Junior year rolls around and let me tell you, you will be the awkward middle child of college. Freshman year you are the baby, everyone loves you. Sophomore year you have all the benefits of still being the baby but you are more comfortable and settled. Junior year, you’re supposed to be a grown up, know what you’re doing with your life and take a lot of classes all while not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Senior year, you may be crying a lot because it’s your last semester but you are living it up because of it. Here’s what I wish someone would have told me about junior year:
1. On the first week of junior year when you go out, you will instantly realize you are now the minority and the freshman filled bars are suddenly unfamiliar to you. All of a sudden you cringe at hearing underage girls order Dirty Shirleys and say “Um, can I have a beer?” But you remember you can’t judge because not so long ago that was you.
2. You finally turn 21 junior year yay! Except, now you’re forced to be responsible so not so yay! Nights out are limited to birthday celebrations. You can’t afford to be hungover every morning anymore. Grownups have things to do and so do you.
3. You will check LinkedIn more than Facebook. It is more exciting to look for possible jobs and update your resume than see friends from high school getting married and having babies.
4. You still have time to change your major, no matter what “they” (academic advisors) say. You might be cursed with summer classes and even an extra semester but it will be worth it when you don’t graduate with a degree in something you don’t love.
5. The ‘Freshman 15’ carries on into sophomore year and then junior year. It’s the college 15 just learn to love it.
6. TWO WORDS: Graduation Application. Not all schools make you apply for graduation your junior year, but for those who do thank you for the quarter life crisis because we didn’t see that coming.
7. Younger girls in your sorority probably won’t respect you because you’re not a senior and most likely irrelevant in their world. But you feel old and all of a sudden can’t relate to the younger girls anyways.
8. You will be lucky enough to have more time in college, but come second semester you realize your senior friends are leaving and you’re too emotionally unstable for that. They are only six months older and are going to big-kid job interviews.
9. ONE MORE WORD: Internships. You are expected to know what you want to do with your life and pursue it through internships. PSA don’t be surprised when internships require another internship experience to be eligible.
10. If God bestows his blessings unto you and you somehow have an “easy week” with only two tests and a paper you may be able to actually go out on a weekday. But be warned, your friends won’t be able to or they’ll be worried that you aren’t doing your schoolwork or applying to internships.
11. You will be diagnosed with a horrible, early onset disease called Senioritis. Yes, it will progress as you are a senior, but no one tells you it will hit prematurely.
12. Your friends are all settling down into serious relationships. If you are single or just ‘hooking up’, you instantly start wondering if you’re doing something wrong because the only thing you are committed to is your late night pizza order. However, being in a relationship in your 20s isn’t for everyone, take the time to figure out who you are first.
13. You start to actually like wine. Not just the sugar water they call Moscato. But when you visit home you realize you enjoy drinking what your parents drink. (You’re just happy it isn’t well shitty liquor mixed with red bull)
After reading this, you may be considering failing statistics so you can stay a sophomore but this is the year you figure out what you GET to be in the future and you get to do it with your best friends. Junior year turns out to be the best year because you are forced into adulthood with the benefits of still having time to make mistakes. Being the awkward middle child is never fun, but hey you’re in college so your life can’t be that bad.
Featured image via cottonbro on Pexels
