End of Awesomeness

Well, IOI 2011 is over... That was pretty epic. This post will probably not be seen by many people. This is just final words. You know, IOI's a big thing. I just thought it deserved a post devoted solely to it's ending.

It's 11:25 pm now. We got on the plane from Thailand to Sydney, some time yesterday. We flew through the night with little sleep so yesterday, last night and today feels like a single day... or maybe it feels like three separate days. I can't really tell. Anyway, I got back from the flight from Sydney to Melbourne and slept from about 11/12 am till arounnd 10 pm. I don't think I can sleep any more so I'm just staying up for a few hours. My sleep cycle is so screwed up.

I feel sorry for Edgeworth. Essentially, 9 hours of his 14 hours of flying are redundant. He has to fly from Thailand to Sydney and then to Perth which forms a triangle. Yeah... I wouldn't like to be in his position.

I have mosquito bites all over my foot which I had to deal with all the way through both flights.

But despite all of this, I have to say, IOI was definitely worth it.

Many people only every have a brief touch of informatics. It's a great thing and I certainly think it has changed many lives for the better. Many people only ever go to a single December camp and I would think many competitors at the IOI only experience it once. Not only from Australia but from other countries as well. Not all countries are as good as China or USA. Many get to the IOI just because they can program and solve problems with some proficiency.

But all of them have a personality and a story and everyone, whether they're a legend or someone who just scraped a few points at the easiest problem, all of them have something to add to the community and some joy to give to others.

I think of AIO now, which I competed in now 10 months ago. I didn't even know what a BFS was and only a tiny amount, if any, about algorithms and complexity. I look back and think of how far I have come since then. I can't imagine what my life would be without informatics. I remember getting that email saying I was invited to December camp and how happy I was. Now I've gotten a medal at the IOI, the pinnacle that many have strived to achieve for years.

Now, having achieved this, I think of the December camp, the one where I began this journey and where I learned so much. Now, having reached this pinnacle, I look back and think of all the things I've learnt. The truth is, I believe I might not learn so much from December camp again but every year, I'm going to be there because every year, there is going to be someone new. Someone to bring something new to the group and every year, there's going to be a new group of people with their own quirks and references and personalities and stories. I want to be a part of that.

Informatics is about much more than the problem solving at the computer. It's about the jokes, the congregations around the computer watching videos, it's about the trolls, it's about playing minecraft in our free time, it's about screwing our fingers up playing table football, it's about staying up playing mafia and bartog. Because every moment is a new one and any moment could be the one that you end up missing. So every night, I stay up with the group as long as I can because I want to be there when it happens and I want to be part of that story.

It's 12:04 am now. I've spent around 40 minutes on this so I hope it shows you something and gives an insight or an inspiration to be part of that group and part of that story.

Everyone has a story, and I'm glad that informatics is part of mine.