Back in high school, all my teachers warned me that “sophomore” is Latin for “wise fool.” Whether this is a true translation or not, their message was crystal clear: Don’t get ahead of yourself just because you survived the hell that was being a freshman. And I took that to heart. Sophomore year, while fun in its own way, was nowhere as lackadaisical as the second semester of senior year. My friends and I kept our noses to the grindstone and our eyes on the prize.

So you would expect my sophomore year of college to be going the same way, right? wrong. The fall was a semester long mental exercise in controlling the urge to throw textbooks at professors and classmates alike. And this semester I’m learning the joy that is keeping myself motivated while taking two independent studies on top of my three actual classes. I’ll give you a hint—if you have no self-discipline, don’t do solo projects. You’ll end up ignoring them until they’re due in a month and you’re left scrambling to get your act together. (Wait, why does that sound like a summary of college education as a whole…?)

What changed? My work ethic is still pretty solid. I’m getting readings done at least a week in advance and I take notes in every class. I spend train rides brainstorming ideas for papers and I’ve actually utilized my professors’ office hours which I usually spend anywhere that isn’t their office. I hang out less with my friends and focus more on coming up with something credit-worthy to comment on in my participation-based lectures. On the outside, I am a model student, but on the inside, I am miserable.

And I’m not the only one. I’ve asked around my campus and reached out to some friends from high school, and the consensus is the same: we are in the sophomore slump. We are unmotivated. We are done with this whole college thing. We are yearning to binge watch everything on Netflix rather than study. Sure, we still go to our classes and take in the lessons, but we don’t enjoy it. It’s almost like all the excitement and patience we had for the college life has been sucked out of us, leaving behind bitter shadows of our former selves. Pretty pathetic, if you think about it.

It reminds me of the line in that Fall Out Boy song, “Are we growing up or just going down?” Because even though we would like to think we’re wiser and more experienced than our freshman selves, in reality it feels as if we’re going backwards. Coincidentally, the title of that song is “Sophomore Slump (or Comeback of the Year),” which seems to be a fitting anthem to showcase this fall from grace that many sophomores go through as they realize that they are far from finished with the stress that is college and class registration and group projects. We’ve still got two years to go and I know I’m not the only one who is both bummed out and daunted by that thought.

However, even though many of us are feeling less than OK with how the year is going, we also know that it’s not worth giving up. We’re still here. We’re still doing our jobs and getting the passing grades. We’re still procrastinating and then praying to every known entity that our professors take pity on us. We may be in this slump, but we are riding it out until we reach solid ground and find our footing once more. We know we can do it; we’ve just lost our way a bit. And no matter how cliché that all sounds, I think my fellow sophomores understand the sentiment.

Just remember, you’re not alone, not by a long shot. Other people are suffering through this with you and you all have such great futures ahead of you if you choose to keep going on this uphill climb. Every time you falter, just know that I’ve heard that the view from the top is spectacular. It’d be a real shame if you didn’t see it because you turned around.

So, I’ll see all you wise fools up there. Good luck!