Degnan cures pandemic boredom with curiosity

One word comes to mind when thinking of senior Matthew Degnan: open. Open-mindedness is a huge part of his personality, applying to every aspect of his life. He’s open to new activities, new people, new opinions, and more.
“I’m a pretty open person. I’m open to trying new things and making new friends,” Degnan said.
During the pandemic, he’s been open to creative methods of staying active and connected socially. While Degnan doesn’t enjoy how solitary distance learning is, he has found ways to keep himself busy and as entertained as possible.
“With this whole pandemic, I’ve been trying to make time to hang out with people as much as I can socially distanced. I’ve been trying to get outside; working out a lot and running a lot,” he said.
With more open time he has also been able to explore his other interests. History has always piqued Degnan’s curiosity, especially when it’s narrowed down to a distinct topic or theme.
“I like learning about specific history and history in terms of World War II. I find myself watching documentaries on this stuff and for some reason it’s super appealing to me. I watched this four hour documentary on World War II from a year ago. It was all footage of World War II and it went from the beginning [of the war] up until the end. It had some pretty crazy images and I learned a lot about the war. It was so interesting and so cool to watch,” Degnan said.
He is excited to explore this field more thoroughly during the pandemic, even though he’s studied it in-depth in the past.
“I wrote my history paper last year on the atomic bombs in World War II… there’s been a lot of debate over whether they can be justified. It’s really interesting to talk about and dive deep into the controversy around it,” he said.
Being open to so many things spurs inspiration for activities Degnan is yet to try. Skateboarding has been on his list for a while now, maybe soon to be a reality.
“I’ve always wanted to try and skateboard, but I’ve never really had the chance because my parents don’t want me to. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years now. People have offered to let me borrow their skateboards, but it doesn’t feel the same as owning your own skateboard,” he said.

As much as openness has been a strength, Degnan is worried that being too open will slow him down. Degnan said, “My biggest rational fear is that I’ll go to college and won’t be able to find something that I enjoy doing and that I want to do. I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting my time.”

Degnan enjoys being so open-minded because it opens him to new ideas and opportunities. He loves venturing into new areas of opinion and activities, giving him a great variety of experiences, but sometimes struggles to narrow his focus going into his future.