicious chipotle ripoff that cost less than chipotle (and had plantains, which is a win in my books), I played some frisbee with WFeng. It started with just me and him, but then people slowly joined. Eventually, we had enough people for an Enloe vs Non-Enloe + Some Enloe ppl ultimate frisbee game, so that was fun. Good throws, atrocious throws, and some of the funniest drops I’ve ever seen were made (how do you drop the frisbee after you catch it)... that might’ve been the highlight of DMM this year. A lot of people watched from the balcony, including KY, SH (who later joined the Enloe team after it became a 5 v 10 lol), and quasant, who appeared to be really tired or something because she was in the sleeping in class formation lol (shoot why is formation the first and only word that comes to mind I need to stop watching football I think…). I made some good plays, including absolutely mossing someone (well… it was me as the defender mossing the person on offense for an interception but whatever) with a 24-inch vert type and making a pretty good hustle play and catching the frisbee despite it being a terrible throw (I actually heard someone mutter “why is that kid always there when the frisbee is thrown horribly). I also made some good passes, which was cool (nah but catching >>>).

Someone said “Individual starts in 5 minutes”, meaning that it was time to migrate to the lecture hall or auditorium or whatever that place is to do individual round. Slight complaints during Individual include: Addendum. Please read. I spent all my time on P3, which got voided due to multiple configurations, meaning that I completely skipped P4, which was easy. Problems were horribly placed because tell me why I had 3 extra minutes on the P5 and 6 set but had like 10 seconds on the set containing P1 and 2… Oh well, the distro looked like this. oops… Also, during the entire day, and also right after individual, sqrt1975 was like… nonstop taking pictures of me... I GUESS I HAVE PAPARAZZI CHAT I’M SOO HAWT AND FAMOUS :hot_face: I was also able to talk to peace09 a lot during Individual and, which I’ll talk briefly about below, relay since he was sitting in the row behind me. Seeing how the people younger than me are thriving is motivating in a way and demotivating in the same way. Oh well! LOL we’re still locked in (or at least acting like we are).

Then came relay and guts. I’m combining these because I sold relay both times as person 1 (why did both P1s contain the topics that I suck at… whyyyy). I did well in guts and contributed significantly to the team. However, since the guts round was experimental, it didn’t actually count towards our team score, though due to its success, it will be included towards the team score in the future according to IceSerpent.

After all of it ended, I talked to quasant about how she did, to which she responded with “*covers face* I don’t wanna talk about it”. At the time of writing, she is still gatekeeping scores :clown: (Sooo quasant if by some miracle you’re reading/still reading this post if your bank account balance was your DMM individual score how much money would you have…?). I was also asked questions from JS and majix0418 and others, which… didn’t really help my conversation with quasant, but it’s fine lol. As in character, sqrt1975 took a .5 of me right before quasant and I started talking lol (it was really blurry tho).

CLOSING THOUGHTS:
I feel like… this year DMM was just less…? Maybe it’s because I skipped closing because a certain khhu and KY wanted to go home (still a little unhappy about this) and do astro (which never happened -_-). Maybe it’s because Enloe’s team got a little boring without a very certain brianzjk? Maybe it’s because there wasn’t a Samson R making our day with the funniest jokes known to man. Everything just felt underwhelming. Nothing funny happened, and nothing really interesting happened either. I was really forward to having fun, but it was just really mid… Maybe it’s because I didn’t know any of the aopsers that went in person, so I couldn’t recognize them by their face (ex: pog, megarnie, tienxion, redfiretruck, jatloe, aaronjudgeisgoat, plang2008) so I wasn’t able to capitalize on the social opportunities that could have been presented to me, but… oh well. I think they would’ve been like “who is this bum” anyhow. Hopefully, next year presents more fun opportunities and more social times (I think the strategy is just to get away from Enloe’s team and talk to non-Enloe people). As for now, I’ll be signing off on this blog until who knows when and retreating back to my spam blog. As for now, it’s AMC 12B and then HMMT or ARML practice. Peace (oh 9).

Wednesday Night:

We arrived in Detroit at around 9:30, and then proceeded to take a charter bus over to East Lansing, where we arrived at Michigan State at 12 am. During the bus ride, WFeng was saying some horrendous brainrot (a trend that you will continue seeing throughout this post), and JQCX was infected by the brainrot disease. For those who don’t know, brainrot is basically when people don’t stop saying “What the sigma” or “Skibidi.” We also sang a lot of karaoke, which was really fun since WFeng used a falsetto, and genuinely sounded like a girl (I thought he was a girl singing before I realized it was him after a “what the sigma” comment).

After checking in, some teammates tried to refill water, just to realize that all water fountains produced cloudy or unsafe water, which is when they started panicking. I refilled my water bottle when we landed in Detroit, so I was fine, but a lot of my teammates were thirsty and optionless, so they called for help (or something like that I’m writing off of memory). I joined because I genuinely had nothing better to do. After putting credit card info/money (WFeng), we realized that vending machines closed at midnight. How unfortunate! We ended up realizing that the breakfast place had water that was safe to drink, so the teammates that didn’t have water (serenaz26) decided that they’d push it off to the morning.

That night, I literally got near zero sleep. LL, my roommate, said “I’m going to stay up all night because I can’t sleep.” Meanwhile, I went to sleep (or at least attempted to). The train horn was loud (WHY ARE THERE TRAINS NEXT TO MSU COME ON NOW IT’S SO LOUD), and it was lowkey hot. However, I managed to sleep for like 30-45 minutes before waking up because I was cold?! What in the North Carolina weather?! Meanwhile, LL was fast asleep (He being asleep was the only reason that I realized that I fell asleep). I remember him moving from sleeping on his side to his back, and I said “Yo LL you awake too,” to which snores responded me. I ended up not being able to fall back asleep, so I did a little bit of Agricultural Science before trying to sleep again, to no avail.


Thursday:
Breakfast was amazing. We were one of the very few teams there, so we got premium access to the cafeteria, which is one of the best in the nation, all to ourselves. Needless to say, I took advantage of this by loading up 2 plates of food and devouring it all. After breakfast, I was very full, and I washed it all down with some chocolate milk and 3 bowls of fruit (Pineapples, blueberries, and strawberries. Thanks Coach Kristy (swim coach) for all the nutrition tips!).

After breakfast, I worked on my physics project (Tetris and rotation) before playing some tetris, and achieving S-. I’m so freaking happy. I went from D+ rank to S-. Needless to say, hard work pays off.

Lunch was also amazing. I had 2.5 plates of food and a drink, with some fruit as well. Enloe Science Olympiad took over the drinks machine, using chemistry-like formulae to concoct the perfect drink. It was pretty fun, and we made some mango sprite mixture and bubble tea. We were planning to make a root beer float, but that didn’t happen due to 50 million teams arriving for dinner (Note: At the time of writing, May 24th at 9:45 pm, this has still not yet been done to my knowledge).

After lunch, I went straight to sleep. I think the food coma hit, and I fell asleep from 1:30-6. In fact, I slept for so long that the only thing that woke me up was a text message from LL saying “Where the **** are you?” I rushed to dinner, only to find lines as long as a football field. I impatiently waited and finally got my food. After eating, we went back to our dorms (We slept in MSU dorms that have no AC and are currently being renovated). WFeng and JQCX kept on making “Erm… what the sigma” and “That’s so skibidi/s*xy” comments, which got to a point where it was borderline concerning and annoying haha.

That night, I actually slept quite a bit. It was very nice. According to my watch, I got 1.4 hours of REM sleep, which is typically how much I get on a school night.


FRIDAY:
Breakfast was so packed. When I say this, I mean it. I had to move to another table with a bunch of random people in order to eat.

After breakfast, I and VL went to impound our Agricultural Science notebook. Afterward, I checked in to my volunteering slot (I’ll be volunteering to grade Division B Fast Facts tests on Saturday), and got a lowkey boring and worse-than-mid T-Shirt that I will be wearing tomorrow). I bought a Monster (my first ever energy drink) that morning, since I was really tired.

Lunch came, and we went to eat. I missed out on the time when my teammates were eating, so I ate alone. I had two plates of food and an apple juice, which was quite filling. I rushed over to my dorms to catch up with LL and VL, where we would be going over to the STEM facility to do our respective events (VL and I are doing Agricultural Science and LL is doing Solar Power).

