The journey toward my undergraduate degree has been eventful, especially in regard to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. You鈥檙e probably as sick of hearing about it as I am, but with an event as big as this one, there is a lot of ground to cover.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a something for an extra-credit assignment for my American history professor. This professor made it clear to us that we were living in a generationally defining moment in history, and that we should soak up as much of what was happening as we could because it will affect the rest of our lives.

This whole experience has taught me to think more on my own.

The assignment was to pick an artifact from our homes that historians would look back on to remember the pandemic. I chose an analog clock from my living room. At the time, all I could think about was how much time I was losing from my college experience. I felt like I wasn鈥檛 going to learn anything well online from home, and I was missing out on all of the fun times that come with being a college student. To quote myself, I said it felt like 鈥渢he clock stopped and everything was put on pause, but we are still losing time.鈥�

I wrote that when I was 19. Now, as I am fully vaccinated and slowly returning to normal life again, I am 21. A lot of time has passed, and I can look at the words of my past and say that I was wrong.

I thought then that the pandemic and the shutdown of the majority of the world was ruining my four years of college education. But all of the time I spent online and away from the classroom taught me that things also can be learned out of a classroom, too.

During the lockdown and quarantine period, I learned so many life lessons about perspective and appreciating life. My whole mindset evolved into a much more positive state than before and I started to really live life to the fullest.

This whole experience has taught me to think more on my own. For example, when studying for a chemistry exam, not only did I learn about chemistry, but I learned about time management while planning out my studies. And once I got that A+, I learned that I can achieve hard goals if I work hard enough. These are valuable life lessons that will benefit you in the real world.

Lessons are in every walk of life. Every experience, every interaction you can take something from it if you think about it. Through the struggles of the pandemic life, I have gotten better at identifying these lessons and really trying my best to learn from everything.

Once I started thinking this way, I started appreciating my college education a lot more, even if it were cut up by COVID-19. I look at the whole experience not as a setback, but as another part of my education.

To be a student does not just mean to study hard and get good grades; it means to always go through life with open eyes and ears to learn as much as you can.

Narvin Chhay is a 麻豆原创 junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

As an out-of-state student at 麻豆原创, the place I call home is in the distant state of Pennsylvania. Transitioning to life so far away from my small hometown was fairly difficult, but I have learned so much through my experience.

I often think the most valuable lesson I have learned is that everything in this life is connected. Everything that happens in your life is important 鈥� no matter how big or small it may seem when it happens. One event in the timeline of your life will impact the events that occur later in your life, and there is no way to know whether it will be for the better or for the worse.

The easiest example to see this in my life is looking at my initial decision to attend 麻豆原创. As a high school senior, I thought it was a great idea to pack my bags and study for four years in the sunny weather of Florida. I thought I couldn鈥檛 have made a better decision and I definitely saw it as a good choice.

However, once I started my time at 麻豆原创, my perspective began to change. I missed my hometown. My friends, family, the backroads I used to cruise around鈥� I missed all of it. I didn鈥檛 have any really good friends on campus at first, and it was hard to say I was happy with my choice to go to 麻豆原创. When I was still in high school, the idea of going to school in Florida seemed like such a great thing in my mind. But once I was here, the reality was it often felt like a bad thing.

I think we can all benefit if we make the choice to think a little bit more before we react to things.

Something deep down told me to just stick it out, and I鈥檓 very glad I did because all of the problems faded away as I got adjusted to life here. I have made amazing friends and have learned to love the whole experience at 麻豆原创. I wish I thought more deeply about the words of Shakespeare during this time.

麻豆原创 hadn鈥檛 radically changed; rather my perspective had. This is why I think Shakespeare was correct when he said that thinking is what actually makes things good or bad.

Every decision I have made in college so far, every event that has happened, has impacted me in ways that stretched beyond when they initially happened. For example, I missed my friends from back home at first and I felt bad about it. Eventually, this made me try harder to meet new people at school and I made new friends.

So, I really believe that my feeling bad about not having any friends was ultimately a good thing. What was once bad to me is now good. That is what Shakespeare was saying!

Looking ahead, this same principle can be applied in more serious matters than having or not having friends. Dealing with life has been harder for all of us lately because of the pandemic and all of the other struggles we face in our society.

However, I think we can all benefit if we make the choice to think a little bit more before we react to things. If something terrible happens to you, try your hardest to accept that Shakespeare was right. Maybe it isn鈥檛 so bad after all; maybe it will be a blessing in disguise.

Just stay calm long enough to find out.

Narvin Chhay is a 麻豆原创 junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

This is the reason when I wake up every morning that I pick my feet up no matter how heavy they may feel. Whether it鈥檚 a game of rock-paper-scissors or a championship game, victory feels so good. It鈥檚 like there is a fire within us that can only be fed by one thing: winning.

But, is this always really a good thing?

The competitive instinct most of us have is likely a result of the way our distant ancestors had to act. If they did not get more food or supplies than their peers, they would starve and die. Nearly every competition for them would decide if they would live to see another day.

I have seen many people get into arguments just to feel a sense of victory.

