It started with a paper I couldn't do...
I was somewhat traumatised by maths competitions in my earlier school years; I wasn't exceptionally good at maths, I knew nothing more than what my school had taught me, but for some reason I held a very complacent attitude. In grade 7, I had a chance to participate in a maths competition that my school at the time registered me for.
Yes, it was terrible. While I saw others busy working, racking their brains, I sat there blankly staring at the screen. I solved a few questions at the start, began reading through questions one by one, and ended up at the end of the paper because I didn't have anything that I could solve. Okay, I thought, I'm not fit for doing higher level maths.
From then on, I didn't participate in a competition of any sort. In later years though, my confidence was restored, and I wanted to test my ability again; I searched all sorts of ways I could participate in competitions, but the school that I had moved to wasn't registered for most of the olympiads, and I found none that I could participate in.
It was in my final year when my school finally got registered for this and that competition. I began actively participating in them. The questions weren't as unapproachable as when I was twelve; in fact, they were awesome. Some questions made me genuinely distressed while some others sent a thrill down my spine, as I clung to the right path towards the solution, which then untangled the thread and revealed the next clue. Overall it was a memorable experience, an enjoyable period.
Nonetheless, I wished I had had access to those tests from earlier on, that my first competition hadn't been prohibitively challenging. Then, perhaps, I could have found maths interesting from a younger age, put in more time and effort into it, and ended up in a better position. I would have had more fond memories doing maths, more challenges and personal growth, and after all... more trophies and certificates when I applied to universities 😔
Studying maths at university, I found out it was a regret shared by quite a few people, who managed to like maths without having active participation in competitions, without having splendid extracurricular activities. It was also a common regret among the secondary students that I was tutoring, although they weren't particularly planning on doing maths in the future.
How good would it have been if, when we were young, we had had a cheap, accessible ground to engage with maths, an experience that could teach us how exciting maths could be.
I then came to this thought: If I'm in the position that I have right now, why not build that for others myself? After all, I am surrounded by many bright mathematicians who share the same thought.