Well, hi there, thanks for noticing this blog. First of all, I beg your pardon for my poor English.
It's natural and usual to get depressed, again and again, in life, of-course in competitive world like competitive programming or should I use the word "code sprinter". I've been (seriously) in this section for less than 6 months. I've never (or I can't remember if I ever) been so much upset as I am today (it's a lie, I've been but very few times). I was reading about someone who was top of the country in ACM-ICPC regional contest when he was in high-school!! Though their team was an unofficial team. It was suppose to be encouraging but I dunno why I am outta mood after reading that article.
I didn't know about informatics olympiad when I was in school or high-school. I came to know about math olympiad at high-school but I didn't know what is it or how to participate in it. I talked about it with my mother and she encouraged me a lot to participate in a competition and I did too. But couldn't solve any of the problems! That's the end of story.
I wasn't bad at math or solving puzzle and I was in a well renowned institute in my country and I always had (still have!!!) a dream to be top of the world on something. But till now what I have gained or done is "void".
I am now in such an institute that never been in World Final of ACM-ICPC. More over we have only 4 serious contest programmers among 800 students!! Let me not talk about the facilities. Still we are striving for success.
All of these are excuses, nothing else. May be I could do same or even better if I was in their place who are now top of the world (I am actually joking!!). But the world is not going to compromise for me, or will it? I may console myself that I didn't get much support or bla bla bla but that's not going to solve anything. I can participate in ACM-ICPC regional for three more times. So all I need to do is to keep working harder than anyone and I am trying. Wish me luck.
Thanks for reading :)
Good luck!
You have a good chance to be first ever participant of ACM ICPC World Finals from your institute:)
What country are you from?
Thanks mate, thanks for the wish :) I am from Bangladesh.
This is quite similar to my situation when I started. My country doesn't participate in IOI and I only heard about IMO too late. When I started at ICPC there wasn't any team from my country which had gone to the world finals. My team finally made it at its fourth regional, and again made in the fifth(and last one), so just train seriously and you can make it :)
Thanks Mario, really feeling a lot more better now. You have been through worser condition than me but still you did it! Its really inspiring.
Hi buddy.
You know, everyone have such experiences. Nobody became the best without tolerating difficult situations and also the best thing that distinguishes the best and the others is how much he/she tried before and still trying.
You said you couldn't solve any problem of Mathematicians Olympiad. That's what Olympiad is. If you can solve all problems easily, then what makes this competition amazing and what makes you to continue studying it?! In this case this great competition turns to a ridiculous one.
You know, there is no need to be the best at all. Maybe that's your goal, but be careful. When you wanna be the best you should work more and harder than everyone else and this is not easy to be done in a short time. So be patient and remember there are other thinks than studying. If you study just to be the best, in my opinion, it's not good.
I myself experiences such situation or more harder(in depression mode) and learnt many things because of that. First of all I didn't study for Olympiad and I didn't accepted even in the first step(of my country national Olympiad). Next year I study as hard and as much as you can't possibly imagine, but what happened at the end?! I didn't accepted again in the first step. And today I have 5 days to the next and last first step I can participate in, but now I don't matter if I get accepted or not. I learnt enough as a high school student. I learnt studying what you truly like is the best thing every man can do, but it's not the whole life. Olympiad tough me how to think, study, solve, live and not to be depressed by obstacles.
Don't forget "The BEST is not always the best."
Finally, I highly recommend you watch "A Beautiful Mind" movie which is about the life of a mathematician named "John Nash", who won the Noble prize in 1994, and his problems in his life.
Sorry for poor English and talking a lot.
Good luck in LIFE.