Upon starting the test, it went very mid. I definitely don’t expect to medal, and here’s a minor rant. For context, questions 36-40 had summaries of the questions on the answer sheet, so we assumed that those summaries were the actual questions. THEN, 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE TEST ENDED, WE REALIZED THAT THERE WERE ACTUAL QUESTIONS! LIKE WHAT THE HECK?! JUST GIVES US “37.” AND NOT “37. Write your hypothesis and why it is strong” LIKE BRUHHH WE LITERALLY LOST SO MUCH TIME. Anyhow, we scrambled and managed to finish and BS our way through some questions, and there were a few questions that we guessed on (Oops I should’ve trusted myself on Question 10 but whatever).

After our events, we headed back to the dorms, where we played some mini-hoop basketball. I’m apparently really good at it (those skills will definitely not transfer to real basketball), and I beat both Meena and VL. LL opted out, so I never actually played against him. We ended up finding a cheat code, in which you could jump over a 9-foot barrier and score, but it was quite taxing on the legs, as you can imagine.

Dinner came, and we went as a team. We came maybe 10 minutes late, but by the time, the line was genuinely a football field long (I swear I am not exaggerating it weaved through the entire building and 2 blocks outside of the building). There was another line on the other side of the building, so our team went there, and this time the line was actually reasonable. We ate, and I had some very good beans (Though albeit sweet), hot dogs, rice, corn, and chicken legs (THEY WERE SO SPICY because I have zero spice tolerance).

After dinner, we came to the opening ceremony. We did the Parade of States, where each school walked onto the stage with a banner and other props, smiled for the cam, and walked off. The most unique ones were when Nevada pulled up with a whole lightsaber duel, TJ (I think?) did a really cool banner reveal thing almost exactly when the beat dropped, and one team dressed up as Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and a bodyguard. Buccholz literally did nothing, and sent 4 people to smile and take a picture, while Enloe and NCSSM had really dull banners and nothing else after that (I should have at least given my Panthers cap to brianzjk).

During the ceremony, we got to hear a talk from astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger. It was very inspiring, listening to her story and her life lessons. We also got to hear a beautiful national anthem sung by a former Michigan SciOly competitor. After awards came trading. Each person had a free ice cream voucher, and I originally wanted to give it to brianzjk, but then realized that I could use it as leverage for trades. I ended up trading the ice cream into a pizza hat (It’s exactly what it sounds like, except they use fake pizza made of cloth). The trade went from ice cream to new york fake license plate to pizza hat. I tried to get a cheese hat from one of the Wisconsin kids, but none of them wanted to trade. It’s ok, net profit is net profit (Sorry brianzjk for not giving the ice cream to you). The dorms were about a half mile away from where we currently were (MSU basketball arena), so we opted to take the electric scooters. However, there were people with us and only scooters, so I volunteered to run. This ended up being a great and terrible idea, great being that I got exercise and didn’t fall off a scooter (I can’t scooter fr), but the terrible was cramps and legs being in horrific pain). I returned back to the dorm where I live, where I am currently writing this post.



Sunday:
I woke in the morning to LLyelling at me to wake up before heading over to Case Hall for breakfast. I knew that I had to go to volunteer for Fast Facts (A division B event) at 7:45, so I planned to leave at 7:15 just in case I got lost. After eating some yummy potatoes and sauage patties, I headed off to my adventure.

At first, I followed khhu and VZ because they were planning to run their flight build. We needed to rush, since we were already a little off-pace due to poor weather conditions, and I lost my right airpod while running (I’m actually still fuming about this like why did it have to be my right bruh now I have to change all my settings again). I searched for a while, losing even more time, and we continued. As I departed from khhu and VZ, the former gave me the directions to get to my building since I had no map nor any data. As luck would have it, I got lost. Then, I met up this other person that was heading to the Chemistry Building (I was going to Kedzie hall), and in a whim, I followed her, thinking that the circled building right next to Kedzie was the Chemistry Building. Funnily enough, it was pretty darn far from the Chemistry Building, and I eventually realized that I was not going the right way (At this point, it was already 7:45, so I was late). It took me another half hour trying to ask as many people as possible and accidentally meeting khhu, who told me directions again (I got lost again after he told me directions), before finally meeting a parent who had just visited Kedzie and gave me directions.

Sweaty and soaked from the rain, I entered the building with another Monster (2 in a row!) and my backpack. The event supervisor said “You’re not here” when I walked in since I was 30 minutes late, but I quickly explained that I was here to volunteer. At that moment, I was really scared that the Event Supervisor was a little mean, but she ended up being EXTREMELY kind.

Throughout the day, I handed out tests and graded them. Fast Facts in itself is not a very long event, so the 5 volunteers and event leaders had quite a bit of time to grade. Things were quite fun, actually, and I did so much math from mental mathing a bunch of scores, and being really good at trying to find two numbers that added up to a multiple of 5 or 10. During this time period, I realized that my chest was in pain (like pain to the point where I had shortness of breath). I freaked out because I thought that this may be a precursor to a heart attack of my own. I did some extensive googling, before deciding that deep breaths would help and that it was an asthma-like condition that I get occasionally. I also was unable to eat lunch, since they were Potbelly sandwiches and I have a gluten allergy. Even worse, the chips contained peanut oil, and I have a peanut allergy (I’m allergic to Gluten, Eggs, Nuts, and Seafood. And you wonder why I’m morbidly underweight).

After we finished up the last block of teams, I attempted to head back to the dorms in order to change into formal attire for the closing ceremony. As I was walking back, surprise surprise, I got lost. I ended up meeting AS and SR, who guided me over to the Enloe homebase. I chilled there before going to the dorms as a team. As we took the elevator down, we fitted around 12 people into the elevator, which was extremely cramped and borderline unsafe (airborne diseases go brrr). As we walked out, there was a guy who was waiting to go up (we had gone from the 2nd floor to the first), and as the first few of us came out, it looked as if he was preparing to enter the elevator before realizing a second wave of people were coming out of the same elevator, and we basically never stopped coming out of the elevator. You could see the shock in his face and also the confusion, since fitting that many people in an elevator is quite uncommon.

After changing into some more formal attire, we headed over to dinner. At this point, I was starving since I had only a coca-cola for lunch. Dinner costed 35 dollars, so I was really excited because I was expecting some extremely good food. However, upon entry, the entire team was met with mexican catering, which definitely should not have costed 35 dollars per person, as there were ~120 teams there. The food tasted decent, but I still firmly believe that it should not have costed 35 bucks.

Awards came and went, and Enloe placed out of T15 for the first time in many years. We sold some events, though I can’t even be talking since I’m really just invited to pay the bills. Unfortunately, VL and I did not medal in Agricultural Science (another failure added to the list).

At night, half of the SciOly team intended to pull an all-nighter, and we met NCSSM in the lobby on the first floor. Before then, I had eaten 4 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos in the same time it took MN to eat one (oops I was hungry ok). At that point in time, there were a bunch of NCSSM people playing Go Fish, and I saw PotatoMathster, as well as ACas and ASun. We got a little bored and decided to explore the other parts of our dorm building, since the building was quite large. We had a lot of fun before finally staying in the lobby once again. Yet again, WFeng would not stop “skibidi” and “Sigma”-ing, and it got pretty annoying. WFeng and TPat found some meter sticks, and recreated an MIT Invy moment by jousting and fighting with meter sticks (This time, however, they were sitting on rolly chairs with KN and SR as drivers). He was also pissing of PotatoMathster by saying some really dumb things, such as “You should make the codebusters cryptogram worth 520 points,” because apparently something important wrt PotatoMathster’s rizz occurred on May 20th? Speculation Eventually, WFeng pushed PotatoMathster past the edge, and PotatoMathster threw the pen which she was using to solve cryptograms with (ON A PIZZA BOX, MAY I SAY) at WFeng. WFeng followed this up by saying something along the lines of how he was going to see PotatoMathster again somewhere or something about not harming himself(? I don’t know it was something along these lines), to which PotatoMathster responded with “F**k” and “Darn it” (JOKE. SHE WAS JOKING (or mad). IT’S NOT SERIOUS). We also used rolly chairs to create a massive chain that essentially could not move because of the sheer mass of the system and frictional forces. There was also racing with the rolly chairs, and it essentially became an F1 recreation on a budget. We used terms such as “spinning out” and “DRS” and “Turn 1” etc etc. It was actually so fun, and is definitely the most fun that I’ve had in a long time. I raced KarNan and TPat and some others. Eventually, TPat called over a Montgomery competitor and West Windsor Plains North (WWPN) competitor, Sourish and Claire Lin (SORRY I THINK I MIGHT HAVE MEMORIZED YOUR LAST NAME WRONG and I don’t kow sourish’s because he didn’t have his last name on the back of his hoodie haha), who hung out with us until around 3:30 am. MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO SOURISH'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE. The former is a Physics Camper, and the latter is a biology main (Claire if you’re seeing this I NEED HELP AHH haha). TPat, Sourish, Claire, and I raced for a while, and we had a very good time. Eventually, I went back to my room, where I crashed and got a solid 3.5 hours of sleep.

