By Katie Dunn |
Sophomore year can be the toughest year of college. Not due to the degree of difficulty of classes, but because of where we are in our lives. We sophomores are stuck between being freshmen and being close enough to graduating that we’ve already done internships or had a better job than working a few hours in the summer.
This in-between area is a tough one to work through. We are old enough that we can’t blame doing poorly in class on the transition from high school. This means we’re expected to go to class every day, study hours on end every night, know what to do on the weekends and know what we want to do in the future.
All of this causes us to stress out and get the thought in our heads that it would be better to just go out and work and be done with school. It seems much easier to sit in our rooms and watch Netflix and hope that we did enough studying to pass our tests.
What is our reward for this year of work? An internship? Maybe, but most are for college juniors and seniors. The excitement of going home after your first year and seeing your friends? Nope, that already happened.
For me, I am trying to switch my mindset to being in the here and now. I think about how much fun I really do have with my friends every day. I find ways to make what I’m learning interesting and useful. I’m looking at this year as one that can be a growing year for me so I can figure what I want to do, work hard in school and spend some quality time with my friends.
There are so many things we can go do now that we have been around Portland for a year. We know places to go downtown and have fun, some of us have cars so we are able to get off campus and we have a closer group of friends.
Setting some time to put school out of your mind and go just have some fun is important to overcome the sophomore slump. This doesn’t mean you can blow off work and hope you’ll pass with minimal effort. We know college classes are hard and that we have to study. Good study techniques are easy to look up, harder to implement, but crucial in success. The new library is a great place to go and not be distracted. The lower floor is silent and is the perfect place to sit and focus.
So the next time you think, “Why am I bothering in school?” just think of all the fun you are truly having, what the future will hold if you work hard and that fall break is just around the corner. That’s a whole week to go home and sleep in your own bed, eat non-Commons food, and if you’re like me, go watch some football!
Katie Dunn is a sophomore business major. She can be reached at dunn16@up.edu.
