"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work" — Colin Powell and pretty much my parents all the time

Hello,

I'm currently an 8th grader living in California. I recently took the USACO contest, a contest I've worked very hard for for the past year. Last year I made silver and gold consecutively on my first tries, so I was very excited this month. My score after this month's gold contest was over 700, so I was very confident that I would make platinum. But when the results came out yesterday, the cutoff was 800! (yes, I did get in a lot of trouble). I worked so hard, but I missed the cutoff by just a little, so I guess I need to work harder.

Would anyone else like to share an experience of when they worked very hard but the result/outcome wasn't so great?

Thanks.