That turned dark quickly. Instead of seeing two black lines, I actually see this. In this picture, we only have one black line. So, when I took that picture of that plate I knew I had to get back to camp. If I didn't understand this, I had to try again. If I had to do a second try, I wanted to take that time to make sure I knew what I was doing. My mother was very excited when she saw how much I was learning and how fast I was going. I don't think she ever said anything like "slow down" or "you're never going to use this in a million years." So, she was just excited and very excited that she was able to watch me on video every time I was trying to solve these problems. I knew I could do it. I could understand these concepts. And after a couple of weeks, they asked me to show them something that I had worked out and was excited about. That's how I knew I was doing something that they were not. And so, that's a big moment for me. It was a big moment. That was something that I didn't think I could do at first but after a while, I really started to get into it and I really liked it. And then I started looking up topics online to try to see if there was any other things I could do with that. To see if there was any other things I could do. So, I went on this site, the Math Olympiad International Team, and I started seeing videos from these other teams. These other great people trying to figure out who else would be good at math. And I started seeing other people. As I was continuing to learn and understand more, I was getting into more complex stuff, more advanced stuff, and all of a sudden these other teams started winning medals. People who had never really competed in math or even learned the subject and they started winning medals and doing well. That's what led me to apply to Olympiad Team USA. I didn't necessarily want to go to the Olympic games, I wanted to do it to compete with the top teams in the world, but at the same time to be better than those teams. So, I decided to put in an application to be on the team. And I saw that not only was the math team a part of it but that they also had a technology team and I knew I loved science so I also thought, "That's probably a good opportunity for me as well." I didn't know if I could be good at it. I knew I wasn't at the top level of skill, but I knew that if I had more time, I'd eventually learn what I needed to know. So, I applied and I had such a great experience that I also wanted to be part of that team. I just didn't know what my exact career would be. I didn't know if I would end up working on a team, or if I would keep doing math. I just didn't know what would come after high school. I knew I wanted to get a job that was math-based, I knew I wanted to do something related to math and tech and things that my brain was most comfortable doing, but I had no idea what that was. So, I just put in the application to the technology team. I didn't know what was going to happen with the other side of my application for the math team. When I got accepted to Olympiad Team USA, I was so excited. I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be so great. I'm so excited to see what's in store for me when I get there and the things that I can do." That was a big time for me because I wasn't always excited about math. I didn't have a particular passion for it. When I started applying, I was excited and thrilled. But I was nervous because it's not a classroom-type environment. There are going to be people who are much smarter than me that I'll have to compete with. And I think I was scared that I wouldn't know enough to know I had what it took to be competitive with them. And I knew I had to show that that I did know what it took to be competitive with them. In order to be successful in math and science, you have to know how to learn and retain the information that you have been given. And if you don't know how to learn, then you're not going to learn the information you need. It was like I was going to go to this new country that I knew very little about. And I was going to have to start over from the beginning and try to figure out who I was and what I was going to do. I was really excited about that. So, it was very exciting. I had a huge sense of hype because I didn't know exactly what I was going to be doing and I was excited. At first, I didn't really know much about any of the other members of my team. Most of them were very interesting to me and I talked to them and they were interesting, but I didn't have much in common with them. And even when they were talking to me, I felt like they were talking to a different person from myself. I didn't know it was me talking to a different person. And that was a weird feeling to be like "I don't know who you are, but I know we're communicating right now, so I know you." I didn't know any of them personally, and some of them I hadn't known until we started working together and became closer. Because of the way I was put together, I had trouble making friends with other people because I would always be trying to make friends with everyone. I really was just trying to get to know people and be friends with them. And because we were so diverse, it was hard. It was hard to find people who we weren't very similar to and we would be compatible with. In the end, it wasn't necessarily difficult because we were so different. I don't know why I put up with that so long because nobody should ever have to try to be friends with a white guy. That's just weird to me. But that was the problem. Not having anything in common with any of the other members of my team, I ended up focusing on my relationships with the Olympiad Team USA staff. Because I was having to create so many friends with these other students, it was hard to find people who I didn't know that well, who I didn't know very well, who I knew really well. I think it was so easy for me to get friendships with the staff and volunteers because we spent so