At this time last year, I was a student who was spending around six hours in the library, almost every day. I would go to class from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and then spend the rest of daylight in front of my computer screen.
This time around, I’m lucky if I can make it past that two-hour mark on the third floor of the library. The sophomore slump was an illness I was positive that I would be immune to, yet I’m feeling it, and all my friends are feeling it, why?
I know that I can’t dissect the entirety of the feeling in one article, but I can make a few guesses.
Freshman year is one of the most transformative years that I could imagine someone could have in their life. Saying goodbye to the only place that you have known your entire life, packing up your said *entire* life to squeeze into an almost comically small bedroom, and oh yeah, choosing your entire life path. In one year.
Freshman year is about learning how to live with another person if you haven’t before, holding yourself accountable for eating, sleeping, and paying tuition. I was petrified. I spent the months leading up to August ignoring the fact that the person who walked into my childhood bedroom in a year’s time would be vastly different. I continued ignoring it into the first week of college.
So what do you do to cope with the stress of life, change, new friendships, and wanting to be liked?
I came from a small, almost secluded honors cohort from my high school, and when I committed to a school that wasn’t an Ivy League, I felt that overwhelming gaze of judgment and tone of disapproval. To combat the shortchange, I felt contractually obligated to prove that I could succeed with flying colors.
I loaded up with six classes my fall semester, signing up for any class that gave me the slightest tinge of interest, I did everything. I went to my three back-to-back classes and spent the rest of my mid-day in the library, doing homework and studying. I was addicted to the feeling of working hard, even when I was struggling.
I felt that if I was struggling, I was letting myself down.
I don’t even want to know how much time I spent in the library that first finals week, but I know it was a concerning total. I did well and felt that I needed to continue this trend all four years.
The same pattern consisted in spring, eating then sleeping then studying, leaving minimal room for free time, de-stressing, and just breathing.
Now I’m here. Sophomore year. Writing this article, ignoring studying for my exams that will determine the difference between an A and an A-. The impending cloud of doom that hung over my head freshman year has dissipated, but the consequences still linger. What happened to the urgency that was there last year?
The ominous ‘sophomore slump’ is the state of being you can see in almost any second-year college student. It is a weird point of transition where the future is considerably far away, but you still feel slightly lost and confused, and on top of that there is just a hazy lull.
But, does this slump have to be such a bad thing? I’ve noticed that I have improved many habits I did not pick up last year. I put more time aside for myself and spend more time with friends. I’ve put my time into extracurriculars that I care about and declined the ones that didn’t help me.
I’ve learned that my grades are not what defines me, even though this is what every person tends to learn in their academic career.
Everyone’s sophomore year looks different, and everyone slumps differently. But for now, I’m trying to correct my posture and make it through this third finals week.