Since the first semester of my Junior year is almost over, I wanted to write a little reflection article about the things that I've learned. This semester went by so fast and it wasn't an easy semester but I'm holding on. Here's what I learned from my first semester of my Junior year:
It’s okay, plans change. Accept it.
My plans changed over the summer and into my Junior year and that's okay. I still don't know exactly what my plan is or what my future job is but I'm doing the best I can. It was super hard for me to accept that I won't be majoring in education anymore but with that loss came some blessings. I'm still super happy for all my friends in the education program and I wish them all the best even though I won't be involved in that anymore. Sociology is super diverse, and it opens up a lot of doors for me. I think I'm going to declare a minor next semester in criminal justice because I'm super interested in that and see where that takes me.
Self-care is SUPER important.
It's so important to take a break from studying even for a couple of minutes or maybe two hours just to regroup. When I am in deep studying mode I can't really relax until I feel like everything is done and that doesn't work out in college. I usually come home from classes, study for two hours, eat dinner, study some more, take a shower, study and then go to sleep. That's my life on repeat.
Write everything down, even if it’s not that important
This past semester I had way too much stuff to remember and I was sometimes super forgetful, so I wrote everything down in my planner. This helped me to start working on the next weeks' work and I knew exactly what was coming up in each of my classes. I was never blindsided by a test and I usually had an entire week to study.
I will soon be done with gen-eds. It’s almost over.
It's no surprise that I was behind in classes, but honestly who graduates in exactly four years without taking 15-18 credit hours a semester? That's really difficult. I figured out this semester that my mental state matters a lot more than classes sometimes. I'd rather get four A's in my classes than take five classes and get C's or D's. And eventually, I will be able to take the classes that I want and focus on the things that I'm interested in. General education classes won't last forever, I promise.
College won’t last forever either but the student debt will.
I need to enjoy my time in college. Not that I wasn't enjoying it before, but the stress doesn't help. I spend so many hours of my life studying and focusing on school that sometimes I forget what my end goal is (which I don't necessarily know yet but still). I'm going to college to get a good education and a degree in a field that I'm interested in so that I can get a good paying job and love what I do. I'm focusing on those goals. I'll pay off my loans one day, just right now it's about getting through school. BOOMER!
