Jack and Ten of Diamonds on Fourth and Fifth Street

When I first did cross-country, I did not expect to do it for over a year. I joined cross-country because my friend, Evan was also doing it, and at the time, I would just follow what he does (I am 100% positive that in 6th grade, I was willing to jump off a bridge if he did). When I went to the first practice, I went in thinking that racing was like what was describe in the Chinese manga called "Đường Đua Thần Tốc" in Vietnamese (it was the rage in Vietnam in 2012), which was about remote control car racing. Clearly I did not know anything about cross-country before practice. The first practice was also brutal, we had to run 3 miles straight, despite racing was 2 miles. I finished dead last, out of everyone. I felt so miserable and tired that after the practice I took a shower and slept until dinner. During the weeks before my first day in middle school, I improved a lot. From dead last on the team, to being top 7 in the first meet, and I was never not top 7 in my schoo...

This week is the first week of WOOT (Worldwide Online Olympiad Training). WOOT is an online math class that specializes in higher-level math competitions like the USAMO (United States of American Mathematical Olympiad) and IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad). To qualify for USAMO, you must do well on the AMC (American Mathematics Competition), and the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Exam). The course costs $700 (although you can get a full refund by October 1), and everyone who was a winner in the USAMO (there are always 12 "winners") took the class last year. Seeing that WOOT was a well known class and famous for "creating" good high school math students, I wanted to try it out. When I said this was the first week of WOOT, there was technically a Week 0. Last week was orientation, and there were a couple of problem of the days. Monday Problem of the Days were one of the "easier" problems, although they would be very challenging to almost e...