Some stories don’t glitter, they glow. My IOAI 2025 wasn’t written in gold medals; it was written in faces, voices, and fleeting moments that stitched themselves into memory.
It began in chaos: national team selections colliding with year-end finals, my days split between exam papers and coding windows. Nights dissolved into “just one more try” on at-home problems, where every error felt like a lesson wrapped in frustration.
Then came Beijing. The city itself seemed to hold its breath, as if agreeing to host a week that refused to fit inside reality. Rivalry melted into laughter. We knocked on doors just to see the half-awake faces of fellow participants, played bluff until curfew, and shouted chants about Bohrium that would have made any passerby think we were plotting a revolution.
Even the football tournament became a chapter worth keeping: Team Orange, a patchwork of nations, languages, and accents, moving as one. Despite our differences, we shared a single, jubilant victory, celebrating not as individuals, but as a team.
When it ended, I carried no medal through the airport gates. Instead, I carried something more enduring: lessons in time management, balance, and the truth that competition isn’t only about rankings. Letting minor mistakes or regrets dominate memory serves no purpose. Sometimes, the real prize is a story you’ll retell for years—where the score fades, but the faces, the laughter, and the bonds remain.