We have to try hard in order to achieve what we want, but don’t forget to think about your health.

Health and struggle always brings success. This saying is something Chhun Chamroeun, a year-five civil engineering student at Norton University, always keeps in mind and it’s helped him win competitions.

With an interest in writing, Chamroeun decided to join a writing competition in the sub Mekong region in 2009 with contestants from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

Due to his talent and after much effort, Chamroeun won the championship after writing about philosophy.

He said he won the competition because of the meaning of his essay, which was “equity, friendship, peace and development”.

Chamroeun, 22, said he never wasted his time and always spent a lot of time reading books and exchanging ideas through joining club discussions.

“Transferring our knowledge to other students and learning from smart students are the best ways to improve ourselves,” he said. “We should not be selfish because it cannot improve our knowledge and it also leads us to be losers.”

He added that before he was not a smart student and always had supplementary tests, but now he has become an outstanding student in his class.

He explained that he became a smart student because he always asked himself why his friends were so smart and not him. So he always tried to observe the good points of smart students and then follow

those good points. In addition, he usually joined group discussions with his classmates every Sunday at his university.

“My lecturer and classmates could not believe that I became a smart student in class,” he said.

He added that the more we struggle, the more we have the chance to reach our goals, so we should never give up.

“There are four main factors such as genes, health, talent and struggle which lead people to get successful lives,” he said.

However, he also stressed that the most important thing that people must not ignore is health because health is everything.

He explained that if one wants to be a smart student, don’t try to do too much without taking care of one’s health.

“We have to try hard in order to achieve what we want, but don’t forget to think about our health,” he said.

Chamoroeun has had his own health problems and lost a competition and a great chance to study abroad due to ill health.

He said that in 2003, he joined in a marathon competition at Kampong Cham province and he could not win because his nose bled because he had allergic reaction. In 2007, he won a scholarship to study in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately he could not go, for he had a serious stomach ache, a headache and typhoid.

“I felt very disappointed when I could not succeed with my goals,” he said.

Since then, Chamoroeun never ignores his health. He usually spends some free time doing his favourite sports such as marathons to make himself relax.

In May 2010, he joined the metal throwing competition in Phnom Penh and he finished third.

He said that award did not surprise him since he won first prize in marathons in Kampot province in 2004 and 2005.

“I have received many awards for joining competitions both in sports and study,” he said.

Chamoroeun has been an outstanding youth with the Red Cross organisation and a good student in Kampot province.

“But I lost everything when my health was bad,” he said. “While I felt down, I always tried my best to make myself be a good student again.”

Chamoroeun now has a part-time job working as a construction manager for a private local company in Phnom Penh.