Moments of Eureka

When I’m stuck on a math problem, nothing else matters. I'm the kind of person who can't focus on anything else until I solve a math puzzle or a tough question. But I never imagined this habit would lead to something bigger.

I had just come out of three years of war - years that drained everything from me. Back then, just standing up in the morning safely felt like a big win. I even had completely forgotten that I used to love math so much. It felt good to solve problems again - like a tiny break from everything I had been through.

One Friday night, I heard that the Ethiopian Mathematical Olympiad’s first round would be held the next morning. I wasn’t prepared, but I decided to give it a shot. The exam had lots of tricky questions, and 3–4 hours didn’t feel like enough. I enjoyed solving them, but I didn’t manage my time well. Still, my friends and I made it to the second round. So, we started practicing with similar problems.

Each question took a long time to figure out. But each puzzle felt less like schoolwork and more like healing - like I was piecing myself together with every answer.

The second round was harder, but this time, I managed my time better. I passed again - this time with the second-highest score. Two of my friends also made it, so we kept pushing ourselves.

The final round had five proof questions to be solved in three hours. But three hours felt like just 30 minutes. I had to go through all the wrong ways before finding the right ones. Most of my eureka moments came near the end. I only had time to fully write answers for two or three problems. I did my best, but I didn’t expect much.

A week later, I got a call: I was one of the top three female scorers and had been selected to compete in the East African Mathematical Olympiad - with participants from eight countries. I couldn’t believe it. For a girl who doesn't usually show emotion, I just stood there smiling. I didn’t know what to say. But I decided to prepare seriously, since this wasn’t just a national competition anymore.

I would spend an entire day trying to solve one question - and sometimes still not get the answer. But I never gave up. In fact, it made me try harder. The more I solved, the more I saw how much I enjoyed the whole process.

That’s when my best friend became my mathsmate. Even though she wasn’t competing, she helped me in every step. We didn’t always win against the questions. There were times we quit halfway, times we stared at problems until our heads hurt. Once, she looked at me with a worried face and said, “I think you’re getting too obsessed with this… like, mad obsessed.” I just laughed and told her, “Well, I’d go crazy for math any day - and I’d enjoy it!”. Even today after 2 years, I would say the same thing.

I’d start one method, realize halfway it wouldn’t work, then try another. That routine continued until the eureka moment finally came. And oh - only God knows how I celebrated those moments. They felt so good - it made all the hard work worth it. At those times, I felt grateful for all the wrong paths - because without them, I wouldn’t have found the right one.

That’s when I realized: this process isn’t just for math puzzles. It’s for life. Now I believe we have to go through all the wrong options to find the right one. I use this as my life principle. I keep trying different ways until I find a solution to my problems.

I didn’t finish top in the East African Olympiad, but I landed in the top 30% out of 54 participants. That might not sound like much - but for a girl just starting to heal from three years of war trauma, it meant everything. More than anything, I gained a life lesson I live by every day: Try every wrong path, because one of them will lead to a eureka moment.