I can't believe freshman year of college went by so fast. I can't believe there are going to be thousands of freshmen scurrying around, not knowing where to go, traveling in pacts, trying to navigate all the changes college brings. It was only last year that I had my schedule in my hand for three weeks, trying to sprint to my classes that were 10 minutes apart. I engaged in too many awkward "ice - breakers" that involved way too much smiling and a beach ball. It's surreal to know I'm not the youngest anymore and freshmen will be looking up to me to see that it's possible to survive the sleepless nights of freshman year.
These are twenty thoughts I have entering my sophomore year of college.
1. Who is a freshman? Seriously, sir are you a freshman? Am I older and wiser than you?
2. Why is syllabus week not silly at all, and actually requiring me to read all the introduction chapters before the next class?
3. The first day: I MISSED YOU, CAFETERIA. The second day: I miss my mom's cooking.
4. The library is a ghost town on a Tuesday night. Where is my fam? Why am I alone?
5. The effort to work out a few days a week is a true struggle. Once the semester actually gets rolling, there will be no time because my schedule is so much worse than freshman year.
6. Decorating and re-decorating the living space because it doesn't look exactly like the Pinterest picture I pinned earlier, and I should be good at this by now.
7. Trying to look like a model the first week of school, but dying to wear the running shorts and T-shirts the second week.
8. Being already stressed that this is your second year and time is flying too fast; before you know it you'll be graduating and leaving this place.
9. Freaking out because, technically, this is the year you're supposed to declare your major, but you're still not even sure that what you're doing is the right plan for you.
10. To sometimes miss being a freshman because as a freshman I was expected to not know anything, and it was acceptable to look lost and confused.
11. It's surreal when freshmen come up to me and ask me where the library is when it's right behind them. Like turn around. It's right there.
12. When hearing that everyone is doing research and volunteering and helping read to kids and raising money for charities and you don't even know where you put your ID.
13. Feeling scared that the future is looming and you're not prepared for it.
14. The year when most people turn 20 but are not yet 21, which is hard to cope with.
15. Understanding that blowing through your money freshman year is not an option, so Goodwill shopping has become a real thing.
16. Not knowing how to respond when a freshman asks you, "How do you survive college?"
17. Internships are real things people my age do now?
18. NO MORE FRESHMAN 15! But is the sophomore 10 a real thing?
19. I'm still meeting a million new people; I thought that was only freshman year.
20. Realizing that you're one year into college and you're more equipped for the good, bad, ugly, and lovely because you've done one year of college.
