Junior Year Begins

Where did all the time go?

         Monday morning, I was walking to my first class at 9:00, Introduction to Sociology.  At the moment all I was focused on was getting to class on time and making sure I was in the right place.  I made it on time, sat through the class, which really lasted only about 15 minutes, and then began walking back to my apartment.  In that moment I came to the realization, something that still doesn’t feel plausible, that I was a junior, and half of my college experience was over.  Granted, I’m only 19 almost 20, the age of most sophomores, but I still feel “old” per se.  It seems like yesterday (not to use clichés) that I was moving into my freshman dorm, meeting my roommate, and wondering what the college life was going to be like.  I was curious what would it be like having to make an entirely new group of friends separate from my high school, how the academics would be different, and what my professors would be like.

            Freshman year doesn’t seem that long ago, but I can tell it was.  I’ve grown as a person, as most people do in college.   You discover who you are and who you want to be.  In high school, I was sure I knew what I wanted to do with my life when I graduated.  I had an interest in broadcast media, and as such selected that as my major.  But of course, I was wrong.  I lost interest in what I was doing and changed majors after my freshman year.  Looking back, I’m glad I did so.  I’m a completely different person than I was in High School.  I have new interests, new friends, and a new perspective on school and the future.  Honestly, I’m eager to see what’s in store for the next half of my college career.  Hopefully it’s just as successful and fulfilling.

The new freshman…

            As I stated earlier, freshman year doesn’t seem that long ago for me.  A lot of things have changed in my life, but I don’t really feel like a junior… until I talk to freshman.  I want to state before I go any further that this is not meant as an insult to any freshman, but rather an observation.  This might seem obvious to the neutral reader but there’s a distinct difference between freshman and upper classmen.  Now my observation could be biased thus far, or I could be too quick to jump to a conclusion because it is the first week of school, but this is my opinion.  Of course thinking back, I think “I didn’t act like that as a freshman,” even though I probably did.  However, once they get acclimated to college life and see how entirely different it is from high school, my opinion will probably change.  Some people say college is the best four years of your life, so my one piece of advice to all freshmen is this:  enjoy it, but realize how important it really is, and don’t mess it up.