...and I'm having a one-man Kpop party in my hotel room.

(Basically blasting Kpop songs and attempting to mimic the dances oops. Pepsi anyone?)

So yesterday I took the 14-15 PAIME 3 with the cute deathllama9 and got a 13, which was a nice confidence booster. Essentially I just solved as much problems as I could in around 90 mins, then checked every step of every answer (caught 2 mistakes) before using the remaining time (about 50 mins) to tackle the remaining problems. This strategy feels nice, as it's consistent and allows me to focus on the exam one problem at a time.

Today has been quite difficult, making up 3 tests and having been pulled into demoralizing talks with my teacher and counselor who thinks I'm being an irresponsible student for placing "extracurricular" activities in front of curricular ones (this is a rant for another day...). I was also told I looked like this the whole day today oops. I'm just thankful I don't have to worry about any of this at least for now.

Nevertheless, I felt strong emotions the whole day - being able to finally seek revenge after last year's failure, how close I am to making school history, all the work I've put in - that I have to pause and laugh a couple of times at the movie in which I am the director and main actor of; the plot-line I've created over the past year on this blog which (I still don't know why) attracted so many readers. It would be hilarious if after all this drama is excluded and it's game time and I sit down at the exam table not being able to get 9 correct answers and fulfilling the long-expected movie ending of qualifying for USAMO and achieving my high school dream.

I suspect this pressure is a good thing. If I take care of my end of business my movie becomes a motivational one of a young misfit achieving his dream despite the obstacles placed on him. If not this movie suddenly becomes the funniest comedy of all time, in which the screenwriter himself can't control the ending. If the latter be true, I'll just sit down and laugh at the fact I couldn't bother to wipe up my butt.

However, I doubt this be the case.

If last year I was this, I'm feeling more like this.

It truly is wonderful this year having gotten the support of many whom I chatted with on AoPS and Facebook, and I feel much, much stronger this year going back to the same test center in which I misread both problems 2 and 3 of last year's II that ended up costing JMO qual. I doubt anyone on earth can stop me from bubbling in 10 correct answers tomorrow.

Best, $$D (time to profit)