Avoiding the “Sophomore Slump”
Happy summer readers!
With the month of July already in full swing, something has dawned on me: I will be back to Vanderbilt in just under a month. If you feel like summer is short as a high schooler, just wait until you’re in college- it flies by. Between a job at a biology laboratory, shadowing a doctor at my local hospital, and trying (not necessarily succeeding) to get ahead on Organic Chemistry, I have been SWAMPED. And just like that, I’ve gone from driving away from Vanderbilt, dreading leaving my friends for three months, to being close to returning to school! And I can’t wait! There is so much to look forward to and so many people I cannot wait to see. However, one detail of the upcoming year does send a chill down my spine- the ever-fearful “sophomore slump”. So, I thought that I would write a post to preemptively address this fear of mine and of college sophomores around the globe.
Sophomore year is a beast unlike any other. Without the newness and excitement for the unknown of freshman year, and lacking the adult independence of junior and senior years, the middle child of the college educational experience seems lackluster. Combine that with the hardest classes for a pre-med student (organic chemistry and biology layered on top of one another) and you’ve got quite a combination! To both ease my worries for sophomore year and provide you with information you probably didn’t really need, I’ve put together a list of ways to avoid the sophomore slump, compiled from advice from upperclassmen and the thoughts that float around the depths of my brain. Lucky you!
- Eat lots of Grins. Food for the brain, ya know?
- Do what you want to do! Try new things! Spend time with friends! Ditch studying for an hour to go do something fun if that’s what you need- classes will still be there when you get back. I find that this quote helps me a lot in times where my stress battles with my urge to do something fun/peaceful/otherwise good for myself: “””You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”- Wayne Gretsky” -Michael Scott” -Alex Rains.
- Never stop exploring campus. A new nook in the library? Awesome. Center for student wellbeing mindfulness class? Great. Free food on Alumni Lawn? Nothing better.
- Similarly to point 3, explore Nashville! Even if campus is quiet on a day that the sophomore slump is looming over you, there is a whole city around Vanderbilt full of things to do. DO THEM. For me, this will most definitely involve taking trips to Jeni’s and sampling their limited release ice creams every chance I get.
- Meet people. Surely by the time you’ve reached sophomore year you will have formed close relationships with friends and met many people you hope to know better. Never stop doing this! I guarantee you don’t know the thousands of people roaming around campus, so the choices are limitless- the people you meet are what makes Vanderbilt so great, so the more people, the better!
That’s all for now folks. If you have any wisdom you’d like to share with me, please do. I need all that I can get. In the meantime, enjoy the remainder of the summer and Anchor Down!!