First semester sophomore year is a milestone. After nine months at the bottom of the totem pole, you’ve finally moved up. You’re finally not a freshman anymore.
You’ll set foot on campus far more confident and maybe even a little more eager than you did exactly a year before. You’ve already made a group of friends and made a name for yourself, and after a three-month break, there is nothing more exciting than getting back to that.
You’ll walk into sophomore year thinking you know everything there is to know and it won’t take you very long to figure out that is far from the truth.
This past semester I loved a lot, laughed a lot, and definitely learned a lot.
Appreciate your freshman experience, but don’t repeat it.
In other words, learn from your mistakes. As freshman year turns into sophomore year, you’ll establish true friendships, learn how to manage your classes, and have a better appreciation for a Saturday movie night with your roommates. Don’t push yourself to stay out until 4 a.m. or find yourself doing the walk of shame every Sunday morning. I promise all you’ll be missing out on some well-deserved sleep.
You'll still miss home.
Yes, the transition is easier. Not even comparable. But that doesn’t mean you won’t miss home. When you have a bad day, you’re still going to want to call your mom and cry. You’ll miss home-cooked meals. It’ll break your heart when your high school friends reunite for a weekend and you couldn’t make it. No matter how much you love school, home is where the heart is. And that’s okay. It wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t get a little homesick.
You will change.
Sure, freshman year is all about change but that doesn’t mean that sophomore year isn’t. You’re still going to meet new people, take new classes, and have new experiences that will shape who you are. That’s something that is never going to change, no matter how old you are.
It's still important to put yourself out there.
Everyone meets a lot of people freshman year, and nine times out of ten makes a pretty tight-knit group of friends. You come into sophomore year with roommates who you chose and a group of friends to hang out with every weekend. But don’t limit yourself to those people. There are so many people on your campus who can challenge you and complete you in ways you didn’t know possible. Seek those people out. Always be open to making new friends. Between new classes and new housing, there’s no excuse not to make a few new good friends every year.
The only diet that exists in college is running out of your meal plan.
OK, maybe this is something I should have figured out freshman year. But in my defense, the struggle does not become real until you have a dining hall in your building. You’ll want an omelet every morning for breakfast, and they’ll charge you $7 to get a wrap for lunch. Want chicken in your salad? Extra $2. When you have a meal plan it’s no biggie. Why not get unlimited snacks while you're studying? What’s the harm in getting milk to put in your cereal and a bottle of water? You won’t realize it until the damage is done, you feel like you’re with child, your money is gone, and you’re forced to spend the rest of the semester eating the complementary crackers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Movie nights are the best nights.
I’m the first to admit that I spend my weeks looking forward to going out on the weekends. It’s always a blast. That being said, sophomore year you’ll be a little less eager to go out every night of the week and a lot more excited to spend a night in watching a movie with your best friends. What’s better than hanging out in comfy clothes, watching your favorite movie, and splitting a big bag of popcorn and a double bottle of wine with your roommates? I couldn’t tell ya.
Sophomore boys are just as immature as freshman boys.
And that’s OK. Use this time to focus on you. Go out and have fun with your friends. Don’t worry about anyone except yourself. Your time will come. That girl who you graduated with who’s already engaged? She’s crazy. Your friend with a serious boyfriend who stays in all weekend? Not worth it. Don’t worry about boys, they’ll come around. Spend more time making the most of college.
Some people know exactly what they want to do with their lives, and that cool, but some people will have no idea, and that’s cool too.
You’re going to have friends who already have plans to co-op second semester. Friends who will have internships lined up for this coming summer. Friends who have already spent a semester student teaching. If you’re one of those people, that’s great. But if you’re not, calm down. Time is your best friend. Take this time to take different classes. Explore different options. It’s not the end of the world if you have to spend another summer life-guarding at your community pool. When you’re an adult with a real job and real problems, you’ll be dreaming of the summer you got paid to sit in a chair and tan for three months. Take advantage of it while you can.
It doesn't get any less stressful.
Freshman year is overwhelming because your schedule will be extremely different than high school and you won’t be used to having four exams and two papers due in the same week. But just because you’ve done it before, doesn’t make it any easier. Sophomore year is still hard. You’ll still want to cry when you have multiple exams on one day. You’ll still sit at you’re computer staring at a blank screen before you even know what to write your research paper on. The stress will still be there, but it’s still worth it all the same.
But it does get a lot more fun.
While there were a few bumps along the road and a considerable amount of surprises, sophomore year still kicks freshman year's *ss. It won’t matter where you’re going anymore, it’ll matter who you're with. Freshman year you go out to meet people, sophomore year you go out to hang out with people. You’ll have more fun because you will have found your place and there’s really no better feeling in the world.
