I really did not think I could make it through the Piscine.
Before the start, I thought, "I will fail this. I cannot cope with the social stress. I don't work well with people. I am too slow. I won't like it enough."

Frankly, the first 2 days were confirming this to me.
Then I met Nicolas and Michael, then I miraculously passed the first exam with a 50, then I met Daan at the first Rush. We achieved a 120 in that, not even counting that we had a whole second version of the project that went beyond all the bonuses.
The first week I successfully validated 0 exercise projects, the second week 1, the third one 5, the last week 4. (I got until C08 validated, included.)

By the second week, I was particularly liking that evaluations force you to introduce yourself to almost everybody. So you can break the ice and start getting to know a large number of people. (It's remarkable how you can easily and quickly find people you like interacting with, in this way.)
The evaluations were time-consuming, but the tips and tricks I got from evaluators were priceless, and it was fun to pass them on to others when it was my turn to be the evaluator.

The second and third Rushes were exhausting, but they were also by far the most rewarding projects.
I was happy to get a chance to work with Hugo in the second Rush, since we had only talked through Discord to that point. We struggled a lot to get the project to work. But we almost got there. Vincent evaluated it, and his written comment was: "It somehow works". Which we took as a giant compliment.
The third Rush was also the best Rush. We had challenges in figuring out how to split the work. But we ultimately got there. The program worked! It was unfinished, and we found a hilarious bug at the last second that we could not fix in time. Still, the evaluator told us: "It is the best project I have seen today".

Towards the end of the Piscine, by all indications, all the data I could see, I was doing well. Maybe even great.
I also participated in almost all social events, including the ones outside of school. Which was totally new for me.
My main worry became that some of my new friends would not pass, since they were doing well in the exercises but struggling at the exams. So I tried to help them out more.
Some people also started seeing me as "one of the good ones" and would ask for my help.
I started putting slots to evaluate people, despite not really needing the evaluation points. I frequently checked if my evaluations matched up with the Moulinette. When they did not, I would often later ask the person if they ended up finding the issue that I failed to catch.

Finally, something I am good at, I thought.
I was working with people, and liking it? Me?!
I had fallen in love with 42, without even noticing it.
Maybe I had even finally found a group, a crew.

The final exam went better than any other, I actually managed to do string split there for the first time, and with 7 minutes to spare! That got me a 72. Yesss!

Then with an email, it was all over. For reasons I may never discover.
It really hurts.