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Freshman year is known for being a new and exciting blank slate for students, an opportunity for them to find their place. Senior year is a year of reflection on an amazing college journey and wrapping up final experiences. Even sophomore year has its own infamous title, the “sophomore slump.” But no one seems to talk about junior year and the absolute whirlwind of emotions it entails.

I can confidently say I wasn’t prepared for how being a third-year college student feels. You’re no longer in the stage of innocence and curiosity that accompanies the beginning of your college journey, but you’re still waiting for your inevitable and slowly impending future. Senior year, finishing classes and, terrifyingly, graduation are slowly approaching on the horizon, but you’re not quite there yet and it feels like you just have to sit and wait.

Starting junior year, it felt like everything began to change. My curriculum was just one example. During freshman and sophomore year, a lot of students find themselves still finishing up basic major requirements and core classes that never seem super important or interesting.

Junior year, though, placed me in more major-related classes that seemed to test my passion and love for my major. I was constantly being asked, “what does this major mean to you, and how bad do you want it?” Classes started focusing more on experience and problem-solving skills rather than basic information about a topic. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it definitely wasn’t something I expected.

Dynamics shifted as well. Half of the people I had spent the previous two years building strong connections with went abroad for our second semester. While I’m so happy they got to have such an incredible experience, it was hard to navigate the evolving friendship dynamics that resulted in their absence.

Seemingly out of nowhere, it dawned on me that I’m growing up, and that senior year is rapidly materializing. Unsurprisingly, this realization didn’t come easily.

I found myself unmotivated to do much of anything and avoided the work I knew I had to do before finals started. In a way, sitting down and finishing up classwork felt like a nagging reminder that my time here is almost up — it made it feel real.

This lack of motivation manifested pretty intensely. Instead of spending my last few weeks of the semester with my friends and enjoying myself, I could not get out of bed. I would spend nearly all day trapped in my head, unable to escape my spiraling thoughts.

I found myself thinking about my academic path and future, whether or not I made the right choice in my majors and if I’m prepared to go into that field. My capability to enter the field I’ve been preparing for was tested. I found myself asking if it was even what I wanted anymore.

One of the worst parts was that I felt disconnected from many of the friends I wanted to reach out to for guidance. Some of my closest friends were studying abroad halfway across the world, hours ahead. People who used to be my most accessible support systems were completely out of reach.

When I would ask my mom for advice, she would pretty much tell me to shake off my anxiety about growing up and focus on the positives. Her advice was to go out with friends, focus on schoolwork and just take my mind off the inevitable. In my humble opinion, none of that really works, and trying to shake off the problem made me feel even worse.

Avoiding your fear of the future doesn’t make it go away, it makes it sneakier. That fear will overtake you and creep into every ounce of your existence when you try to ignore it. So, as much as it sucks temporarily, feel it.

Genuinely allowing yourself the freedom to be open and honest introspectively, to acknowledge the anxiety you feel about getting closer and closer to finishing college, is the best thing you can do as a junior. Internalizing the fear doesn’t make it go away, so you might as well acknowledge you’re scared. In all honesty, you are not alone.

What made the spiral so difficult to navigate was doing it on my own. When I finally came around to opening up and talking to my friends about the state I had found myself stuck in, they quickly agreed they’d been feeling the exact same way.

This shared anxiety felt like such a relief. I just wish I’d felt it earlier.

Knowing you’re one step closer to finishing your college journey isn’t an easy feeling to navigate, especially on your own. Encouraging more conversation on this pivotal year is the first step to building the community that will help you get through it.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to face what’s to come with the people around you, and reframe the fear into excitement. I won’t sit here and say that happens instantly. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It takes time to come to terms with the fears you’ve built up internally. But that’s the beauty of having friends and an entire class of people who feel the same way: you don’t have to face it alone.

Gracie Lebersfeld is a junior majoring in selected studies in education and creative writing. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at gmlebers@syr.edu.

Published on May 7, 2025 at 10:10 pm