Daisy replied with surprise but a slight hesitation, “You mean the International Mathematical Olympiad? Wow, I’d like to but I’m not sure I’m ready…”
“Don’t worry, with a little help and training, I’m sure you’ll be more than ready by then.” Mr. Howard said to her confidently.
And he was right. Daisy bagged the silver medal at the IMO. It was her first IMO competition, and it was the best ranking her school had ever made. After being interviewed by several local newspapers, suddenly she was famous in school.
One day after Thanksgiving. Daisy was studying at home for the upcoming exams and external competitions the following week.
There was a ping on her phone. It was a message from her best friend Sheryl, “Hey, want to come join me for some early Xmas shopping?”
After feeling hesitant for a few minutes, Daisy texted back, “I am busy studying. Maybe another time.”
“All right… another time then. :( ” Sheryl replied instantly.
After Daisy saw the last message, she threw her phone aside and started feeling regret. It was a kind of tradition for her to go shopping with Sheryl after every Thanksgiving. But she was simply too exhausted to go out after using the app to study an hour ago.
In fact, it was not the first time she had to turn down her friends. Every time she used the app, she would be exhausted for hours. Sometimes she had to prepare for both exams and external competitions. So she would use the app more than once a day.
On those days, she could hardly get out of her room. She could just lie on her bed with her eyes closed. Trying to get some sleep but couldn’t. Because her brain just refused to slow down.
On a Sunday morning, Daisy woke up from her bed. But she didn’t really get any sleep the night before. She sat by her window and stared out blankly. There were some noises outside and she saw her neighbor’s little kid riding a bike.
Mom entered her room, “Honey, you are up early?” Daisy replied, “yea, I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Oh, are you all right? Feeling hot or anything?” asked Mom, putting a hand on Daisy’s forehead. Daisy moved away and said, “I’m alright, I’m just tired from the studies.”
She wasn’t ready to bring up her real problem yet. So she switched the topic.
“What’s Mrs. Jones’ kid doing?” asked Daisy while pointing outside the window. Mom looked out the window and said “Oh, he is learning to ride the bicycle. He’s been working on it all morning.”
Daisy said, “he can’t even stay on the bike for two minutes! He is not learning, he is struggling.”
“Oh honey, don’t say that.” Mom continued with a smile, “I remember when you were learning to ride, you took longer than most kids. But you weren’t upset. In fact, you couldn’t stop talking about it every day.”
“Did I?” Daisy asked curiously.
“Oh yes. When you finally did it, you literally dragged me and Dad to the front yard. Because you couldn’t wait to show us. You were so proud riding on the bicycle that day.”
Mom rubbed Daisy’s shoulder and continued, “and we were so proud of you.”
After Mom left the room, Daisy watched the kid for some more time.
He rode the bike for a minute, fell down then tried again right away. No doubt he was getting better in the process and he was having fun.
Daisy grabbed her phone from her bed.
She swiped the phone screen to the app. Taking a deep breath, she held her finger over the app icon for a few seconds.
Then she pressed the icon and deleted the app.
--- THE END
ns 15.158.61.6da2
