Whenever I reminisce about my first year at college, it feels like I'm talking about something that occurred ages ago. It was only two years ago that I moved into my tiny freshman-year dorm, but I was a completely different person then I am today. The past two years have been eventful, to say the least, and have taught me lessons that I will carry with me for a lifetime. As I embark on the last two years of my collegiate career it feels bittersweet to know that this carefree time of life is coming to a close.   

For many of us, junior year is the beginning of the end.   

This year didn’t start off like the past two. There was no such thing as a “syllabus week” that allowed students to hold on to summer for a few more days, like the years before. Gone are the days when the overwhelming workload held off until the fourth week of the semester. This year, many juniors like me, hit the ground running. College is difficult, and by no means did any of us expect it to come any easier, but this year is shaping out to be one of the most difficult years yet.   

The things that we put off as first-year students are now coming back to my bite us. Internships and resumes are all anyone is talking about as juniors everywhere hit the midpoint of their collegiate career. We’re no longer taking 101 classes that simply fill up our schedule; we are focusing more on our majors and minors with courses that make us question if this is actually what we want to do for the rest our lives. We are beginning to understand how competitive and cutthroat our careers will be. This is will be the last year we can fully enjoy college before we start to think, “This is the last time I get to do this.”  

In retrospect, I wish I took college as seriously as I do now. Maybe if I had put in more energy into my first two years of college I would be a lot more confident with my GPA. Maybe I should have spent less time taking naps throughout my days as a freshman, and more time focusing on my schoolwork. Maybe I should have stepped out of my comfort zone earlier in my collegiate career by joining more clubs or participating in more organizations while I still had plenty of free time. Or maybe I’ll learn in these next two years to not have as many regrets, because everything in life happens for a reason.   

I'm sure that these next two years will be just as life changing as the past two were. These next years of college will teach us to value the friendships we’ve kept, because by now we know that some friends don’t always last forever. We will learn to start taking life more seriously, because resumes are essential for landing that amazing internship we have our eyes set on. Hopefully some of us will start cleaning up our social media profiles, because sometimes we don’t always behave like the adults that we are. Most importantly, we will learn to appreciate the time we have while we’re still young. We’re no longer in a rush to grow up like we once were, because by now we’ve realized that the real world isn’t as great as we assumed it would be. 

Before life starts getting really serious (aka senior year), we have our third year of college to transition us into accepting the fact that all good things, including college, will come to an end.