Junior year, you’re a lot like junior of high school. I didn’t think I would find many similarities to high school in college, but I can draw a lot of parallels. I started high school as a freshman new to school. It’s a time of big transition and I faced the hurdle of finding my group and adjusting well to a new environment. Sophomore year wasn’t anything special and if anything was just a matter of getting through. But come junior year of high school, there were lots of stress and anxiety headed my way. Junior year meant SATs and college applications. I no longer could only care about simply getting good grades in my classes, but I had to think about how to secure a college acceptance. I was always worried about my future and it impacted every aspect of my life. It was the first time that such a big transition and my next step in life was being decided for me and I had to prep that much for a single test that seemed to have a lot to do with the decision.
College was much the same. I started new to campus as a first-year. There’s so much newness and so many different groups and clubs to possibly join. The first year was about settling in and setting the tone for the rest of my years. Sophomore year like I detailed in a former post, was a battle of the slump. Junior year though was the year I recalled a lot of my darker times of high school.
I found myself at a similar crossroads four years later. Where do I go next? How do I land a job and how do I have to prepare to secure it? How do I get an internship? What even is networking? And with all that uncertainty came hours of worrying.
The structure of these four years of schooling somehow succeed in making students feel like academics are the most important thing in life. It seems logical. Good grades lead to acceptance to a good college which leads to a good job which leads to money which equates to success and happiness. Right? Junior year in particular seems to have some power over students’ wellbeing which becomes muddled by the need to excel and the anxiety that comes with it.
I wish I could tell myself that I don’t have to figure all that out in one year. I still am in the process of answering those questions. And despite the fact that I wish I would have known some answers sooner, despairing over it just won’t help. College is really just a big bubble. I came to this realization my senior year. But knowing that earlier would have helped me not to feel like my life depended on all the things I was worried with at the time. Taking a step back to see the map so that I wasn’t consumed with my tunnel vision could have made a big difference in my mental health during my junior year.
“It's been my experience, Langford, that the past always has a way of returning. Those who don't learn, or can't remember it, are doomed to repeat it.” -Steve Berry, The Charlemagne Pursuit