"Junior year kicked my ass. Good luck."
Whether you're applying to colleges or just weeks away from starting your third year of your undergraduate career, you'll hear this infamous phrase time and time again. You may be a skeptic or you're downright gullible. Whichever one you are, push that identity aside and believe everyone who tells you junior year is a nightmare. If you're an underclassman reading this, I hope I'm not encouraging you to run for the hills, because with the pain comes the pleasure of this dreaded year. Aside from everyone telling me I was about to go through hell and back, here are a few other things I wish I would have known prior to starting junior year.
1. The long walk from your apartment really isn't that bad.
Quite frankly, you can use the exercise and you're most likely walking to the Klondike to get a Mountain Dew. When it's raining you won't want to walk out the door and into the ankle deep puddles, but when you do you'll feel a sliver of pride that you're braving the monsoon to attend another history class. Here's to you surviving living in B.F.E!
2. It's OK to cry when you're stressed.
You're going to take on numerous research papers, sleepless nights during recruitment, and a little bit of heartbreak. You're going to cry when it seems like too much to handle. If there's one thing I've learned this year it's that bawling your eyes out and getting it out is OK. You don't have to be a brick wall that can take any blow. You're going to cry and you're going to feel better afterwards; that's normal.
3. Skipping a weekend out to binge-watch Netflix isn't lame.
There's going to come a weekend where you're exhausted and the week has kicked you while you're down day after day. If you want to curl up in bed with your big and watch "Grey's Anatomy" all night, then do it. Sure you might have missed a night partying, but in the long run you're going to really cherish that time spent face-swapping on Snapchat and betting on who's going to survive surgery.
4. Senioritis will kick in one year early.
You're irritated with professors, tired of petty drama, and you just want to go home to your dog. You sit down at your desk, scroll through your syllabus, and think to yourself, "I'll read in the morning." Trust me, you're not going to read in the morning. Shut up and read it. You'll do better on your quizzes and tests in the long run. That's why your junior year is so tough – you just want to be finished. Focus on the positives, not how tired you are.
5. The world's a big place.
You end up taking this year to travel to Costa Rica for 10 days. It's the best decision you'll ever make. Don't second guess signing up for the trip. Pura Vida.
6. You're almost done.
This one's hit me hard recently. As I watch the seniors prepare to take on new chapters of their lives, I realize that in a few short months I'll be preparing to do the same. I'll be helping girls find their home-away-from-home during recruitment as a Pi Chi, I'll be applying to law schools, I'll be watching my best friend get married, and I'll be thinking back on how scared I was of my junior year. I'm sure I'll laugh. I'll probably have 10,000 other things to stress about. I'll think about how it actually wasn't that bad. So, props to you for surviving.
Drink the second margarita, go the other 40 percent, and take every opportunity to better yourself as a student and a person. Take the dreaded phrase with a grain of salt and prepare yourself for the good things that come with it. Prepare yourself for the good things that come after. It's so worth it.