SUNDAY:

We left today. After breakfast, I packed up my stuff and we walked 30 minutes to a very nice charter bus for the public. I’m currently sitting here right now as I reflect, remember, and smile at the wonderful moments and laugh at the not-so-wonderful moments (I’m looking right at you, WFeng). As my time at Michigan State University ends, I can’t help if this is my last ever Science Olympiad nationals. Will my parents be willing to pay an absurd amount of money again just for me to goof around and not gain anything? I’m never going to make varsity with the non-existent brain of mine, and things are just not up. I can’t do builds, I can’t do study events, so I guess I’ll just be the cheerleader on the sidelines. I want to make Varsity next year, I truly do. I want to put in work, but there’s this voice in my head that says “No it’s not possible. No all events that you can theoretically do are stacked. You can’t build. You can’t beat a camper in biology. You can’t…” I always put out inspiring quotes, yet when am I ever inspired? These negative thoughts weigh me down, and in the wise words of Witt Lowry, “I don’t mean to make you wait just the pressure’s been getting heavy.”

I feel like I should make an obligatory school year recap, but what recapping is there? The only recap would be:

Insert every math contest: Fail

However, I need to implant this quote into my brain, "Amidst uncertainty, any step is progress. Sometimes the only fault is standing still." I need to take a step forward. I can’t stay complacent with the fraud that I am.

Day 1:
After a long plane ride, which had me a little sick near the end, we finally arrived in Boston. I’d been here once before in the summer, but I hadn’t experienced the Northeast cold quite yet. Upon arrival, we met up with pi271828 and VW, the latter I’d never interacted/seen before. I would be rooming with brianzjk, peace09, and VW.

After watching speedyfalcon get swept in Astro Party by brianzjk on the subway, we finally arrived at our hotel. It’s actually pretty nice, and it’s pretty cozy, a break from the harsh cold outside.

We went to Friday Night Events, and I had to skip the estimathon because of an AP Chinese assignment that my mom was really pressing me about. I ended up seeing v_Enhance in the lobby while doing my AP Chinese assignment. In between assignments, I met PotatoMathster and tried to meet GL, to no avail. I also talked to mathleticguyyy for the first time, and he’s both tall and really funny (And nice!). We went to Math Bowl next, and brianzjk was with sub_math, mathleticguyy, and pbj2006. brianzjk and his team absolutely smashed their way through Math Bowl, and highkey swept.

Afterward, I went back to my room, and mathleticguyy came to our room, too, where I continued working on my AP Chinese homework, and finished it by 11:44! We talked about a lot of things, such as contest awards.

Day 2:
After waking up and eating a very healthy breakfast of chocolate milk and cereal, my team (brianzjk, pi271828, peace09, speedyfalcon, KY, JD, and VW) and I went to MIT to take the contest. After grabbing an HMMT frisbee and a water bottle, I sat down while waiting for my teammates to eat breakfast. I ended up talking to PotatoMathster for a little bit, and she introduced me to GL, which was the first time that I’d talked to her irl.

The team round started, and we did pretty well. I ended up contributing/partially contributing to 3 problems, and I felt pretty good about my performance. Then, individual round came. I ended up using all of my last brain power on the first round, Algebra/NT, then crashed on Geo and Combo.

Guts round was much of the same. Before Guts started, I ended up meeting VulcanForge, whom I hadn’t seen since the 2022 State MATHCOUNTS contest. One funny moment was when brianzjk asked VW what the answer to problem 8 was, and VW said “pi over three for eight,” showing that the answer to problem 8 was However, brianzjk sold and wrote down “” as our answer. Our scores ended up being pretty atrocious, but it's alright.

During awards, I met v4913 for the first time in real life, which was really cool. Her team got disqualified because someone named Neal (hopefully I’m spelling this right) is from SF and joined her team, which resulted in them breaking the gerrymandering rule. Honestly, I feel really bad for them because they legitimately had a chance at placing because of their stacked team. v4913 also gave me her HMMT shirt, which is an Adult Small (I'm a Medium) so maybe I'll be wearing a crop top for the first time in my life. Also, babyhamster was called on to join the Acapella group, and some other guy ran onto the stage instead, which caused babyhamster to throw a fit. Immediately, the guy, whose name was Pascal, was told to sit on one of the Acapella people's lap while they sang ily by Surf Mesa to him iirc. I have yet to ask babyhamster whether she thought that Pascal was a blessing in disguise, but she sat down and was very quiet the second Pascal was told to sit on the person's lap.

After playing football with pi271828 (he’s lowkey crazy) both inside and outside, I hung around the SSM team, who was playing Fish (a game that I still do not and wish not to understand). We also got to hear mathleticguyy sing 187 for us, which was inspiring and also amazing! sub_math recorded the entire thing, and hopefully, she posts it on YouTube so I can watch it!

After arriving back at the hotel, our team went to the gym (minus speedyfalcon, JD, and KY]), and we just had some fun, while also complaining about peace09 being so innocent. pi271828 kept saying "boombaclat" repeatedly (or it might be "bombaclat"), which I still have yet to find the definition of.

Day 3:
After laying in bed for around 10 minutes because of how tired I was (staying up till 12:30 am playing bomb party with friends was not the play), I woke up and ate another breakfast of cereal and chocolate milk. brianzjk and VW were still in bed up until 7:15 even though we had to leave with packed suitcases at 7:30 AND peace09 and I had already told them that it was REALLY time to wake up. Our room ended up having everyone else waiting while brianzjk and VW were finishing packing up, and we left for educational activities.

Right before the first lecture started, I played some more football with pi271828, which reaggravated my shoulder issues (rotator cuff tendonitis from swimming), so I had to stop playing. It was pretty fun, though, and pi271828’s ball is really grippy, which helps with catching and throwing.

After a pretty cool diffusion models lecture by Marvin Li, which involved complicated math that I understood for approximately the first half, I decided to go play frisbee with speedyfalcon and KY, since all other teammates were away (in retrospect, I should have invited some other people, but whatever). Because of locked doors, we had to walk around half a mile to get to the field that we wanted to play instead of approximately 50 feet. During the walk there and back, speedyfalcon was vlogging and commentating on our experience, while I was making some lame jokes or something. I’m honestly excited to see what speedyfalcon’s editor (an unpaid friend) cooks up since speedyfalcon recorded a lot of “vlogs” at HMMT. Speaking of vlogs, I saw laura.yingyue.zhang yesterday, and she said “I don’t know” if inquired whether she would vlog the HMMT competition or not. On the way back, speedyfalcon and I sang the Periodic Table song (with pauses and one of us dropping out sometimes because of forgetfulness), which he recorded on his vlog.

