Because no one thought it would happen
...
Freshman year: "I'm never going
home! This is great! No mom and dad, yeahhhhh."
Sophomore year: "Is it socially
acceptable to go home every weekend?"
--Welcome
to "sophomore year" of college.
The
days of the café being delicious (well, was it ever really?) are over. In
fact, some sophomores don't even have a meal plan. Or, if you're broke, like
me, you downgraded your meal plan because you would rather enjoy frozen foods
than 20 different concoctions of rice in the café. I mean, really,
whoever is filling out the café's questionnaires really needs to stop
advocating for more cultural foods. OR
AT LEAST BRING IN SOMETHING THAT ISN'T JUST "RICE".
As you
eat these, aforementioned frozen foods, back in your room, you can't help
but wish you had freshman year back.
You
know, when your room wasn't a fire-hazard by cramming 2-3 people into a
shoebox. Or when watching Netflix until 2 am was always a perfect idea. Funny how now even "Netflix" seems to take some sort of motivation from you. I'm just going to lay on my bed, turn on my computer...but oh! My computer isn't charged. Each episode of "House of Cards" is 45 minutes long..do I really have the time for this? Wow, 10 minutes has passed since I've started debating this...better work on homework instead.
Yep,
this is what the "sophomore slump" looks like. At first, I couldn't
even wrap my brain around the idea of being fed up with college only my second
year in... welp, they weren't lying!
The "slump" is real.
Remember
freshman year, when everyone in your hall was pals with you? Or at least
you all pretended to be friends? Sophomore year seems to just break
every routine of first-year college living. Now, half of my friends I used to
see--they're commuters! And the other half...well, I'm not even sure if
they go here anymore. And you have to admit, the commuters have totally
made you contemplate commuting... I mean, having dinner with mah/pah every day?
No prison-shoe showers? Saving a thousands on money? Until you realize that you
live like 4 hours away... maybe I could fly??
Or
I'll just become a hobo--that could work too.
Speaking
of financials, it seems that everyone sort-of has this realization sophomore
year that they are going into massive debt. Freshman year was like: "yeah
man! everyone's going into debt!"
But
then sophomore year you're like, "wait, I really am in debt. and like. I.
will. have. to. pay. it. all. off. eventually." Emphasis on the
"eventually". The funny part is, when you start working and making
money, it feels great. But then you realize you still have to get an education
on top of your measly bus-boy hours. Quit school and just work full time??
Or
just become the hobo--still a valid option.
Finally,
the "sophomore slump" is an illusion, really. You go to all of your
classes, stay on top of your work, yet nothing motivates you. You have honestly
considered going to your 8AM POL101 class in your pajamas, a sin that you swore
you would never commit. Every task seems to require 10x more the energy, and
things that might have excited you before make you go "ehh." However,
now when the weekend rolls around, you couldn't picture anything more better
than spending a boatload of time with your family doing cheesy things--like
apple cider tasting and pumpkin carving.
Why? Because the "sophomore slump" makes you realize you are one year closer to being an actual "adult" and less of the over-hyper freshman you were last year.
This
blog post
is probably the most productive thing I've accomplished
this semester.
