This is it -- the sophomore slump, the year it all goes downhill. We are stuck right in the middle of everything, and it’s the last place we want to be.
Last year, we were freshmen: the “new guys” on campus. We were figuring things out. Everything was fresh and exciting.
We made new friends, found out what kinds of things we like and dislike and got to experience the joys of off hours and off campus privileges for the first time. Things were great. The summer was amazing, mostly because we looked forward to not being freshmen anymore. Then it all ended. We got back to school and realized that things were not as good as we’d hoped they would be.
Every other class has something to be excited for -- except ours. The freshmen are going through the same things we experienced last year. The juniors love the fact that they are finally upperclassmen. The seniors are ecstatic, and why not? Their time has come; they are finally the rulers of the school.
For sophomores, however, this year seems like a complete dud. We have nothing interesting going on, no prom or anything new like that. We still have to take CSAPs this year; and we can’t park in the parking lots. We don’t even get off of the scary bleachers that make you feel like if you move at all you’ll fall through and die.
Then there’s the issue of driving. We are so incredibly close; we can see it hanging in front of us. As freshmen, the fact that we were unable to drive was trivial. We were still young and it didn’t feel as though we needed to drive. This year, in the last few months before most of us can get our license, it’s like we can see teenage drivers smirking at us as they see our parents driving us around. It’s like we can hear them taunting us from their cars while we walk. Sometimes we actually can hear them. Numerous times I have heard the old “Can’t drive, huh youngin’? Well, maybe one day.”
As the other classes enjoy the highlights of their year, we realize that the only good thing about our year is getting out of it. Miserable, right? Now we have to make it through a full year of this.
In the words of Jason Mraz, “The sophomore slump is an uphill battle.” He’s right, and we can all see it.
If you are a sophomore like me, you stopped caring about two weeks into the new school year. And, on top of everything, this is the year that we need to care. This is the year that colleges start looking at for academic strength. We have to keep our grades up because now is when they actually count.
Things will only be worse as juniors if we let them slip this year. And from what juniors and seniors say, junior year is already the most difficult. We would not want to start that year with the burden of bad grades dragging along behind us.
In spite of all that is tough about our year, we have to bear on. We have to look past the bad and try to make something worthwhile out of this year.
Most importantly, we have to help each other to get through, as clichéd as that sounds. Bottom line, this year is rough. We can’t just mope however; we have to be proactive. Because, quite frankly, if we don’t work as hard as we can, we are in trouble.