Is It Always Sophomore Year?
As I sat down to write this I began to reflect on my first three semesters of college, somehow it’s been both harder than I’ve thought and so much easier. In a way freshman year feels like it was decades ago, but also yesterday. The time I’ve spent here often feels like a whirlwind so my memories of it all come out a little blurry. Much like Rory Gilmore, I came from a small town and college seemed like the great escape so the feeling of individuality overruled any fear that I could have felt. I remember how at the start of my freshman year I was surprised by the way I adapted to this new life. During my first semester I believe I had begun to fall back in love with learning, I was eager to attend my classes and I left each one feeling excited about it all. I felt this way my second semester as well, until I was taken down by a Political Science class and suddenly everything felt like a chore and I feel as if I’m still bearing the weight of that.
In the season 5 finale of Gilmore Girls, Rory announces to her mother that she is taking some time off of college after completing her sophomore year. This creates a lot of diversion between many fans of the show, some claim that they believe this was the start of Rory’s never ending downfall. I’d say it was the realest storyline in the entire series. In the middle of season 4, Rory is advised to drop one of her college courses and this leads her into a spiral, even though she remained a full time student, this led her to believe that maybe she couldn’t do this even if she had been preparing her whole life for it. During my freshman year, I completed both semesters taking five courses. When sophomore year rolled around, I found myself only signing up for four courses and I felt that sense of not doing enough and feeling like a part of me was failing. Realistically I know that isn’t true, college is hard and there is a lot to balance and I have never been anything less than good but I feel like I understand Rory in a different sense now.
We’ve all heard people talk about “college burnout” and how it’s a normal thing you just have to get through. While I believe that to be true, I think that getting through exists in a different timeline for every individual and sometimes that is forgotten about. I also think that burnout is sometimes confused with laziness because of the stigma revolving around college stress. I believe that a lot of people who attend college are here because they want to do well, I don’t believe that anyone here wants to struggle. I’m sure there are plenty of people who are just truly lazy, but I think there is a great divide between those people and the ones who are just struggling with the weight of it all. I’ve been forced to meet myself with grace during my sophomore year in the same way that I believe Rory did. I hope that if you find yourself struggling this semester or any semester, you meet yourself with grace.
Until next week!
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