Dear sophomore year,
I kind of loved and hated you. You were a bit confusing, exciting, and bittersweet, but I don’t think I would have it any other way.
Freshman year came to an end, and all of the new beginnings, new rooms, and new friends, were not as new anymore. This was great! I was 100% more comfortable with my environment and more confident in where I stand at this school and what I want to do in the next three years. In my perception of college, sophomore year doesn’t hold much title significance. Freshman year was like the initial climb up the rollercoaster and then around the second semester, it had all the fun twists and turns. Coming into my second year, I expected more of a calm ride with a couple of wide turns. Well, I have big news, sophomore year is definitely a lot more powerful than it seems. While it is an entirely personal experience, here are a few obstacles and lessons I have taken away from a very long, fulfilling, and questionable year.
This year consisted of a lot of plans, big and small, successful and unsuccessful; but it happened, and here I am now. I faced a lot of trouble worrying about my future plans: what I want to do, what I don’t want to do, doing enough, not doing enough, etc. With a lot of research, career advising appointments, and day-in-the-life occupation videos on YouTube, I found that I absolutely would hate working as a registered dietician or psychiatrist. All jokes aside, I am very interested in health care with a niche focus on women’s health. I decided to double major in public health. It was a bit overwhelming to take on a whole other major and to complete it within the four short years I have at UMass. I am confident I can complete my courses on time since I was able to plan earlier on. I took a winter course to get ahead and now I am on my merry way. Winter courses are a bit expensive so I definitely recommend applying for scholarships with help from the financial aid department to cover any costs you can’t support! I also recommend for anyone coming to UMass, to think about double majoring or minoring in something, especially if your primary major does not have a lot of credit requirements. You are required to complete 120 credits to graduate anyways so might as well plan a curated academic ahead to make school exciting and fulfilling. Everyone’s journey is different so there are some interests you won’t discover until later on. You may change your major once, twice, or four times, but that is okay. This is the time to discover what you like and dislike so you can go ahead and pursue it.
Besides the academic side of college, there is another beast that many people do not battle with until the time comes around. That beast is called housing. A real house I can live with my best friends in, and cook my own food in? Amazing, yes. Hard to figure out? Also yes. Finding the perfect lease is a problem in itself but what made housing a bit more troubling was the unforeseen opportunities that came along at the last second. I decided to apply for a scholarship to go abroad, as well as figure out my plans to participate in the domestic exchange program to Hawaii with my friends. Usually, people go away during the spring of their junior year but with my last-minute decision to apply, I wasn’t going to know my plans until a few months later. After researching multiple leases and attending many showings thinking I was going to live in Amherst for one semester, I made the decision to opt out of signing on to a lease with my friends completely because of my unknown plans. This was a huge risk because there was a chance I would not go away for the whole year and end up living in the dorms again, having to find a random sublet, or not finding a sublet at all. My other friend also decided that she wanted to apply to be an RA and with that, the other two girls fit into another house perfectly. In the end, the housing plan worked out for my friends, and they decided to come along with me to Hawaii in the fall. It took a while for everyone to get themselves and their plans sorted but for now, everything should go smoothly and I am super excited to see where the next year takes me.
All in all, this year made me more appreciative of the very little time I have at college, tested my ability to be accepting of the unknown, and helped me grow independently.
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