A Sophomore At Last

Jay's Kinda Weekly Rant:
Because of what I have going on this semester, I have a feeling I won't be on any sort of regular schedule with my rants anymore, but I'm going to at least attempt it. If things don't work out, the "Kinda Weekly" descriptor will be officially cast off.

The title of my rant comes from an inside joke with my high school friends. During my Bennett years (so close, but sometimes they feel so far away), until maybe my senior year, I was a fairly short person. For mostly that reason, I was given the title of "honorary freshman" by my Kingdom friends (if you don't know about the Kingdom, feel free to ask me), meaning I was a freshman throughout high school. Here at Lehigh, the Kingdom does not rule, and my title is not recognized. So, finally, after four years of high school and one year of college, I am a sophomore.

I think that anecdote nicely describes my feelings about college now. Many of my senior friends from last year are either gone or out of club positions but still taking classes, creating a power vacuum which has been filled by myself and other upperclassmen. Thus, I have much more responsibility, but I also have fewer people to turn to for guidance. Additionally, instead of being in a dorm with a bunch of rowdy freshmen, I'm now in a suite (Lehigh calls it an apartment, but that's somewhat misleading) with three incredible roommates. Plus, all of my teachers this semester seem exceptional, whereas I had a couple of disappointing comp. sci. professors last year.

Possibly for these reasons and possibly because of this summer, I feel like a major transition has occurred, like I finally have rid myself of the "freshman" stigma of my life and have fully embraced this new "sophomore" stage. Obviously, I still retain much that was developed during my freshmen years (friends, principles, skills, personality), but my life has moved into a different area where there are different experiences and challenges than I have had before. Maybe they have always been there, waiting to be taken up, and I have only now decided to engage them. Whatever the case, it's an exciting yet frightening time, as most unfamiliar encounters are. More opportunities exist for me than ever before, so I can potentially achieve much more; of course, that means there are also more chances to fail. Being the nervous person I am, I tend to focus on the latter, so stress levels have been high recently. Am I up for the challenge?

You'd better believe it. :-) Wish me luck, and I wish you all the same in your current endeavors.