I chilled around and worked on making this blog post before going to an origami talk. Funnily enough, ⅔ of the theorems that the lecturer discussed our math club had had a lecture on. Regardless, I found it really cool that you can theoretically build a computer from flat origami and thought that the lecturer, the mathily director, did a very good job of both making the lecture informational and interactive. After the lecture, I talked to v4913 about her performance on individual, and she responded “not great,” to which I responded with “it’s all about the memories we made!” I’m not coping guys! I recall seeing either before or after that conversation that v4913 threw a paper ball at a trash can, and proceeded to not only miss, but the ball (if I recall correctly) entirely missed the trash can and went into the corner of the room behind the trash can, which was unreachable. I thought that was pretty funny, to be honest,

Before leaving, I played more frisbee with speedyfalcon and KY (either I hadn’t yet regrouped with peace09 or he was busy, I forget which). Upon returning, I chilled around with sub_math, mathleticguyyy, and the rest of my team minus pi271828. mathleticguyyy played some tetr.io, which was really cool since he’s very good at the game. Eventually, we had to leave to get our luggage before going to the Boston airport.

The airport was pretty boring, but brianzjk and mathleticguyyy were playing surviv.io with mathleticguyyy doing the shooting and aiming and brianzjk doing the moving. They were lowkey a distraction, since they screamed so loud every time they died after doing well/won. peace09 and I were looking at each other and then laughing when they were being a disturbance since all the other people in our gate were side-eyeing them really hard. Their setup was also really funny since mathleticguyyy was using a folder to pad his mouse, and they were both charging their stuff. I took a picture for brianzjk because he wanted one.
We began to walk around the airport. We ended up buying some boba tea jelly beans, candy corn, and chocolate gummy bears in a bag (to share, and courtesy of brianzjk). I also bought a bag of chocolate-covered blueberries, which I still have yet to finish. Nobody really wanted to eat the candy since it was in a bag, and KY ended up putting some of his cocktail (non-alcoholic but allegedly supposed to taste like alcohol?) jelly beans (If that’s what alcohol tastes like then I’m never drinking alcohol) in the bag. As a last resort offer, because I was forced to hold, and thus eat, the bag of candy, I put them all in a hand and shoved all the candy into my mouth (it was only like a handful, but WOW WAS IT DISGUSTING). Took one for the team, ya’ll. Probably gave myself diabetes in the process haha.

Since our plane was delayed by three hours, our team (and some others) decided to make a new meme number (PLEASE HELP US MAKE IT A MEME NUMBER) because of the guts round funny moment described above. peace09 pulled some problems from his brain and his collection of problems that were unused from WMC. In the end, I don’t think we were very successful, but it is what it is haha.

Overall, I’m really happy with my experience here at HMMT. I met so many people for the first time and even met people whom I had never even talked to before. Many fun memories were made, lots of laughs were shared, information was learned, and new friends were made.

peace09 being innocent compilation:
“I literally had to explain to peace09 what the hood was.” -pi271828
“What does your opps mean” -peace09
“What does ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ mean?” - peace09

EDIT: Forgot to add this, but I met kevinmathzhao and mathicorn while at the place that I saw the SSM team playing Fish.
EDIT: sub_math has sent me the video of mathleticguyyy performing the hit song 187 live! Thanks, sub_math!

Day 1:

After trudging through two periods of school (Band and Physics), I finally got to meet up with my fellow band friends, and off to all-district we went. The bus was highkey musty and not worth the 5 dollars per person that we paid, but whatever. serenaz26 and I had intended to sit together, but due to parity reasons, I sat behind her and looked out the window for a third of the ride to a nearby “food court” place (It’s like 6 restaurants that are near each other). Also, I got serenaz26’s piccolo part for Go Galop because she REALLY didn’t want to play it. Thus, I made my second-ever piccolo sound and actually got semi-consistent at it (minus the part where like 3 notes won’t sound because the piccolo is broken haha)

When we arrived at the food court, serenaz26, khhu, HD, and VL. Hopefully, the people who were with me know who I’m talking about. We went to the Chipotle in the “food court,” and ate there. I had a lunch of pasta packed and a sandwich for dinner, but I decided to screw it and have Chipotle for lunch and pasta for dinner. serenaz26 is a goat and paid for me, which reminds me that I have to pay her $15 tomorrow, but anyway, we ate there and decided to roam around the nearby Academy Sports + Outdoors shop.

Upon entrance, we made some jokes about “what if we see [our band conductor] because he’s addicted to ice baths and golf.” Thankfully, we did not see him in the store, saving us from what could have been a very embarrassing experience. I went over to the weight section with HD, where we completely lost serenaz26, khhu, and VL, and they were calling out our name. The two of us were like “nah nah we’re not getting in trouble don’t answer.” HD ended up taking a mirror picture because idk all for the ‘gram haha. HD ended up going back over to serenaz26 and company, while I checked out some TRX bands. After realizing how expensive they are, I caught back up with serenaz26 and company. We checked out the firearm and fishing section, where I had a really awkward but funny conversation with the man behind the firearms counter. Before leaving, serenaz26 and khhu admired 6 oz Yeti cups that were meant for espresso shots, while HD and I checked out some softball/baseball bats, giving them a test swing.

After successfully roaming through Academy (and being disappointed that there was no golf simulator), we went to Starbucks and played charades on HD’s phone. Before leaving, there was a huge debate on whether we should get a cup of Starbucks to fuel us until 9 pm, but we decided against it, a decision that we would soon regret.

On the bus ride to Good Luck HS, I talked to khhu about some random stuff and assorted topics, and eventually, we arrived. Saying thanks to the driver and departing from our bus, our little group of Enloe people stuck together and went inside. Upon entering (this was my first time inside Good Luck HS), I was amazed. The building was so nice, and everything was clean, unlike Enloe. Intrusive thoughts about transferring back to Good Luck HS rushed through my mind while I admired every little part of Good Luck HS. It was at this moment that both serenaz26 and I started getting tired and regretting our decision not to buy Starbucks, so I got her to buy a Sugar-Free Pepsi for me (I love caffeine and also WHY WAS THERE NO NORMAL PEPSI OPTION GAH) (Also this is another reminder that I need to pay serenaz26 tomorrow). I met up with AllenLi and GM, whom I hadn’t seen since district band auditions eighth grade. After some discussion, we tried to watch the Enloe Asian Student Association Showcase, but to no avail, because the audio sucked and the WiFi at Good Luck HS also sucked.

Finally, rehearsal began. I was next to someone I don’t know and someone who goes to Rich Kid School by the initials of LY. I also met SZhong, who complained about me not taking on a leadership position in Boy Scouts this semester. At first, I was pretty locked in and the music was really nice. We played Hymn for the Innocent (HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU LISTEN), which was dedicated to those innocent people who lost their lives to war, violence, or natural causes, as well as military members who died protecting those who were innocent.

Next up, we played Mount Everest (HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND). I really liked how this song described the trek up the mountain, as well as the different aspects of the mountain (snow on top, hiking up, etc) in a very John Williams-style piece. At this point, I was losing focus and getting a bit bored. I made some really dumb comments, like “My god this piece is impossible to sightread” (I didn’t practice ANY of the pieces before the clinic, a decision I half-regret), which prompted LY to laugh.

After a break and more Pepsi Zero Sugar chugging, I was back to playing the flute. We played Albanian Dances (This piece isn’t bad it wouldn’t hurt to listen to it). Since this piece was legitimately impossible to sightread because of the speed of the piece (a speed I overlooked while deciding not to practice the piece), I faked the majority of the piece, learning it bit by bit while rehearsing. My elbow started hurting during this (I have chronic elbow pain for some reason), and while I was trying to pop it back into place, LY was side-eyeing me really hard haha. The only dumb comment I made was when the conductor asked “What will you guys think about right before playing this piece? Think!” Since it was right before dinner, I muttered “Dinner,” which LY evidently heard and laughed at. This caused us to both enter late because we were laughing. Oops.

I talked to GM about her school, and how both of ours sucked. Regardless, we had a fun time talking to each other (GM, serenaz26, khhu, VL, and HD) and flipping water bottles, an act that got us many concerned looks. However, all good times came to an end, and I had to go back to rehearsal with my friends. At this point, all of the people who ate dinner with me were really done with rehearsal and didn’t want to go back. We trudged on, everyone really tired and gassed out. I decided to do something that I had done during TYS rehearsal, which was to write a word or phrase on a piece of paper. This was supposed to be only for flutes, but it made it down to the oboes and clarinets (literally the 20 people in our row all wrote down something/saw the paper). Eventually, near the end of rehearsal, we got the piece of paper back, but that was pretty fun. Also, the flute section did a “One-Word Story” thing where we passed a piece of paper down and up the row, creating a story that went like “The world is always hungry and on something. However, it consistently…” I forget the ending haha. I’m pretty sure LY was also really done because she was laughing at my comments, which almost nobody does. Also, it was so hard for me to pass my completed one-word addition because my band conductor was in the audience (he’s a simp for the clinician) and was staring in my direction most of the time, so I had to subtly give it to LY who would pass it once she had added her word and so on. But I swear if my band conductor wasn’t in the audience, the one-word story would have gone SO much smoother.

