One year ago, you were a freshman and it seemed the world was your oyster.
Classes were new and intriguing, there were opportunities around every corner, and new friends to help you discover new experiences. Now, a year later, classes seem long and more stressful than you previously remembered. All the new clubs you signed up for a year ago are just adding to your already full plate, and the friends who were your support system still love you, but have their own classes and lives to pull through.
This phenomena is the ever dreaded sophomore slump. It is not as well known as senioritis, and it is not nearly as fun either...
The worst part of the sophomore slump has to be that you don't see it coming. Personally, I spent this entire summer longing to be back at school. I was convinced that all I wanted was to be back with my friends, taking classes for a major that I loved (okay, fine, it's a love-hate relationship) and joining all the clubs and extra-curricular activities I could. I had convinced myself that because I was no longer an uninformed freshman, this year would be way better than the last, and that was a pretty high standard to beat. It took about two weeks for the initial excitement to wear off, and the reality to hit me that I just wasn’t nearly as happy to be back as I thought I would be. Don’t get me wrong, I'd rather be at school than at home staring blankly at the television for hours on end, but I was not expecting to find everything so...exhausting.
After the first week where all the assignments piled up, I realized something else. Last year, all the professors treated you with kid gloves because they were helping you transition into your new environment. It hit me immediately that there was almost twice the workload I was used to and while I was vaguely aware that last year was not an accurate representation of what the rest of my college experience would be like, I was far from prepared for this. But it wasn’t just the workload stressing me out. Like most people, I moved from a dorm to an apartment for my sophomore year. While the additional space is great, it means more responsibilities regarding cooking and cleaning and the general upkeep that comes with living in a cheap apartment. That along with the tests and papers and club meetings quickly became overwhelming.
And then there are the friends. Maybe you had a tight-knit hall last year which barely hangs out anymore because it's just irritating to try to find time to see each other. Maybe the only thing you had in common with each other was that you lived seconds away from each other. Maybe the friends that you made when you were desperate for company just don't really click with you anymore and the people you thought you'd hate turned out to be your best friends. Sophomore year is a time for change and for a lot of people such as myself, change is absolutely heinous. I've never been much of a homebody, however I've found myself thinking "I just want to go home" multiple times this year just for a sense of comfort and familiarity which I never thought I'd miss this much.
However, there is one part of the sophomore slump which makes it bearable. Everyone else in your grade is probably going through it too and that means you have people to talk to about it who understand exactly what you are going through. In the month that we have been back at school, I noticed that all my friends that always seemed very on top of their things last year was struggling. The added pressures that accompany being a sophomore affect just about everyone, from the academic golden children to the people who are just barely scraping by, and the most important thing to remember is that you will adapt to it, and pretty soon everything won’t seem unachievable. It is a little different than what you are used to and that is alright. Take a moment off from the cleaning and cooking and homework and just remember that you are currently creating the person you will be for the rest of your adult life-- and that is incredible in and of itself. Do not be too hard on yourself. Do not expect too much.Take a breath. Treat yourself. It will be just fine. And so will you.
