The Internal Battle of Sophomore Year; Packing for Singapore & my College Apartment

Now that it's finally May it is officially that ~time of year again~. Something is in the air and everyone is feeling antsy and bold, and all at the same time it becomes increasingly difficult to be productive. Emphasis on the second part of that sentence.

As a sophomore in college in my finals week, I can confidently say that the second year of college is an interesting one. I think that it will likely go down in history as the longest-feeling academic year (at least in my eyes). I'll explain: freshman year everything is shiny and new, junior year is when everyone goes abroad and/or gets comfortable where they're at, and senior year is dedicated to making every second count. That leaves sophomore year as an entire year spent in limbo.

Don't get me wrong, I have had a pretty great run so far, but it is certainly worth noting this change if you are headed into years of higher education soon.

If you are also about to be a rising junior, I suspect that you, like me, are feeling a bittersweet mixture of relief and fear. It can also be an awkward period of time because while a lot of classmates have internships or summer jobs that are advancing them towards a career, a good amount are still at home making the most of time with family and friends. All of this is to say that there is no one right path. One of my roommates has a finance internship that pays $25 an hour and another one of my friends doesn't have anything lined up yet, but we all go home this week.

I am personally on the precipice of a transition period for the next few weeks as I wrap my head around going to Singapore, which quite literally is halfway around the world from my home and family in New York. I need to do what feels like an incredible amount of things before I board the plane, starting with taking a 2-hour accounting final tomorrow.

Finals period in college is strange because it is all so dependent on your major as well as your teacher, while in high school testing had been pretty standard across the board. It's also weird because some of my friends have been home since May 5th, while myself and other fools are in town until the very last day to make sure that we pass our classes.

Once I have secured my final grades, I need to do a few things. Here is my current working to-do list:

☐ Pack up my entire apartment

☐ Spackle the holes in my apartment's walls

☐ Bring bags upon bags to Goodwill

☐ Pack my suitcase for home & for Singapore

☐ Buy 2 suits (yes, like the business ones)

☐ Attend my older sister's graduation

I will keep you overly updated on how this list turns out as the weeks progress.

For now, I will try and survive finals week and the sophomore slump that is currently hitting me like a wall. I can tell you that something that is not helping my slump is saying goodbye to my incredible friends and roommates. Saying goodbye for the summer has proven to be much more of an emotional drain than finals week. These are the people that I've grown so accustomed telling everything to and then suddenly I will stop having the ability to see them every day?! I can hardly believe it.

This is a reminder to myself to cherish the moments that I spend, especially in college, with the people that I love. It is also a reminder to appreciate this season of my life and make the most of where I currently am.

I want to end this post with some photos of my hike last night with my roommate where we met some local people and just had a general great last memory in Tucson to hold onto for the summer.

Be well and take care of yourselves - Caroline