AC: It's pretty great. I think it's the best place in the world for me. I'm enjoying all the stuff I'm learning. It's a beautiful city and the people are very welcoming. At first, I thought I'd miss home. But I started to meet new people, to get into everything that's happening here, and it became a place that I could call home.

My first four classes were Differential Equations, Numbers and Sets, Vectors and Matrices, and Groups. I enjoyed Groups the most, which I didn’t anticipate. I just discovered that I like it. It’s a pure math class, and I feel more drawn to pure math than applied math. I feel much happier when I discover something new in pure math. In applied math, it feels very different, not my cup of tea.

AC: Actually, I’ve been participating since 5th grade, which is like 8 years ago, but it’s not the same experience in Romania at that age. You're just competing with other students in your country, and it's somewhat easier. The strange part is that I wasn’t that good then. This love sort of increased over time.

I participated because of curiosity at first, then I discovered I liked it. I became more and more motivated. At the Olympiads, I enjoyed solving problems. I was very happy when I solved something that I never expected I could solve. It also motivated me to study math. Four years ago, I just wanted problems that I knew I could solve. But later on I started to appreciate the problems I found strange before.

For what helped me, I had wonderful teachers. My parents supported me very much. But I think the most helpful thing is that I never give up. I always maintain my curiosity and search for knowledge.

AC: It's much harder to master international competition, it's actually almost impossible. In national competitions, though, you'll eventually master them if you work enough. In international ones, you have to adapt from one problem to the next. It’s also quite different socially. At national competitions you meet the same people, but at international competitions, it’s always someone new you meet.

AC: My favorite moment was when I first qualified for IMO, not in 2023, but in 2021 when I was 15 years old. I didn't expect that! My favorite place to visit was Japan. It was the first time I went to a Disneyland!

AC: The supreme advice is to enjoy it. Don’t look only for your results. Just enjoy it, everything you do. I mean, I’ve had bad moments, of course. But you can always enjoy thinking about a difficult problem and learning new stuff. Enjoy the process.

AC: I start by trying small things. And from those small things, something gets interesting. And you go deep on that, but it might not work. Then try to see why it doesn't work, and maybe start to discover what happens behind the problem, behind the scenes. After you figure out all this stuff, you get closer and closer, and at some moment it will well up – the dreams of inspiration.

AC: When I was younger, I enjoyed the types of stuff that I knew I could do confidently during a contest, like geometry and number theory. But now I want to challenge myself, so I'm more interested in combinatorics and other stuff that I couldn't do very well back then. Now that I don't have to solve problems in a competitive environment, in four hours, it's much more interesting. We learn much more in the process.

AC: I would like to still be a bit involved with competitions. I plan to start creating some new problems – it’s a lot more interesting to create the whole thing rather than just solving it. And I plan to support the IMO team this year – to go to the camps and host a few lectures. I also want to rest after all the exams and get ready for the next year.

Later on, all I know is that I would like to do research, but I’m trying to experience more things before deciding. Ask me again next year!

AC: When I don’t do maths, I like to relax. I love to listen to music or watch a movie – a comedy or whatever. I don’t feel I have a single hobby I would constantly do. I just try to switch things, to try something new for a little while.

Something I can do for hours when relaxing is to watch videos of tigers. I didn’t realize before that tigers were so cute and enjoyable to watch. My friends started seeing me doing that and now they also like tigers because of that. On my last birthday, they gave me a gift. I didn’t even know what to say – he’s a stuffed tiger. His name is Kenzo and I love him a lot. He keeps me from getting homesick. Then for my birthday this year, my parents visited me here and brought Kenzo a girlfriend. Her name is Kenzie.