This has evolved into the curse of competition in the modern human. No matter the importance of the contest, losing still feels awful.

I have a brother who is four years older, and he was much bigger than me when we were younger. Since both of us are athletes, we constantly competed with each other. We butted heads at home, having arguments ranging from backyard football to video games. Even when I beat him in something like a video game, he always had another way he could beat me鈥攊n a physical altercation. No matter how many times I tried, it felt like I could never beat him in a fight.

So, as the years went on, I challenged him less and less. I started to realize that this just wasn鈥檛 a competition I really needed to win, especially because it was a really hard one. This may seem like a crazy story but it taught me one important lesson: Being the 鈥渨inner鈥� doesn鈥檛 always mean you won.

Let me explain. If my brother and I disagreed, I could try to explain myself peacefully or I could insult him and eventually we would get into a fight. Even if I somehow beat him up, he would resent me and would fail to listen to my argument. Due to his physical advantage, I chose the peaceful route more often and I noticed that we wouldn鈥檛 fight as much. Any disagreements we had could be settled with a peaceful conversation.

As much as I wanted to prove he was wrong and rub it in his face, that was just unnecessary drama. I learned that I would not be the loser in a competition if there never were a competition. I could achieve my goal of proving I was right to my brother without even having to win an argument, because there never was one.

Through this ideology I have found it much easier to be persuasive in life and more effectively influence others.

I have been thinking about the concept of competition a lot because of the current events we are facing as a society. With the recent elections, events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest we are seeing as a result of racial injustice, I have never seen such a polarized population. I blame social media for a lot of this, as things seem to escalate at the speed of light nowadays.

I have seen many people get into arguments just to feel a sense of victory.

I am not saying having arguments is necessarily bad; we are fortunate to have the right to disagree in America. What I am saying is that we should all step back and think about better ways to achieve our goals as a society.

Almost like the way athletes compete to prove who is the best, many people argue their political beliefs just to feel like they are the best or the smartest, and they could never be wrong. We need to work harder to understand each other and remember that not everything needs to be a competition.

Unlike our ancient ancestors who were constantly competing, often in life-or-death situations, in our society this is not the case.

So why must we act like it? Yes, there may be a lot to argue about right now as our world is in turmoil, but acting like cavemen fighting for firewood will not save us.

If we are unable to grasp this concept soon, our behavior will destroy us.

Narvin Chhay is a 麻豆原创 junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

Whether the show is set in a dangerous world of monsters or the Wild West, I feel like I can鈥檛 look away from the television. Every second is filled with the adrenaline of a brutal fight scene or the heat of a suspenseful romance. Every second takes me further and further from the reality of my actual life. However, more and more I ask myself, 鈥淚s this a good thing?鈥�

A few days ago, I was scrolling on TikTok, and I stumbled across astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson鈥檚 page. In one of his videos, he recited one of his older quotes: 鈥淲e are prisoners of the present. Forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.鈥�

The quote sent me into a spiraling train of thought that led me to my own mantra: 鈥淲e need to make today the new tomorrow.鈥�

Unlike us, the characters in movies and shows don鈥檛 spend half of their days sitting on the couch staring at a screen.

I started to wonder if our reality really could be just as interesting as the lives of our favorite heroes and protagonists on the TV screen. Unlike us, the characters in movies and shows don鈥檛 spend half of their days sitting on the couch staring at a screen. Instead, they are constantly interacting with those around them, even if they are around a bunch of strangers.

Everything has a purpose; never a dull moment on the screen. I paused the show I was watching and thought to myself, 鈥淲ow, look how much stuff is going on right now. Maybe my life is this cool, too, and I鈥檓 just too distracted to see it!鈥� Then I looked around and saw the reality of just a half-eaten bag of potato chips from my mom鈥檚 kitchen.

While it is quite obvious that we can鈥檛 have the lives of superheroes, I find it important to take a lesson away from the way they live their lives on screen. We may have nothing to see in front of us but a bag of chips 鈥� but still inspired from Tyson鈥檚 quote, that bag of chips is all we have. If the past is inaccessible, and the future is unknowable, why must we spend so much time thinking about them?

Through my own observation of my peers and myself, it is evident that young people today spend an incredible amount of time focused on the past or the future.

Think about each time you pick up your smartphone. What are you searching for? Perhaps you go on Instagram to see what your friends have done over the past couple days, or you send some snaps to your group chat to see what the plan is Friday night.

The trend here is that the reason most of us pick up our phones is to remember the past, or ponder the future. No wonder the life in front of our very eyes seems so boring. How can we truly live life if we are ignoring the only part of it that really exists 鈥� the now?

So I say again, make today the new tomorrow. If our generation cannot learn to do this, many of us may continue to live a life full of regrets from yesterday, or anxiety surrounding tomorrow. Don鈥檛 make plans for tomorrow, just do it now! With the rapid growth in technology and social media, we must fight for the freedom to live in the present.

I dare you to live like your favorite movie or television character and find the purpose in everything and everyone in front of you right now.

Narvin Chhay is a 麻豆原创 junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.