Back in my freshman year, I was excited about coding—solving algorithms, learning new programming languages, and exploring how computers worked. But I didn’t have a clear goal. I was simply following my passion, something I’d been curious about since childhood.

At the same time, I often found myself comparing my abilities to others. Some of my classmates were exceptional at coding, presentations, math, and so much more. I wondered why they seemed so far ahead while I struggled to keep up.

Everything changed when I took a Personal Development class. It wasn’t just about skills—it was about mindset. I learned the importance of setting goals, managing time, solving problems, and working as part of a team. But the lesson that impacted me the most came from my teacher, who said:

Everyone is unique. Don’t compare yourself to others—compare yourself to who you were yesterday.

That shifted my perspective. Instead of seeing my classmates as competition, I started observing them and realized something: each person had their own strengths, and they had worked hard to develop them.

Another turning point came from my math teacher, who once told our class:

They are not smarter than you; they just spend more time on it than you do. The more time you spend, the more you gain.

Hearing that changed the way I looked at learning. It wasn’t about talent—it was about effort. I stopped worrying about how good others were and focused on improving myself, one step at a time.

A year later, during Engineering Day, a junior student approached me. He hesitated for a moment before asking,

“Bong, how do you get good at coding? Can you give me some tips? How many hours should I spend learning?”

I smiled, remembering the advice that had helped me. I told him exactly what my math teacher had told me and added,

“If you want to be good at coding, commit to continuous learning—never stop improving.”

That conversation reminded me how much I had grown. I no longer saw learning as a race against others but as a lifelong journey of self-improvement.

So if you ever feel like you’re falling behind, remember this: progress isn’t measured by how you compare to others—it’s measured by how far you’ve come. Keep going, and with time, you’ll see just how much you can achieve.