The ABCs of the 5th Semester of College

The ABCs of the 5th Semester of College

Strangely, this semester of college has been drastically different than the the previous four. I call this the "junior wall" or "over the hill" syndrome. Luckily, I don't believe in the only one who feels this way. Nearly all of my junior friends oddly agree. To get an idea of what I am talking about, here are my ABCs of the junior year of college.

A: advisor - the realization that my freshman advisor didn't have me complete my prerequisites in the right order

B: blue book - the mini notebooks used for tests that most universities somehow decided we're more effective than full size paper

C: C average - the grade you get on most assignments aside from the fact you used to get straight A's

D: dress clothes - if you are a business student, you professor will begin to grade you on the "appropriateness" of your business clothing

E: exam - the ability to recall information that we have never once talked about in class

F: freshmen - energetic young people who think college is party city

G: group projects - the ability to either collaborate with others or do the work of four+ students

H: how? - as in "how will I pass this class?" or "how can I raise my grade"

I: interest - you will begin to have mental breakdowns questioning how interested you actually are in your major

J: journal articles - if you read the abstract, that's pretty much the same as reading the whole thing right?

K: kindle - you learn the hard way that kindle textbooks are completely awful when scanning the text or looking at homework problems

L: lectures - every single class has suddenly rejected the use of in class activities

M: mature - you soon realize that 80% of juniors and seniors are no where near mature enough to go into the workforce

N: naps - the rare but beloved 20 minutes where you can pretend you don't have other responsibilities

O: office hours - usually spent begging  your professors for extra credit

P: professors - usually foreign and male lecturers that pronounce the word formula weird

Q: questions - if seems like they always arise about an hour prior to a homework deadline

R: reasoning - the ability to prioritize Netflix over studying. Because it's just one episode after all.

S: sleep - even when you get enough, it's never enough

T: to do list - it begins to have no end

U: undergrad - the title that is not the same as underclassman as one might think

V: vocabulary - the realization that multiple years of vocab tests have failed you and you wonder if using "super good" is appropriate in an essay

W: working out - who has time to burn calories when you don't even have time to eat them

X: xylophone and X-ray - after 16 years of school, I still don't know any other words that start with X

Y: youth - does that include 20 year olds?

Z: zombie - how you look after midterms week