During rehearsal, we played through Elegy for a Young American (I RECOMMEND THIS FOR SURE). The piece starts out voicing a mourning country since JFK had just been assassinated, and then later begins telling the story. It begins the story bit with the car that JFK rides in coming down the street, and then slowly transforms into the assassination and then ends in mourning again.

After many hours of grueling rehearsal, it was all over, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Now, onto tomorrow, where we have not only rehearsal in the morning but a concert at night!

Day 2:
Upon arrival, I talked to YL and SZhong. I was even more tired than last night since I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, and I was lowkey dry in my conversations.

We were in the theater room today, so there was much less space (but thankfully no Enloe band director to watch my every move). The shenanigans began approximately 10 minutes into rehearsal. I gave the 2022 TYP Fourth Expert (Flute solo from Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky), and she proceeded to draw on it, creating a chain of drawings on the excerpt. Next up, we had our own 2nd flute paper, where we talked and stuff. LY ended up asking what happened to my arm (I had taped it up because of the above-mentioned elbow pain), which I found surprising because has nobody seen KT tape before…?

After rehearsing everything in the morning, lunch arrived. I believe that I made a couple of snarky comments in the morning such as “You guys are doing such a great job understanding [Hymn for the Innocent]” (as stated above, it’s a pretty sad piece about remembrance of dead loved ones), to which I replied, “because we’re all depressed!” Funnily enough, this got a reaction from LY (I think we’re friends now! /hj? I have no idea how she views me) We also made fun of AngelaW in the morning and during lunch (I’m praying to god that she doesn’t see this) because she really likes to move while playing (as in moving around in circles while playing to show expression, which is frowned upon in the band world).

During lunch, GM had a whole thing where she rightfully didn’t want to go with 3 senior guys to lunch since she would be the only girl and that would have gotten awkward, so she signed up for Doordash and got a Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A, but she accidentally ordered from the farther one, creating a moment of panic because lunch was ending soon. Thankfully, the driver appeared with much time to spare, and GM invited him to our concert later that night, to which he responded with “I’ll look into it.” Honestly, I have mad respect for GM for being able to say things like that. I would have died of embarrassment and introversion and would have just shut down the idea.

After our group of people finished eating (GM, serenaz26, khhu, VL, HD, and I), we began exploring Good Luck HS since it was one of the very few times we’d actually been on the campus (if not the first for some). Wandering around halls and floors, we admired the art and showcases, as well as the modernity of the school. We went into the library and wrote down some sticky notes saying “Enloe is better” and “Sko Eags” (GM wrote down something about how her school was better than Good Luck HS). After we left, there was a group of No Hope (Green Dope) kids still in the library, and as we circled around the hallway, admiring the murals on the walls, the Good Luck HS band director came in and caught the No Hope kids inside the library, and reprimanded them. All of us in the group began smirking because had we not left 10 seconds earlier, we would have been a part of the No Hope kids, and gotten reprimanded. Rushing downstairs, we hung out in the lobby and just socialized with the Rich Kid School people (SZhong, LY, and AllenLi), and just had a fun time.

Then, we went back to rehearsal. Not much happened here, to be honest. I wrote a paper that contained “serenaz26 is a caffeine addict” 20 times (she is!), and a pineapple (serenaz26’s favorite logo/fruit/object). I also got SZhong to laugh really hard while he had a clarinet in his mouth, causing him to miss his entrance and probably also make an atrocious sound with his clarinet while laughing.

When I got home, I tried taking a nap (I didn’t sleep at all), and ate dinner (not much, since I had just eaten lunch 3 hours prior). Then, came the concert. We played really well (maybe I’ll include the link to the recording later), and I was on the verge of both going insane and falling asleep at the end of the concert because of the odyssey of a clinic that I had gone through. In all honesty, I have no idea how 8th-grade me got through 3 days of an All-State clinic since 10th grade I barely got through 2… I guess I’m getting… older?

District band gave me a realization. I’m not who I used to be. Have I deproved? Definitely not. Have I improved at the same rate as others? Definitely not. The grind never stops, but… does it? Regardless, I will never forget the memories that I made at the All-District band, from roaming Academy Sports to going into the Good Luck HS library and making “Enloe Eagles!” stickers.

As a little end to the horrifyingly long article (props to you, Turtle, for actually reading through all this, though I’m sure you definitely skimmed it. I don’t know who else reads my blog haha), I leave a quote that my conductor left me.

“When it seems impossible, that is where the magic begins.” When you’re out of your comfort zone, you begin to improve.

P.S. As a comparison from me as an 8th-grade flutist to now, I think Viva La Vida by Coldplay provides an accurate depiction.
“I used to rule the world. Seas would rise when I gave the word. Now, in the morning, I sleep alone and sweep the streets I used to own. And I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.”

Meaning: I used to be good, but that was because my inability to be consistent was masked by video auditions, where I could record as many times as necessary. Now, the pillars have crumbled since COVID ended and in-person auditions are back in place. My once-castle has now crumbled and I am once again nothing and not noticeable at all. Also, I think the “I used to rule the world” is a bit untrue, because it was always serenaz26 ruling the world of flute.

P.P.S.
Sorry for continuing to extend this, but here's my list of songs played in order of how much I like them (with the first being like the most) because that must mean so much to you guys (sorry. my blog, so I make the rules)

1. Mount Everest
2. Hymn For The Innocent
3. Elegy For a Young American
4. Albanian Dances

I don't mean to say that I disliked any of them (though I sort of disliked Albanian dances), as I loved all the pieces (minus maybe Albanian Dances), so take it with a grain of salt (though most of ya'll probably didn't even read it anyways haha).

OMG I'M TOTALLY NOT USING A PARTIALLY CLICKBAIT TITLE!!!

The day started out pretty well, minus the fact that my legs were super sore from swim practice the day before. Hence, I packed a protein shake, which was received by some confused and concerned looks loll

I'm going to be honest, this year's DMM was not as interesting as last year's, so uhh sorry if you were expecting 200% more action than last year.

My coach ended up wearing an "NC State Alumni" shirt, which I guess is less atrocious than wearing UNC merch on Duke Campus, but Enloe felt like that was pretty funny.

In the morning, there was someone whose last name was Bhargav (from his TJ VMT sweatshirt) (oh his name is Samarth), and he was like "Oh wow mathnerd one oh one I've heard about you. Nice to meet you, man!" uhh yeah very out of the blue but nice to meet you Samarth! It was also way too early and I already forgot how I responded, but it was probably something along the lines of "That's crazy."

Next up, I met quasant (or maybe I met her before? My memory is a little hazy). We said hello, and she introduced me to the ECG team, which was pretty cool. I swear I've heard of Karen before, but I forget... as forgetfulness is a common narrative when it comes to me. We talked a little bit before SSM came, in which WFeng basically had a meet-up with his former classmates, and "clowned" on them (read: Said hi and called them opps). By that time, I decided to talk to BY because we hadn't met in a while, before shirking away and rejoining quasant and just messing around.

During all of this, TJ VMT was like 2 feet away from us, so WFeng and quasant were pressuring me to talk to VMT, but once WFeng left to "clown" on SSM people, it was kind of just quasant and I left. I ended up being there while quasant somehow struck up a conversation with laura.yingyue.zhang. Dude, I have no idea how quasant is so good at starting and holding onto convos... what in the world? Mad respect, she might have to teach me someday because I was really close to just straight-up leaving because I'm really awkward in public, and can't start a conversation unless it's about academia... #introvert moment... laura.yingyue.zhang and I ended up laughing at VictorHeYoutube's complete inability to produce valid AMC10 scores, as he was like "oh yeah I got a 62 on the AMC10A last year", followed by clowning him, "oh wait no sorry it was a 64.5," followed by even harder clowning. It was pretty fun and funny (oh, and Victor, you said you wanted to be mentioned a lot, so here's your moment of fame!)


