A long, exhausting day for me. It's always great fun to see all the coaches, some of whom I now count as friends after seeing them so many years at Nationals. It's also nice to finally meet many of the parents I've corresponded with over the last few years. But the real prize, of course, is seeing all the students. I'll have to see if I can get MATHCOUNTS to let the students print their AoPS names on their badges, so it's easier to identify them!

I've had a few surprises while here -- a number of students are here who I thought were older, based on their performances in some of our classes. While several asked me for predictions about the individual winner tomorrow, I'm now even less confident that I can predict who will be on the stage, much less who will win. I'd like to think that AoPS is to blame for that, to some degree, but in truth, it's the students themselves. We're enablers, to be sure, but the credit is largely theirs. The one thing these students all have in common is a personal passion for and dedication to learning how to tackle hard problems. While I think a teacher can nurture that, or kill it, I don't know if a teacher can *create* it. But if any teacher can, that teacher is worth piles more than the teacher is likely getting paid (more on that later, when/if I ever find it less depressing to think about the obstacles placed before our best teachers).