"Call of Duty"

"Spend each day trying to be wiser than you were when you woke up."

Few years ago, one of my friends taught me a mobile game. At first, it was fun and exciting. I enjoyed it a lot, until I found myself becoming stuck to this game.

That lasted for a few years. I played every day, day and night, until my eyes and head hurt. Every day, it was already programmed in my mind that "I will kill more enemies today," "I will win more battles today." Before I slept, I played until late at night, and when I woke up, I played again. Even in my dreams, I was fighting, driving a tanker, and bombing the buildings where the enemies were hiding. In the morning, when I woke up, I felt tired because I had fought all night in my dreams. I felt good when I killed a lot of enemies. Most of the time, I was the best player, not to brag, but I was really good at it. I mastered the strategies and tactics on each map. I had a lot of playmates, and they all wanted to play with me.

This went on until the pandemic hit. Even when I was all geared up at work, with double gloves on each hand and my phone inside a ziplock, I still found a way to play during my break. It was crazy.

Then one day, I realized that this game was not doing anything good for my life. It was making me ugly physically and mentally. This thing was wasting my time and energy. So, I started to change. I started to teach myself the real Call of Duty, the real Battle Royale. I went through a weaning stage until I was able to uninstall the COD mobile application. At first, it was hard. I missed the action and energy of the battleground. I missed the feeling of winning. I missed my team mates.

I kept in mind that my real Call of Duty is to get better every day. The real battleground is not inside the game. It's the real world in front of me, which involves the real people and real problems not AK47, M4, DL Q33 sniper, colorful tankers or scanning team mate's dog tags.

By the way, hello to my playmates from before. My player name was Corocoronana, derived from Covid-19, which was about to start at that time. Then I changed it to nikkiminajj. Yes, that was me. Haha. I'm not saying it's bad to play, but don't be like me, who let her life revolve around the false battlefield. It's okay to play, but in moderation.

I started to expose myself to the real world, to the real battleground. I started to train myself physically and mentally. I began doing routine exercises in my room, going for walks outside or to the gym. I started reading books.

Being a better person starts within us, that's what I've learned. If we are truly committed to being better, we need to change ourselves, our routines, the way we think, the way we spend our time, and the way we live.

 If we failed yesterday, it's okay. We have today to get things right.