Finally, the Power Round began. We did pretty well, albeit "pretty well" means "mid" in terms of our goal of placing Top 10 as a team. We solved, though some were completely fake solves, all but one or two problems.

Next came the Team Round, which we sold so hard (why did it just take me 10 seconds to remember how to spell "sold"). Like you might as well call the Enloe A team the Enloe Merchants because we were selling like there was no tomorrow. After brianzjk made some questionable time decisions (not his fault, though), and the rest of our team was extremely brain-dead, we just didn't perform well, and the one question (Question 9 of 10) that I solved ended up being wrong... By this point, I was kind of the motivator. I was telling everyone to look forward, and not look behind. Usually, whenever you look behind, you end up losing the mental game, which is just such a crucial aspect of competitive math.

While talking to TJ during lunch, we realized how hard we had sold, and I got really frustrated over my wrong answer on problem 9. It was the one problem that I helped contribute to the team, and I flubbed it. At that point, I just wanted to beat myself up, but I knew that I had to think forward, and not backward.

Samson said some really interesting pick-up lines for the second year in a row, but he was quickly shut down by our "coach" (I frankly have no idea what to call him. Team leader? Not sure...) because our coach had heard enough of these pick-up lines during class (our coach teaches at Enloe, and Samson just so happens to be in his class). I don't quite remember the exact quotes, but there was something about "My velocity [something] because I accelerate towards you" or something like that. During lunch, VictorHeYoutube kept on trying to rizz me up by lifting my chin, but it never worked LOL. Here's a speedyfalcon shoutout because I believe he wanted to be included in this post (though I'm not sure if this was a joke or not))

Next up was the individual Round. I don't want to talk about it. I got 1 and 2 and then sillied the entirety of 3-6, but then I got problems 7 and 9, so I managed to double my score from last year!!! I guess my only flex is that I beat both speedyfalcon and brianzjk because I fake-solved a problem by measuring using my pencil LOL. WFeng also ended up getting a 4 because he guessed a problem right (funnily enough, he guessed number 2 correctly on the set, and I guessed number 1 correctly). I was ready to just quit, but we had the Relay Round left.

Yeah, uhh Relay happened... I ended up selling 1.1 because I could not combo, and I had lost the mental game already. 1.2 was actually kind of hard, and I never ended up being able to solve it. Looking back at 1.1, I'm so mad that I sold it.

I talked to quasant and laura.yingyue.zhang as well as Abhi Palikala about Individual and Relay scores. quasant also ended up selling, and she got a 3, whereas laura.yingyue.zhang and Abhi, in true TJ fashion, gatekept their score from me, saying "No comment." They probably got like an 8 :sob: If laura.yingyue.zhang or Abhi is seeing this, if your DMM score was your age, how old would you be? Regardless, we ended up flubbing both Relay questions.

I ended up socializing a bit during Devil Round and writing a random answer as the answer to every single question (I actually got 2 right!!!). In the end, we stayed for the awards ceremony, though h41.zh0's mom was waiting because she came early, so we had to leave before the ceremony ended smh. peace09 got 1st (obviously), and TJ swept 1st and 2nd (smurfs smh). laura.yingyue.zhang was a really good sport throughout, and she kept on saying "noo you got this" and whatnot. I guess she's one of the limited people in the math community who aren't "toxic," I guess?

During Devil Round, I saw jatloe12345, so I was like "oh my god it's jatloe one two three four five" when I was right in front of him. He either didn't hear or was like confused I'm pretty sure he had no idea who I was, but that's ok. I like flying under the radar.

Anyways, that's a wrap on 2023 DMM. Hopefully, I'll be able to see more people at February HMMT! I'll probably make a post on it, assuming that I can go.

Plan on future posts: Thanksgiving break (November) (I forget if I'm doing anything interesting), Christmas Break (skiing in CO yayy), February HMMT (I'll be able to meet v4913(maybe), and peace09 will be on my team yayy)

As I am making this post, VictorHeYoutube is reading through it in a Discord VC, making sure that he gets credit for "trying to rizz me up," although he evidently failed. He wants to be talked about more, so yay here you go I guess.

My legs are so sore right now. For what reason, I don't know. Maybe the adrenaline fueled me during DMM, and now I'm crashing. I should not have stood for so long today. I'll make a mental note of that for HMMT.

Edit: Enloe A's goal from the very beginning was T10, and I can very happily claim that we actually got 10th LETS GOO WOOO

6/9: Today, we kinda had a 3-hour car ride… yeah it was really dull. I ended up trolling my brother with some really scuffed card tricks, as well as got HH's number. When we got there, HH and I helped unload and stuff, and then we went on a battleship cruise thingy. It was really dull, and so HH and I just went to a table on the cruise and played card games(President, Speed, etc.), and once that was over, it was like 7:30 and we still needed to find a place for dinner. We ended up finding somewhere, and I got a skirt steak, but the SAUCE WAS SO SPICY(also keep in mind that, due to waiting times and stuff, I was eating dinner at 9:00 :skull: ) THEY PUT LIKE CAROLINA REAPERS IN THERE OR SOMETHING IT WAS SOO BADDD

But yeah that experience happened… I don’t think I’ve been more hungry my entire life. After dinner, we went to serenaz26’s room and we played 3 rounds of President before it divulged into my brother and serenaz26’s brother playing Gun Mayhem while serenaz26 and I were watching and sharing reels with each other(oops I sent like wayyyy too many reels and I probably changed up her entire recommended). Tomorrow, we’re going to be driving from Norfolk VA to NJ so… that’ll be fun!!1!11 5 hours of driving!! Time to like to load up some games and songs or smth…

6/10: Yeah the car ride was really boring. When we stopped at a Taco Bell for lunch I downloaded a 2-player game, which is probably going to save my life during the 10-hour drive back home, but uh yeah that car ride was not fun. We ended up taking a Ferry, which could somehow hold our car, to NJ from Delaware, which was really cool. I ended up losing one of my 2022 SciOly Nationals Poker Cards tho, so I’m stupid mad about that. HH gave me one of her cards, but now it’s really obvious which card is the Jack of Diamonds because it has a completely different back color lol

serenaz26 and I played Spit(the card game) for a while, and I ended up beating her because FTW has gifted me crazy reaction speed. We also played Exploding Kittens with serenaz26’s brother.

When we checked into the hotel, it was like 6:00, so our next step was to find dinner. We ended up finding some Soul Food restaurant, and when we pulled up, not only was there a stupidly long line, but an ambulance was right next to the restaurant, so we freaked and went to a Pakistani restaurant instead… just to find out that nobody goes there because there are always bugs in the food. So, we waited for almost 2 hours in line just to go into that soul food restaurant, all the while being plagued by rap blasting from cars(I actually knew most of the songs like Dreams and Nightmares by Meek Mill “I had to grind like this to shine like that in the back of the paddywagon cuffs locked on the wrist. Seen my dreams unfold, nightmares come true.”), weed and marijuana from every corner, and the sketchiest cars(and LOUDEST cars) I’ve ever seen and heard. Those cars not only had tinted windows but had smoke clouds going up to the traffic lights because of the diesel fuel that they used(I think it was diesel). The whole place gave massive Enloe vibes tbh but like 10x worse.

After finally getting into the restaurant at like 8, we ordered stuff, and apparently, everyone needed to order something, or else it would cost 15 bucks extra per person who didn’t order something… so yeah super scuffed like wth that’s gotta be racially motivated. I ended up having an allergic reaction because they contaminated the fries with something, so it was quite an overwhelming experience. And guess when we finished eating? 10 PM! When the hood really turns for the worse! Yeah, the entire time HH and I were talking to each other like “This is the exact place where news reporters are like ‘5 dead in shooting in New Jersey’ Oh god we’re actually going to die.” In the end, the GPS ended up taking us to a dead-end, which had a whole gang like 100 ft away from us, so we did a U-turn after screaming at my dad to U-TURN BECAUSE HE THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GO STRAIGHT LIKE DAWG WE GONNA DIE IF WE GO STRAIGHT. That was quite the experience. HH got a little cold on the car ride because she’s from Arizona and Arizona’s like 100 degrees year-round, so she is not used to 65-degree weather. I, on the other hand, had grown used to cold because of swimming and had an extra jacket. Being the phenomenal friend that I am, I lent her my hoodie, and she wore it for the rest of the night before giving it back right before we slept. When we got back to the hotel(how are we still alive), HH had a lot of edits to my book, which I thanked(and paid) her for, and I sent an email to my teacher with all of the edits that she had made. In the end, it was 12 AM, and I hit the sacks REAL fast.


