You know what time of year I mean. The weather is turning, assignments are stacking up and lethargy is at an all time high.
The abuse of a much needed reading week slowly comes to bite you in the form of a forgotten mid-term, or a procrastinated essay — I think most of us have been there at some point or another if we aren’t there currently.
There is something about the first semester that always seems a little bit more bleak than the rest of the year and I think there are a few reasons for that.
It’s so easy to get caught up in yourself and the fun and excitement that post-secondary school brings, but it’s right around now that the reality begins to set in. That reality of course being the fact that school is pretty challenging after all, and it requires some hard work and dedication.
I remember my first semester at Laurier. The allure of college life had me so wrapped up in socializing that I failed to notice a lot of my friends were starting to flunk out around me. I mimicked their habits, telling myself that if they were holding themselves together I could do it too.
That all changed when my good friend decided to go out to the club the night before our psych midterm — which was at 8:30 a.m. mind you.
Over time I developed a very different attitude towards my school work, fortunately. As I began to apply myself more I started to notice that those who weren’t doing the same were beginning to fall behind.
And over the years, this time of year grew on me. Not in any sort of sense where I would look forward to the fall, but it always feels good to just churn a bunch of work out and put it behind you.
The key part is just churning the work out. The only real advice is to power through it, but it’s also important that you take the time to think about yourself, your health and your future.
A lot of the people I know who ended up dropping out and pursuing different options had questioned their program or their place at the university to begin with.
If you find yourself uncomfortable with your current situation it might be ideal to consider a change of scenery, be it a new faculty, focus of study or even a totally new institution. Don’t think of it as defeat; you are learning, that is why you are here to begin with.
If the only thing you’ve learned so far this semester is that psychology is not your thing, that’s totally fine. That was the hardest lesson I learned in my first year, admittedly. If there was one thing I could tell myself in retrospect, it would have been to drop that class, but that’s honestly for another note.
Speaking from my own personal experience as an undergraduate student, I would have to say wholeheartedly that this is the toughest part of the year.
Chin up, Golden Hawks, it’s like the great Tupac Amaru Shakur once said:
“I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing: through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head up … and handle it.”
