My last few weeks of freshman year came with a strict agenda: to engage in every “freshman" activity for one last time before we had to say goodbye. Goodbye to being able to blame the weight we gained on dining hall desserts, goodbye to making the trek home from downtown back to the dorms at 3 a.m. and stopping for a dip in the fountain, goodbye to simply walking down the hall to eat Dominos and drink pink Moscato out of solo cups on our best friend's futon. Thus, we set out to do all of these things and many more just one last time before heading home for the summer.

A concern that seems to be universal of almost every rising sophomore is that they believe absolutely nothing could possibly beat freshman year. And yes, I know there are many times as an upperclassman, especially when the real world is fast approaching and I am not at all ready to be an adult, I will look back and think “Wow, I wish I was a freshman again," but for now, we need to look forward to all of the positives of being one year older and wiser and make our peace with no longer being freshmen.

For one thing, we'll actually know a thing or two about what we're doing from the start. I remember the first week of school: I was attempting to find the building my stat lab was in, sticky with sweat from the august heat, lugging a heavy backpack filled with supplies unnecessary for add/drop week, and eventually ending up using google maps on my phone to find the building because I was too afraid of looking like a complete freshman if I asked anyone for help. Come August, we will walk the campus with pride possessing the knowledge of where everything is; which buses to take, (not to get on Family Housing), how long of a walk it will be from one building to another. We will know exactly who the freshman are, because their lost puppy dog eyes are so familiar to us, and hopefully we will be kind enough to offer help so no one else has to use google maps to find the Science Library.

Also, freshman year was spent trying to figure out our social niches and what we liked and didn't like so much about fraternities, downtown, game days etc. Being able to try new things was a source of excitement, but as sophomores, we will know exactly what we like without having to first suffer through what we don't. We will know which fraternities host our favorite game day tailgates, which bars are our favorites and not filled with creepy older guys, which spring parties are worthy of being marked on the calendar, which socials are worth being hungover for our 9 a.m. class, and which nights downtown we can skip to watch Netflix in bed without FOMO. As sophomores, there are still so many new experiences to come, but we will now possess a baseline of knowledge that will make this upcoming year so much fun right off the bat.

Lastly, something that every out-of-stater like myself (but also I am sure every freshman can relate to), is the fact that it took a little bit of time before we felt like we were truly at home. In some cases, more time than we expected it would. But it eventually happened, and I caught myself referring to my 12' x 14' dorm room, and UGA as “home" whenever I called my family or texted in my high school friends' group chat. As my best friends and I said goodbye for the summer, some in tears and some of us too mentally exhausted from finals to cry but still feeling sharp pangs of sadness to be leaving, I know we all felt like we were leaving home to go somewhere foreign, the opposite of how I felt when I left for Thanksgiving and even Christmas. It took two semesters for Athens to truly feel like a place I belonged, but I could not be more excited to return to somewhere that no longer feels like an extended summer camp, but that fills my heart to the brim and I catch myself smiling as I walk through campus because I feel so lucky to have another place I can effortlessly call my home.

So go ahead and take a short mourning period for freshman year, but my advice? Don't cry (too much) because it's over, smile because we are about to take on something even greater.