Where no one exactly knows how to spell sophomore.

Where the term “late” is all relative.

Where nineteen hour days are the usual, and the twenty minutes between classes are spent entirely in the horrendous line at Starbucks.

Where time has so much more significance. We count the minutes before that 11:59pm deadline, the hours left that we’ll spend craned over some textbook, the weeks before we can have a break from the grind, the months we have left before this internship application is due or that job interview comes up, and the years before we have to actually have ourselves together. That last one is terrifying.

Where 24 hour CVS’s become our basis of stability in our lives: “you know he’s serious when he’s there for you like CVS is.”

Where it’s not unusual for our EMTs to be called to our library to help a student who passed out from fatigue. Poor kid was probably stuck in there for days. The lack of sunlight really gets to you.

Where emergen-c is your best friend and bouncers are you worst enemies.

Where we’re all in this odd stage of “are we adults yet.” The I-have-to-buy-my-own-toilet-paper-but-I-don’t-pay-my-electricity-bill-yet stage of life.

Where we still party hard but everyone is lowkey asking themselves if they’re getting too old for this, because like, dude…I have work tomorrow?

Where we all came in with the mentality that we’ve done this “college” thing one year we got it, and then at least one of our classes manages to prove us wrong.

Rolling back to CVS, it’s used as my grocery store because lord knows I can’t afford Whole Foods.

Where we’re closer to the age of weddings than we are of bar mitzvahs….

Where you don’t have your own place yet so when you go home to Mom and Dad it’s awkwardly like…do you still own me? Are we still doing this whole “permission” thing?

When do I start paying my own phone bills? Like I have a job…? When do I learn to file those tax…things? Real talk, when do I leave the Pediatrician?

And as my brilliant roommate said to me today “my life as a sophomore can be symbolized by my Boil-In-Bag Rice. I’m kind of cooking. But not really, it’s actually quite pathetic. This is our life right now. We’re kind of living on our own…but also I can’t do anything by myself and when does my care package come in?”