6/10: We went over to New York today. There was a cruise that took us close-up to the Statue of Liberty, except the BOAT WOULD NOT STOP ROCKING SIDEWAYS. Anyways, we went onto the Statue of Liberty island thingy, and it was cool ig… I did see someone from my school(SD to anyone from my school), but I’m very awkward so I like hid from him the entire time

After the Statue of Liberty, we went to Ellis Island, which was just a waste of time. Respectfully, I couldn’t really care less about the immigration story. It ended up just making my legs in even more pain, which… idk it sucks.

On the drive to our hotel which I am currently residing in, I asked HH for a random number for me to prank call, and she very graciously gave me one. I ended up doing well until my BROTHER DECIDED TO SPEAK and then it all went downhill. HH’s friend ended up “trolling” me by saying he was an attorney from an Attorney Service thingy. I could see the massive regret in HH’s eyes

After we left Ellis Island, we checked into our hotel, and it was kinda nice. I “played cards” with HH, which turned into me catching up on all of the youtube videos I’ve missed since getting here in NY.

6/12:
We looked around Princeton today, and it was really boring tbh. Got a leg workout in… ig? And a cool-looking tiger sticker + Princeton pen. Other than that, it was pointless. We spent 2+ hrs driving to Columbia, just to stay there for like 30 mins max and since everybody in our group didn’t like Columbia, we went yeet.

Then my parents pulled their second dumb move of the day by making us walk the Brooklyn Bridge at 9:30 PM in NY while IT WAS RAINING LIKE IDK WHAT THEY HAD FOR DINNER BUT THAT MY FRIENDS, THAT IS HOW YOU DIE. HH and I started talking about what our last words would be if we died. Hers would be “I told you so” and mine would be “Wow.” We ended up getting soaked(no duh) and it was a bad experience tbh.

On the car ride back to our hotel, my brother started laughing, and whenever he laughs he makes it look like he has a seizure or smth, so it made HH and I die laughing. We also made a lot of “your mom” and “deez nuts” jokes, and it was wild. My phone died, so I had to resort to other entertainment methods that were not called “Spotify” and “Geometry Dash.” It’s 11 PM. I should sleep.


6/13:
After a good breakfast of oatmeal and cereal(and a glass of OJ), we were off to Central Park. We biked through the entire park, stopping at 3 places because they were “scenic.” The uphills were actually quite hard(mainly because I wasn’t on the right gears, but oh well, it’s leg day I guess!), but it was fun to bike around. Some serious biker was yelling at me to change the gears, but I was like “No” and moved on with life because we embrace challenges!

After lunch, we walked over to Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center, and it was extremely mid(actually we just went to Rockefeller to use the restroom tbh). The last spot of the day was Summit One Vanderbilt, which was pretty cool. The mirrored floors and stuff were crazy, and the elevator was stupidly fast. Like it transported us up 90+ levels in 45 seconds. Unfortunately, we waited for like 1+ hours for the sunset, just to leave an hour before it happened because we realized that we wouldn’t be able to see it. So… yeah I could’ve spent an hour not playing Geometry Dash smh

If you can’t tell, the posts are getting shorter and shorter because I’m writing these later and later. On the car ride back, we played some music so my brother wouldn’t fall asleep(keep in mind this car ride back was 2 hours past his bedtime).

6/14:
We started off the day in the Mile High Garden, and the walking begins! Yayy! It was kinda mid, and HH and I were just talking about how the architecture was “sooooo impressive.” Next up was Hudson Yard, where we just looked at it from afar, realized it was big, then left… Yeah… Lastly, we went to the Vessel, which as an Instagram reel describes it, is “Beautiful on the outside, Nothing on the inside, just like [New York City].” After all that walking, we walked(omg more walking?) to Madison Square Garden & Penn Station. We found out that MSG was closed(I literally told my dad it was… he didn’t listen…) Penn Station never happened because we didn’t want to go there…
We went over to Time Square, and my brother fist-bumped one of the tourist scam people in costumes, and A WHOLE GANG OF PEOPLE IN COSTUMES PULLED UP AND MADE HIM TAKE PICTURES WITH THEM. Afterward, we paid them 2 bucks, and they pointed out “We need 20s.” We were trying to leave, and they followed us(really sketchy and creepy). Thankfully, two seconds later, two people from the NYPD pulled up(on accident) and they ran away real fast. We yelled at my brother for a hot minute after that because THAT IS THE BIGGEST SCAM THIS ISN'T DISNEY SMHHH…
We went to Hershey’s and M&M shops, where we bought Cotton Candy and Strawberries N’ Creme Hershey's bars, which are apparently only exclusively sold at the Hershey’s stores. I need to fact-check this. (edit: omg I literally cannot find it on Amazon what the heck) Yeah, Times Square was a whole experience. This was also the point where my legs started to hurt just a lil bit.
After lunch, we went to NYU, where we had a tour. HH had her airpods in and she like tuned out completely, while I had short hair that didn’t cover my ears, so I was forced to listen. The entire time it was just serenaz26 and I complaining about how bad our legs hurt while the tour guide was rambling on about NYU… yeah whatever.
After a delicious dinner at Chipotle, it started to POUR LIKE GOD WAS UNLEASHING A TORRENT ON US. So we camped out in front of a restaurant, which I’m pretty sure is illegal in most worlds. The owner of the restaurant was like “Hey ya’ll can’t do that,” so we quickly put on our ponchos, just to realize that God hated us and immediately stopped the rain right after we put on the ponchos smh…
Finally, we went to the gym, where 2 sets of 5x200 lb leg presses went crazy, considering my legs were sore after 10+ miles of walking. Also did some TRX + Ab work + Chest Presses blah blah blah my name isn't llr I don’t go the gym very often. My earbud case dropped without me knowing, and a bunch of kids walked in after that. They lowkey kinda scared me because there were like 15 of them and they just took over the gym, but I still hadn’t realized that my earbud case had dropped, and so I hadn’t picked it up. So you might be thinking, “omg ok so you lost it, right?” Well, no. Apparently, people are actually nice in New York, so they put it only a ledge(only took two tries and so many frantic texts to HH and getting yelled at by my parents), so I picked it up with much relief. Note to self, only bring the earbuds to the gym next time. Don’t bring the case.

6/15:
Today, we kinda just toured Brown and Yale. Yale is HH’s dream college, so I bought her a mug as a little “surprise,” and by the time of the posting of this, she most likely has the mug unless I forgot to give it to her or it broke or smth.

The Yale tour was kinda mid tbh. I’m not really into any of these Ivy’s, but at least our tour guide was a D1 football player, and he was really chill. I think he made the tour much more enjoyable, and he wasn’t crazy professional with it or anything. I feel like all college tours have the same general idea, with, of course, the “why I choose x school” at the end, so they’re getting kinda boring now…

After the Yale tour, it was like 12:45 because serenaz26 and I spent an hour trying to figure out what HH would like(we started off with shirts, realized they were all ugly or like 100 bucks, so we switched over to hats, found out she didn’t like any of them, switched back to shirts, reconfirmed that they were ugly, then last-minute went to mugs). Now guess who had a Brown tour at 3:00 and a 2.5-hour drive to make? Yep. Yours truly. So, we bolted into our car, realized we got a ticket because we parked in a loading dock(oops), and had cookies, leftover croissants from breakfast, muffins, etc. for lunch. Truly the most healthy and filling meal I’ve had in a while.

The Brown tour was outright horrible. The tour guide suspiciously reminded me of a very certain teacher I have(and reminded me that I have to do said teacher’s homework oops), and she was a little energetic… yeah I didn’t like it. We drove over to Boston, where I’m currently residing.

