Sophomore year is important

By Mel DeCandia on March 13, 2014

I hated sophomore year of high school. In fact, I still hate it. If I think too much about it, even today, the anger, stress and insecurity my 15-year-old endured all come rushing back, full force.

While I so adamantly attempted to prove high school folklore wrong, in retrospect I now realize nearly all of the myths were true. High school is not the best four years of your life. Senioritis is completely real. And sophomore year, like it or not, is The Forgotten Year.

You were no longer at the bottom of the high school hierarchy’s totem pole, but you weren’t an upperclassman, either. Your work suddenly mattered, but it didn’t matter as much as it would junior year. Not to mention your hormones left you in a perpetually uncertain emotional state: somewhere between tears and fury. Sophomore year sucked.

Fast forward to today. Though four years have changed me a lot, I couldn’t help but shake the idea that sophomore year of college must be the same. Once again I found myself somewhere in the middle ground. So I told myself to put my head down and chug through.

I had a plan: no caffeine, no all-nighters, no sweatpants outside of the gym (where I would spend all of my time this year, obviously) and no more skipping class for another Thursday night out. If sophomore year was going to suck, I would at least come out better for it.

And so I put my head down… for a couple of days, anyway. Of course, college provides countless daily distractions and it wasn’t long before I decided to pick my head up. And surprisingly, what I saw wasn’t too bad.

Sophomore year meant knowing where your classes are, and even a few people in them on the first day.

Sophomore year meant getting into the thick of your major while still taking those general education courses that interest you, and fulfill a requirement or two.

Sophomore year meant being involved in clubs and other campus activities, and being the heart of them (no semesters abroad or a looming graduation to distract you).

Sophomore year meant living away from home for the first time with people you know, and like.

Sophomore year meant being comfortable with being alone; being independent and being confident.

Sophomore year of college, surprisingly, doesn’t suck. In fact, sophomore year is kind of a big deal. I’m not the first person to realize there are things to be learned outside of class at college. But I know when I look back, four more years down the line, I’ll remember these things a lot faster than linear regressions or l’imparfait conjugations. I’ll look back and probably still say sophomore year of high school sucked. But I’ll also say ‘sophomore year of college was important.

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