In the early morn of October 31st, 2009 two very good friends and I hopped in a van to do something we looked forward to every year, the ACM programming competition. Small overview: teams of 3 people come from colleges and for 5 hours work on 10 difficult problems using analytical skills, programming knowledge, and, more rarely, the arc of the covenant. The trip down to Lincoln, Nebraska was spent mostly sleeping and making plumbing jokes; inside humor on a certain teacher who shall remain unnamed so the Shin family name does not go sullied. This year was important, it is our fourth and possibly last chance to compete. Last year we placed one short in going to the World Finals based on a technical fault I still believe is bullshit to the highest degree. The actual competition started off shaky and we realized that the problems were much harder than previous years. In the end we pulled ourselves up, always a dramatic occasion at this event.
SDSU team "Never Gonna Let You Down" placed second out of the 37 teams there and 5th out of the entire region. We moved up one spot at the site, but still failed to make it to World Finals.
On the way back in the minivan is when I realized that I would look back at this very moment and turn somewhat sad, somewhat happy, and extremely nostalgic. It hurt, in a way, to know that. But I realize moments like that do not happen often in life. Still, I'm going to miss being in that moment.
We Are The Champions!!
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