Author: Matt N.
Sitting at my desk, wondering how I’ll ever manage to narrow down my favorite memories of SSP, I’m filled with an unexpected, bubbling sense of belonging. So many of the adjectives I’d planned on using to describe SSP—energizing, supportive, cozy, stimulating, hilarious—have been consistently blogged about by other participants already. That spoke volumes to me. It told me that though circumstances challenged us with an online environment, our NMT community had found a way to thrive and build a shared experience together. But really, was that ever in
doubt of happening?
As varied as our interests and personalities are, it’s been so easy to click with everybody at SSP. Even from the get-go, my OD team’s minds meshed and were able to produce one great, puntastic team name (Rye Ascension) and some great-but-unfortunately-discarded team names (see this post’s title for an example).
Humble beginnings 
The best team logo, I will take no questions 
Flora makes an appearance!
Though I hesitate to admit it, I’d never stayed up past 3:30 am until SSP. Now, I’ve extended my personal record to 4:30 am (cue round of applause). While that may not sound very impressive to some of my more nocturnal readers, what it signifies is that I’m getting accustomed to late nights of cheek-tiring laughter over Gartic Phone mishaps, proudly singing songs we should be embarrassed to know the lyrics to, and bonding over the grind of psets.
Rocking out together at 2 am 
One of many games of Gartic Phone
As Andy Bernard from The Office says, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve left them.” Well, sorry, Andy, but I think SSPers already know.
Hey guys! My name’s Matt, I’m a rising senior at High Tech High School from Hoboken, New Jersey. My main career interests revolve around math, comp sci, robotics, and more recently, astrophysics. In my free time I like to play basketball with friends, learn (to varying degrees of success) cocktail jazz songs on the piano, and read books with my cat, Flora (pictured above ascending into the heavens on a piece of rye bread).
