LinkedIn. Internship. Networking. Coffee chats. Business casual. Career fair.
If these words are enough to trigger some kind of fight-or-flight response deep within you, you are not alone. As someone who has recently dove headfirst into navigating the world of life beyond my college bubble, these words find themselves penciled into various parts of my daily planner; they have officially integrated themselves into my life.
I am a college sophomore, which means I’m caught in between the “you should be having fun and making memories” years and the “you need to figure out what you want to do with your life” years. I much prefer the former. The thought of trying to plan out my exact path to bring me future success and happiness at the age of 19 is daunting, to say the least.
And if you’re like me, no matter how many organizations you put yourself out there and join or how many rooms you get the chance to enter and hands you have the opportunity to shake, you can’t get rid of the inescapable feeling that you’re not doing enough. A quick scroll through LinkedIn will have you questioning your entire existence. I thought I was getting ahead by applying to things as a sophomore, so how do they already have an internship? How did they get an executive position so early? How on earth did they possibly manage to connect with over 1,000 people on LinkedIn? (But if you’re the latter, please make it 1,001.)
Despite my efforts, I still feel like I’m running a race as an average person against the best track stars in the nation, huffing and puffing but somehow still doomed to fall behind and even get lapped.
The sophomore slump refers to a general decrease in performance from a student’s first year to their second. Common causes range from general fatigue and declining grades as the novelty of school wears off to an overall loss of direction. I would argue that the slump experienced by most sophomores is a combination of all three.
After opening the Common App decision from the school you hoped and prayed to get into, you’re filled with nothing but optimism for your freshman year and future life. After packing your bags and waving goodbye to your hometown, you step into a fresh and exciting new environment. Eventually, the excitement of getting to pick your own schedule instead of following a strict eight-hour school day and learning to live independently begins to fade away into a routine that – let’s face it – is hard.
It’s not easy to enter your second year and realize that the routine you romanticized for so long isn’t as perfect as you once believed. And when more things keep getting added to that routine in the hopes of becoming some sort of professional in a future that seems all too soon with every passing day, it’s easy to get caught in a spiral.
I am not immune to the sophomore slump. I struggle every day with feeling like I’m not doing enough, or rather, that I’m doing too much and missing out on time with friends that I’ll neverget back. As my workload intensifies, so does the struggle to avoid buckling under the weight of pressures and expectations.
I walked into my apartment the other day dressed head-to-toe in business professional attire. It was the second time this week I’ve gotten home formally dressed after some sort of interview or networking event. My roommates, some of my best friends, were shocked.
“How are you involved in this much?
“You’re doing so much and we just sit on the couch.”
“We have to lock in.”
Although said in a joking manner, to a girl who feels every day like she isn’t doing nearly enough, this conversation served as a gentle reminder that everyone is struggling with feeling the exact same way.
At a place like the University of Florida, where the acceptance rate keeps shrinking with each admissions cycle and incoming classes of students arrive on campus seeming increasingly driven to build successful futures, it’s easy to lose passion and motivation when you feel like your efforts don’t stack up to everyone around you. Before you know it, imposter syndrome begins to set in. Although it’s cliché, reminding myself that comparison is the thief of joy is one of the many ways I’m arming myself against the sophomore slump as it attempts to worm its way into my life.
Although I haven’t discovered a way to permanently ban all networking events and coffee chats from our lives, and I certainly can’t guarantee that the constant scanning and uploading of our résumés will stop anytime soon, I’ve been getting better at being kinder to myself this sophomore season. I may not have a five-year plan perfected, a dream internship lined up or even the ability to make it to class on time every single day, but at least I’m starting to realize that’s probably a pretty normal place to be at 19.
Maybe the goal isn’t to have everything figured out by the time we graduate. Maybe it’s to give ourselves permission to enjoy the years we’re in instead of constantly worrying about the ones ahead. So, if you’re also feeling behind, take a breath. You’re allowed to be a work in progress, and you don’t have to turn every coffee chat, club meeting or free afternoon into another step toward your future. We’re only sophomores, after all…