A Shoutout to the Best Freakin’ Community Ever
So, this is my community:
Aritra, Mohammed, Agamjeet, Arkan, Atul, Archit and Taes from India, Bora from Switzerland, Luis from Bolivia, Gabriel from Singapore, Vlad from Romania, Rafael from Indonesia — and many, many more, this is for you!
All these wonderful people, coming from all corners of the globe. So many brilliant minds, so many unique individuals from which I got inspired and motivated not only to keep up with my interests, but also to appreciate how important it is to identify yourself within a community that can make you a better scientist, a better intellectual and a better person overall.
It all started during the quarantine. But my personal endeavors of searching for this community dates back many more years ago. Ever since I got involved in the mathematical competitions world, I was deeply worried about finding my place within this community.
Connecting with a group of people with which I could share the same passions, interests and goals was always much more important to me than agonizing over the colour of a medal, would it be bronze or silver — or, rarely, gold.
In my opinion, what really made my Olympiad journey unique was not the medals I acquired — not everything in life can be adequately measured by quantitative means, anyway. What truly made this journey unique for me is that I understood the real meaning behind it.
For years, however, I strived to bond with my fellow peers — may that be because I was always the younger (by far…) in my age group, may be that be because of COVID-19 — it happened. And it deprived me of unlimited opportunities to come closer to these brilliant individuals.
And, before, moving on, I will wholeheartedly drop the word minds when coming to describe fellow contestants. They are way more than this — they deserve to be acknowledged for many more than solving a hard problem or coming up with masterpiece solutions.
Did you know that they:
- definitely do not wear glasses at a 80% percent, as you might have been thinking for a while?
- enjoy blogging?
- are avid chefs?
- enjoy to play video games?
- occasionally climb the Kilimanjaro?
- attend debate clubs?
I do not think you knew all these. I certainly did not — at least not until the quarantine times came. And here we go back to where our story starts. I was desperate searching for a community that was nowhere to be found. And here comes the first hero of our story. Taes (*insert drums*).
He was the one to introduce me to the first mathematical organization I ever participated at: OTSS. It really seemed like the pearly gates had opened to me. It was there that I firstly found out the meaning of this math world.
Following Logicomix’s Ludwig Wittgenstein, the meaning of the math world does not reside in math. In fact, it is something a trillion times more meaningful.
That meaning I firstly discovered through OTSS. The “lab work” I had to do was mainly editing, proposing and grading mathematical problems, or even coordinating and publishing the contests. But these were just the means to accomplish these deeper connections young Orestis strived to achieve.
And I achieved them — later on, I joined a further 8 such groups of inspiring students that brought together peers from all over the world. Unilimited problems, numerous grading periods, endless problem discussions, arguing over a small mistake there-and-there, or trying to fix a small hole at a student’s solution. This is the lab work I mentioned before that is quickly forgotten, like a vague memory of a happy event.
But the lab work was not the bulk of this experience. Definitely not.
Working together with them really made me appreciate the potential each one of us has withing this world. It really is all about the opportunities — and we tried really hard to give more of them to our peers, who came from all the seven continents of our planet.
Motivated by the cancellation of multiple international contests, fairs and meetings, we decided to fill that gap by organizing our own contests — and so we did. COVID-19 was no longer an obstacle to us. We managed to turn each moment of destruction to happy Discord calls, funny Instagram photos and hilarious problem solving sessions. We transformed the depression caused all over the math community to a sign of hope that this community is much stronger than anyone had ever thought before!
And this is why I truly believe in this community so much. Because we managed to overcome the geographical difficulties posed to us and turn them into a collaborative and multidimensional team. Because we were not let down by the hard news that spread the globe like a peregrine falcon. Because we were there for each other in the most difficult times. We trolled each other, we supported each other, we laughed at each other, we even got mad at each other — but we were always there. For each other.
And this, I deem, is the most important thing of all.
