Lessons to learn from sleep deprivation

It is 10:00 PM and the first Friday of SSP is coming to an end. As this concludes the first week of SSP (tomorrow is just a math lecture and free time), I would like to touch on a few aspects of SSP I was not expecting.

First is the people. I knew coming into the program that the caliber of the people around me was much higher than I’m used to, but instead of getting impostor syndrome like I was expecting, I gained motivation to push myself further. It’s gotten to the point where Aditya, Sourish, and I started asking for more challenging challenge problems, and I’m ready to get humbled quickly within the next few weeks. The people at SSP are far off from what I was expecting. When telling my friends from school about the program, they all assumed it was a super competitive program where it would be hard to make friends. After meeting all of these people who are the best in the country at the subjects they specialize in, I realized they are still normal people in the end, and I can tell that I will be very sad when it’s time for all of us to split our ways. 

What’s annoying about SSP is that it’s a Summer Sleep Program. I’ve gotten so sleep-deprived over the past few days due to staying up late collaborating on problem sets, but I’ve fixed this problem today, by taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. I feel good about what the future of SSP will offer.

-Andrew B.