COLUMN: You have to make a plan, but be flexible about that plan

Hello! If you're reading this, it means you'll be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall. Congratulations! 

When my managing editor pitched the idea of writing editor columns about our defining first-year experience, I thought it was a great idea. And then I realized I would be forced to write my own. 

For anyone who knows me, most of what I do is work. School work, Daily Tar Heel work interspersed with rare breaks to cook for myself and sometimes play Pokémon Go. My path is not one many others would choose, but it's one I'm more or less content with. 

Because of this, I didn't have too many notable first-year experiences. There was the time Mark Kimmel in the UNC athletics department put the fear of God in me for not doing my job (he was 100 percent correct to do so.) There were the numerous times bumping into former sports editor Chapel Fowler in Rams Dining Hall, discussing basketball at 10:30 p.m. over a bowl of cereal. There was the time I accidentally showed up to a men's tennis match an hour late because I had gotten the time wrong. 

None of these events offer profound life lessons I can relate to you, dear reader, except perhaps to always double check GoHeels before you plan your day out when you have an event to cover. What I can offer however, is two simple pieces of advice that have benefited me throughout my, albeit so far brief, time at UNC. 

Always have a plan.

And always be ready to change that plan. 

My plan is my plan, and yours will be yours. I can't tell you what it'll look like, but I can promise that it won't stay the same as when you first made it. If you keep that in mind, you'll go as far as you're able to take yourself. 

There will be a lot of bumps in that plan and a lot of sudden turns. You won't get every opportunity you think you deserved, and you may be given some opportunities you wouldn't have even considered. Try to shake off the former, and jump on the latter when you get a chance. The best opportunities come unexpectedly and they usually aren't there for long. 

Knowing what you want to do is a good chunk of the battle. Too many people, in my opinion, come into college with no plan whatsoever and end up squandering their opportunities. Unfortunately for us, hard work and a spunky attitude usually aren't enough either. 

You won't get everything you want, or everything you think you've earned. So that's when you have to adapt. Be ready to do things and take opportunities you wouldn't have considered normally.

It's maybe not home-run advice to start your first year off, but it's what I got.