6/16:
We went to Harvard and MIT today because we’re in Boston.
MIT was pretty cool. The tour guide was pretty cool, and she’s also studying CS, which counts for bonus points. She led us around, and everything was pretty cool, especially where you can become an official pirate by taking Archery, Air Pistol, Sailing, and fencing. Our tour guide was actually an official pirate, which is pretty cool. Overall a W campus, even though it was kinda quirky and a little weird. Our tour guide told us some funny niche stuff about MIT and made it kinda clear that MIT is nerdy (in a good way). Yeah, I love the campus, so if any MIT AOs are seeing this, I love you all and please let me in.

Harvard was next, and it was the most mid thing ever. I touched John Harvard’s piss-covered foot and then immediately washed my hands, as well as washed HH and my brother’s hands. I didn’t like the campus that much, and also my legs were sore from the 10 million miles we’d walked since coming on this trip + the MIT tour.

After Harvard, we went to Chipotle for lunch, and it was cool. I beat my Blocks(a game that’s kinda like Tetris?) high score, which is relieving because of self-improvement fr. At this point, idk why I’m still writing because there’s no way anybody’s going to be reading this far and actually reading this instead of skimming. If you’re seeing this, quote it and that’s kinda crazy for all the dedication you put into reading this long essay.

Dinner was really scuffed because we had lunch at 12:30 and “dinner” at 4:30. Umm not sure what to think of it but all of us were full so we have a huge bag of the leftovers sitting in our room rn.

We went to TJ Maxx, and HH and I were making some questionable jokes, mainly because we were getting them all out before we went to JX’s house, and JX does not tolerate any bad thoughts. She’s like… innocent to the next level and so is her brother, so no swearing kids!

My brother and I ate a Cotton Candy Hershey’s Bar when we got to the hotel, then I played flute, then I’m sitting here writing this post now. The Bar was so good I 100% recommend you buy one, even if you have to fly from Cali to get it or smth BUY ONE TRUST ME YOU WON’T REGRET IT UNLESS YOU’RE A LOSER WHO DOESNT LIKE CHOCOLATE.

6/17:
We drove over to JX’s house today, and it was pretty nice. I clapped her in volleyball even though she’s like D3-level and I have almost no experience :DDDDD

That night, we(JX, HH, serenaz26, and I) pulled an all-nighter. Yup. I did it again! We played Life, Clue, and ranted about mental health and high school. It was fun until my dad found out and shut us down at 2:30. So I scrambled to where I was supposed to sleep, and the other three did the same. I was in my own little living room area, which conveniently was like 10 feet away from the other three, so we just talked and stuff. Every time I heard something vaguely resemblant to a human being walking, I went straight to my area because I didn’t want to get caught again. At around 3 am, JX’s brother went upstairs to “get water”(read: get us in trouble for still being awake). Bro walked around the area like a monster and like stomped his way to the fridge smh. I also started to feel really sleepy around then, as did the others, so we set a “10-minute timer,” and only serenaz26 fell asleep. So, she was eliminated from the unofficial “last to stay awake wins” challenge. HH was like “Bruh this doesn’t work,” then fell asleep at 4:20. Funny thing was, she fell asleep looking at a 60-degree angle. It was quite a sight to see. We took a video saying “HAHA YOU FELL ASLEEP LOSER” like over and over for three minutes. Fueled by a bottle of milk tea and a couple of bathroom trips later, it was 4:00 AM. I was really jittery at this point, and the others can attest to it. serenaz26’s brother went upstairs to our level(the other kids were sleeping in the basement), and he “looked for water”(read: looked for a charger because he and his friends played games the entire night). The time came and went, we did a lot of Truth or Truths, and it was fun. 5:00 AM came. The sunrise happened. It was all a blur. We learned a bit about HH’s love life, and soon it was time to make a Father’s Day breakfast. We kinda just heated premade stuff up and boom we had breakfast!

The drive was pretty much every child passing out, while parents woke us up for every DC place(i.e. Capitol Hill, White House, etc.) that was worth mentioning(there were like 2). We had Brixx Pizza(it might be an only NC thing idk), it was yum, and then I proceeded to beat HH in Ping-Pong quite a few times.

Now that the school year is over, I guess I'm going to make a post about it.

I get that this definitely isn't the most high-quality post that I'm making, but I think this is more important than just mere spam. That being said, I think that my experiences and lessons may not all apply to everybody, as we all have different learning conditions and whatnot. Anyhow, let's get onto it.

Recap:
Wow. This year was... humbling, to say the least. I realized that Science Olympiad Varsity is much, MUCH harder to make than I thought. Now, I need to become a [insert any subject here] main and read textbooks on that topic(i.e. Read Campbell for Biology, Marshak for Earth Science, etc.). Things got scary... Grades, Extracurriculars, Social Experiences. It was all quite a blur.

Grades:
I learned this year that I NEED to pay attention in class. Before, my classes were all trivial and the teachers were chill, but now I know what "teacher doesn't know how to teach" really means. At Carnage, it was just a term that was thrown around here and there for teachers who weren't the best, but now I understand that paying attention will prevent me from getting a B.

Math:
I am extremely grateful for the experiences I had this year, and Math was also quite humbling. From facing middle schoolers who were mediocre at the subject, I'm not competing against some of the best Mathletes in the nation, all of whom are older and much, much better than I am. It's quite scary, knowing that I'm the one lagging behind, the "weakest link," so to speak. Now, I believe that, since all of Enloe's cracked seniors are leaving, I'll have a pretty good chance(a non-zero one, for that matter) at being on Enloe's A team for DMM, HMMT(if we decide to do it), CMIMC(if we decide to do it), and make State Math finals(though my performance at finals will definitely be questionable again).

Science Olympiad:
I. Need. To. Read. Campbell.
That's it. I just need to read Campbell. Become a biology main, and boom I should be on Varsity assuming the person who camped decides he'll stick to Science Bowl and not try out for SciOly, and hopefully khhu decides not to sweat Biology over the summer.

Science Bowl:
Not sure, to be honest. I should make the team, but I'm trying to make it onto the B team so I can go to MIT. Again, I need to read Campbell. Being simply a Math main isn't enough. Apparently, the Board this year "really regretted not putting me in," and regretted putting in [redacted].

Social Life:
So, with High School, there's the Winter Dance(which Enloe calls "Enloe Charity Ball," which is basically where we raise ~180k for a certain charity every year) and Homecoming. Both of which I didn't go to this year. For Charity Ball, I guess the introvert got into me, and I decided to cower in my home, studying math and watching youtube. Homecoming was a different story, though. Our football team is hot garbage(didn't win a single game this season), and I did not want to go whatsoever. All of my friends went, and you may be thinking... "hey what happened to peer pressure?" Yeah, peer pressure did not get to me. Instead, I decided to grind up for AMC10(which I think worked out, but was it worth it?). I did meet quite a few really pro people(laura, peace, ackliu, wolfpack) that I hadn't ever met/hadn't met in a while, and it was really exciting to see them all.

School Life:
High School got really scary REALLY fast. From [redacted] getting beat up by 4 people, to a fight that required the entire Raleigh Police Department to show up, got 4 people tased, someone pulled out a Glock (allegedly), and multiple people were handcuffed, high school is... wild to say the least. It doesn't really help that Enloe is located in one of the sketchiest parts of Raleigh, so... yeah. I walked into the 1200s bathroom after my CS final, and I saw someone smoking with something that looked like a needle. Needless to say, I try my best to avoid all bathrooms(only using the 2700s bathrooms, which are filled with the nerdiest classes, and thus not many people smoke in there) because 1) I don't want to get beat up while using the bathroom and 2) I don't want to get diseases in the future from second-hand smoke and 3) I don't want someone sneaking some random drug into my water bottle/backpack.


On that amazingly high note, summer goals!

1. Read Campbell
2. Do Volume 2(6/22 of the way there!)
3. get a girlfriend /hj
4. Become productive
5. Make TYS/TYP
6. Start thinking about a school for the future...
8. Make it to my Fantasy Baseball League's playoffs(:pray:)

Let's see how many of these goals I actually accomplish!