[dropcap]S[/dropcap]alam y’all. I hope those afflicted with midterms are doing OK. Stay strong. Inspiration for this blog entry comes from two sources: the movie Good Will Hunting and college acceptance season. Both are examples for us to reflect on the opportunities we have and capitalize on them.
I hope you have all seen the aforementioned movie; it is full of life lessons that are applicable to our lives. I will touch upon some here. The story revolves around a very naturally gifted orphan, played by Matt Damon, who is afraid (and has been unable) to tap into his potential. I will leave it at that in hopes that you take me up on the offer and see it.
In one of my favorite scenes (besides the refusal to work for the NSA and apple surveys) Matt Damon and his best friend Ben Affleck (yes he was in a successful movie) are taking a lunch break from their construction job. NOTE: I will leave some–nay all– of the colorful language out.
Matt comments about how great it will be when their kids play together on Sunday afternoons while they watch football. That is when Ben rips into him: he tells him that if he is still in this town doing this job when they have kids, then Ben will not be too pleased.
This is not about Matt doing it for his own good. Rather, Ben tells him that Matt has a great opportunity to do something special with his talents, but is too afraid to take a shot at greatness.
Zeyad, what the heck does this scene have to do with us? Well I was reflecting on the fact that many students have been accepted to a lot of great schools at this time of year.
They have an opportunity to do something great. We, too, were in their shoes. Did we do everything within our power to be the best we can be? God knows best. I just wanted to share a reminder with us that UCLA is an amazing institution.
We have been given such a great opportunity that some kids only dream of. Our parents dreamt of these opportunities. If we feel they are pushing us for no reason, realize they want what is best for us. They know of people back home who would love to have this chance, but never will.
My main point is that there are a bunch of things we take for granted that are really profound. We are taking classes with people that are world renown experts in their field. They are legally obligated to give us one on one meetings where we can ask them whatever we please; these are referred to as Office Hours.
You would be surprised how many professors around the nation know the professor whose class you are taking. These guys are available to us at no extra cost. It is a really crazy thought.
We are humans and even if something is amazing, it ends up being all relative. UCLA (or whatever school) is just another school after a while. But I think we need to reflect and think about the opportunity God has blessed us with. Not only academic interests, but others abound at such campuses. Whatever we are doing let us be great at it and not take what we have for granted.
Featured photo: “Free College Pathology Student Sleeping Creative Commons,” © 2011 D. Sharon Pruitt, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en