By Kimberly Ilkowski
Features Editor
The final issue of the Spring 2003 semester featured a heartfelt confession on the struggles of transitioning into junior year. Sports Editor John Kell wrote to let freshmen and sophomores know that it is never too late to get involved and get the most out of your time here at the College. As our own semester comes to a close, it is an important reminder to stay motivated and positive.
I hate those articles/opinions about reflection. I don’t think that much can be learned by them, but here I go trying not to reflect too much. I’ve been asked to write about something that I have been saying for weeks, the difference between a sophomore and a junior.
Sophomore year was an amazing year. I went to countless concerts, semi-formals, formals, date parties, frat parties, house parties, Broadway shows and nightclubs.
In one weekend, I ended up partying or going to events in four different cities (Philadelphia, New York, Camden and Trenton — I didn’t say they were all good cities.)
Sophomore year in college is the year you start thinking like a college student and finally leave that high school mentality behind you. But I don’t think that sophomore year is the real year of truth.
Junior year is hard. Any junior in college can tell you that this is the year that really counts.
When my sophomore friends ask me what junior year is like I tell them to imagine how hard their junior year in high school was, (by far the worst year in high school), and multiply that to the college level. At times, it’s that bad.
Junior year is the year that I finally realized the reason that I was at college. I joined SGA and the staff of The Signal. I got two new jobs — hall security worker and another at the Gap.
I realized that I had been wasting my time during my sophomore year — time that I had to make up this year. My resume sucked and I realized that without hard work and experience, I wouldn’t get any internship let alone any job that I applied for.
Now I’m busting my ass and attempting to make up for it.
Last semester, as any of my friends can tell you, I didn’t party much because I had to budget my time to the minute. I was working over 30 hours a week between my three jobs on top of being a full-time student. It wasn’t always fun but I grew up to be the man I am today.
I have to say that in retrospect, I was just a boy before that. if anything, junior year has taught me that I am ready for the internship and the eventual job I hope to get.
It taught me that I can move off campus senior year and balance my life and finances better when I’m off on my own. I think I’m ready to move away from home after college and if I get an opportunity to move away from the east coast or even further, I would have to take it.
So what am I trying to say in this opinion? I guess I’m saying that if you are reading this, it’s not too late to get involved.
It’s not too late to do all the things you saw yourself doing in college and it’ll never be too late to grow up to become a better person then you were yesterday.
