Wow. Junior year flew by, and I’m glad it did.
This year was rough. Mentally, physically, emotionally… I put myself through a lot. Some of it was self-inflicted, some of it was out of my hands, but it all taught me something.
So, if you’re heading into junior year, leaving it, or even just surviving college, here are a few things that I had to learn.
use the library.
I mean it.
Freshman, sophomore, even the first half of junior year, I enjoyed the library, but I don’t think I used it to the fullest. This semester, I moved into a single dorm and found that I get ZERO work done in my room.
I think the environment changes a lot, and when my roommates studied, I did too. Living by myself, I have had to develop a lot of self-discipline, so going to a space where other people also needed to get work done helped with my own motivation.
Be the group leader.
In every project, I have found that it’s best to be in charge. Maybe I’m Type A when it comes to classwork, but I need to know what’s done, who’s done it, when it was done, why it was done, and where it was done.
Whether it’s self-appointed or you’re tasked as a leader by the professor or peers, I think the only way to know if something is being done is to be in charge of it.
Author’s Note: It’s okay if your classmates think you’re a little intense. At least you’re not up the night before panicking over something not being done.
Learn your limit.
In every sense.
Know your drinking limits, your social limits, your academic limits. Know when to say yes and when to say no.
There were times this year I should’ve said no. No to the next drink, no to hanging out, no to yet another school event. It catches up to you. That’s the funny thing about burnout: you don’t realize you’re burnt out until it’s too late.
The trick is to catch it early. Learn you’re coming close to your limit, and respect it, before everything is too much. You can still take advantage of opportunities, just not all of them.
be authentic.
College is basically a social experiment. You are in all of these new situations with new people all of the time, and it’s easy to get wrapped up in it. You start molding into the person that would best fit these situations instead of your most genuine self.
Don’t let that happen. The moments where I had the most fun this year were the moments I wasn’t overthinking it. The right people stayed with me in those moments. The wrong ones didn’t.
It hurts. It needs to happen.
It’s okay to need help.
This lesson slapped me in the face this year – it’s okay to need help. I’ve always been the person who didn’t feel the need to ask for help. I’ve always thought that I could figure it out on my own.
Yeah… junior year ruined that one.
I became very familiar with the campus wellbeing office because I found out that talking to my mom was no longer sufficient; I needed someone who had no cards in any situation I was in. Talking with my counselor made me realize that I was dumb for not asking for help before. Everything feels so much more manageable when I know I can talk about it every Thursday at 1 p.m.
Asking for help doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’ve waited too long to ask.
Junior year had some really bad moments, but they didn’t define my experience. I learned not to sit in them, but to look at everything good that happened to me this year, too.
So, thank you junior year of college, for teaching me some difficult lessons, while reminding me of everything good I have going.