We miraculously survived freshman year anxieties and dorm life; we made it through sophomore year and the pressures that accompany it. Now, it’s junior year. Can we get through this, too?
It’s hard to believe we are already upperclassman in college. Junior year is intense to think about: we are really starting to grow up, as most of us are already halfway done with college by now. This year is crucial for us, and it’s also inevitable that we go through a midlife crisis of our college years, also known as the "junior year crisis."
Although a mid-college crisis isn’t directly defined in the Webster's Dictionary, it is in Urban Dictionary, which is just as important and helpful in our daily lives these days. Urban Dictionary defines a mid-college crisis as “the state of being in which a second-year college student still feels completely lost and attempts to re-examine the meaning of one's pathetic little life before becoming another useless member of society.” Thanks a lot for the positivity, Urban Dictionary…NOT.
Urban Dictionary brings up a few shockingly good points within its definition. Junior year and sometimes sophomore year are the halfway points of your college career and are usually the time we all re-examine what we’re doing with our lives. In doing so, we might feel lost along the way, which is normal and gets better with time. But as always, Urban Dictionary was incorrect on some details: we aren’t pathetic and we aren’t going to become useless members of society.
There are going to be points this year where we will get jealous of the freshmen because they are still so young and naïve and it’s expected for them to mess up a few times. However, it's important to not fret too much because we are all humans and we make mistakes sometimes. It’s okay to not have it all together all of the time and do stupid things every once in a while, even if we are juniors. We are still learning and growing college kids.
Studying abroad during junior year is popular for many people, meaning we now have to worry about Skyping your best friend at 2 a.m. while she is halfway across the world. It’s difficult not having face-to-face communication with someone you care about, but we just have to remember that it’s not permanent and he/she will return to us soon. Then, we can go through the dreaded mid-college crisis time together.
It’s okay if we don’t exactly know what we are doing with your major after college; it's okay if we are not even completely set on a major. College is a time for exploration.
So, what can we do about a junior year crisis? We can take a deep breath and know we will get through it like we've gotten through everything else prior. We shouldn't stress too much because rational decisions never come from overly stressed out people.If there's anything to take away from this article, it's to remember that we are all in this together (yes, I just quoted "High School Musical"), and nothing is set in stone. It’s perfectly okay to change our minds; people change what they do all of the time, whether it’s during college or five to ten years down the road. In fact, it happens to nearly everybody. On my last note, I want to emphasize the importance of remembering to enjoy the college life, despite all other stressors and distractions.Time flies by so fast and before we know it, we'll be out in the real world. We should enjoy everything about college and all the quirks and ups and downs we experience during those years; no one wants to look back at their college years and remember only how stressed they were and how they let their mid-college crisis get the best of them. As juniors, we need to make sure to laugh with friends, take interesting classes (even if they are outside our major), get involved in weird student groups, and go to football games, because those will be the memories we'll want to look back on down the road.
