Coming back for your sophomore year of college is one of the most highly anticipated parts of the college experience. You just had an amazing freshman year, spent a summer away from your new best friends and curfew-free life, and you are finally returning for a second year, this time older and a bit wiser.
Freshman year everything is new. Your friends are new, the parties are new, the sweet taste of freedom is definitely new. While that comes with fear and uncertainty, there is a joy and excitement in all of the newness that typically remains throughout most of the first year of school.
Sophomore year is your first year as a returning student, kind of strange to think about, but this is the year that you come into expecting everything to be the same as freshman year, only quickly to learn that it never will be.
I no longer live with the same friends as I did last year. I no longer eat in the same dining hall. My classes are harder, and I am one year closer to the impending doom otherwise known as the real world. I hadn’t seen my friends in three months, and we are readjusting to seeing each other every second of every day.
I came back for sophomore year, and instantly felt disappointment and out of place. I love my school, but did not feel at home in the sophomore dorms, and felt myself longing for the familiarity of my old freshman year room.
Expecting sophomore year to be like freshman year will likely result in disappointment. I have a few friends who have entered the dreaded, “Sophomore Slump,” and what I have realized, is that overcoming it takes the simple realization that while your second year of college will be different from your first, it has its own opportunities to offer.
A good way to begin this process is by taking advantage of the opportunities that you now have available to you, many of which you may not have had as a freshman. This can include new clubs, new friends in your new residence hall, or just trying new activities with old friends. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t wished I could revert back to my eager freshman self every now and then, but I am learning to embrace what is new and different about year 2 and become equally excited about these opportunities.
