As my junior year of college is slowly coming to a close, I have been finding myself doing lots of reflecting on this past year. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was finishing my sophomore year. This past year has been one filled with adventure, change, old and new friendships and memories, and lots of contemplation about the future. However, I can say with full confidence that junior year has been the best school year yet.
Without a doubt, the highlight of this past year was my semester in Florence, Italy. Throughout my four months abroad, I got the chance to do a plethora of things that not everyone gets the chance to do. I was able to immerse myself into a culture that was so very different from that of my own, travel to many different European countries and cities over the weekends, to take risks and to try new things, and to experience going to a university in a different country.
Oh, and how could I forget, I learned that it is OK to eat pasta and gelato at any hour of the day. This experience during my first semester of junior year was absolutely life-changing and it was a time in my life that I will cherish forever.
While the first half of my junior year was dedicated to traveling and experiencing the different cultures of the world, returning to school for second semester was a bit of a wake-up call for me. Unlike while I was in Italy, I had to steer my focus back on school and transition back into my normal academic and studying routines. I traded in my weekends full of traveling to weekends full of studying when need-be.
The second half of this year, I have really started focusing more on what I am going to do after college, as it may not seem so far away, but in reality I know that senior year is going to speed by, and before I know it I am going to be in the real world. This was another wake-up call that I got post-study abroad.
Since being back at school, I have been under the pressure and stress of finding a Summer internship, to give myself a little head start at experience for when I do graduate in about a year. This has been extremely stressful, as I am not one-hundred percent certain on what I exactly want to do when I graduate. However, as the remaining days of junior year are flying by, I have been trying to contact and land an interview with as many companies as possible.
Junior year made me realize that I need to gain some general experience in the workforce and that from that experience I will eventually come to a decision on what I want to pursue. Junior year really gave me that push to get myself out there.
Although I have already been in my sorority for the past three years of college, junior year made me realize just how much I appreciate the people that I have met and the opportunities that have arisen from it. Still, to this day, I always look forward to Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m. when chapter meets, as it is a chance to be with all of my sisters and to take a break and unwind from my day full of studying.
Most importantly, I am very thankful that I still have time, and that junior year isn't senior year. I feel forever grateful to go to the University of Delaware and to surround myself with the amazing friends that I have made here, and I am even more grateful that I get one more year to continue making amazing memories like I have made so far.
