Wait, your roommate said to print the variable before AND after the loop? Like both ends, not just inside it? I've been doing the caveman thing too but only putting prints inside the loop, and half the time I can't tell if the problem is the loop never running at all or the condition being wrong or the variable never changing. So do you print the starting value, then the ending value, and that tells you which one broke? I'm asking because my for loops keep giving me weird output and I bet it's the same thing. What did the two prints actually show you that the inside ones didn't?

Sold retail for years before I ever held shears, and the pushy ones always tanked. The stylists I saw last longest were the ones who never pitched anything, they just talked about what they used at home and the client asked for it. That Tampa girl didn't fail because she couldn't sell, she failed because nobody taught her that retail is just a normal part of the service, not a sales script. Blaming it on "commission breath" lets the salon off the hook for not training people on the boring part.