My Advice to Rising Sophomores
Freshman year is complete. Your first year worries are almost gone. If they aren’t, then they aren’t as big as they were a year ago. You made new friends, hopefully, and passed your classes. Congratulations on a great first year and enjoy your summer!
The sentence above was your mindset three months ago. Now, it’s August and Husky Life is about to come back in full swing. New year, new classes, new opportunities. You walk on campus with optimism and wonder for the upcoming year. All of the sudden, you hit a brick wall (hopefully figuratively and not physically). The sky turns gray and everything around you turns weird. Welcome to sophomore year!
Yes. Sophomore year. The middle child of all middle children. The Ringo Starr of the college years. The yellow starburst of college years. Sophomore year of college is the human equivalent of the kid your mom made you play with because she felt bad for him or her. The “Sophomore Slump” is real.
Hold up. Don’t quit now. Sure, I just made sophomore year look like the most boring year of your life. As someone who has been through it before, that is not entirely true. Here is some advice that I, a former college sophomore, can give to a rising sophomore.
- Go out of your comfort zone
- Yeah yeah yeah, you heard that before. That’s what freshman year is for, right? WRONG! That’s what ALL of your college years are for. Sophomore year is special because, yes, you are more familiar with campus. That means more room for exploring!
- Still try and make new friends
- Of course keep your freshman friends. They will most likely be your best buddies for life! However, making friends does not end May of your freshman year. Go find more people for your squad. Trust me, it’s worth it
- JOIN CLUBS
- It is definitely not late to join clubs your sophomore year. Not by a long shot. Taking from my personal experience, I joined one of my most treasured clubs my sophomore year (HELLO, NBS!!). Joining clubs is sort of like getting a tattoo or eating a really good Cheeto. Once you have one, it only leads to more (hello, BUnow!).
- Tying this in to advice in #2, IT LEADS TO MORE FRIENDS!!
- Explore the town
- No I’m not talking about going to Tri Pi at 11 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. Go outside of the town. Go to Bloom Beach. Go to Knoebels. Go to (safe) hiking trails and places that aren’t populated.
- Find out about the legend $2 Bob if you haven’t already. Bloomsburg townies are really interesting if you give them a chance and stop wrecking the town on Block Party weekend.
- Take focused classes.
- The deadline to declare your major is the last semester of your sophomore year (Hopefully this is correct. If you are unsure, go to Office of the Registar’s RIGHT NOW)
- Freshman year is fun with your General Education classes I bet, (haha) but the real interesting part of college comes when you take classes that interest you.
- Remember, you’re going to college to get an education, kids.
- If you are unsure of which direction you would want your career to go towards, take your General Education courses more seriously to narrow out your choices.
- DON’T GIVE IN TO THE SLUMP
- Sure it is easy as hell to fall into the pit of slump or despair because “Sophomore year isn’t fun,” or “No one cares about sophomores,” and my favorite, “Sophmore year isn’t for blowing off your homework to listen to My Chemical Romance, Rachael, get yourself together.”
- Keep your friends close (and your flex closer). Each year in college is important. This could be a really fun and defining year if you let it be.
What I’m trying to say is, be smart, be studious, have fun, and make friends. You still have like, two more years here, and then you’ll be a rising senior like me wishing to go back. Treasure this time you have because you’ll want it back. Trust me.
