A New Semester is a New Beginning

Monday officially begins my summer semester of sophomore year, but as I prepare for the onslaught of classes and homework, I get the same feeling I experience every year before the first day of school. The mix of slight nervousness (Will my classes be too hard? Will I make friends?) and mostly excitement (Oh boy, the first day of classes!) reminds me all-too-much of how I felt in grade school on the days leading up to that all-powerful First Day.

I’m about to start my sophomore year of college, and yet in this sense it feels like nothing has really changed. I’m still laying out my clothes and mentally planning outfits for that first week. I’m still pulling out folders and notebooks to write my name and course subjects on. I’m still hoping for a familiar face in at least one of my classes, and I’m still getting those same butterflies in my stomach that I’ve had every year so far.

And yet, things have changed since each of those prior “first days,” and they will change again before my next in August. With each year, we gain insight and wisdom that we didn’t have before we started, and we allow ourselves to start anew. We can set new goals, meet new people, try new things, and even fall in love with new classes. It’s important for us to go into each of our new classes without prejudices, because we never know how those prior thoughts would otherwise shape our experiences. If we dread one class too much, we may never open ourselves up to learn anything in that subject — we may fail (or perform poorly) because we would not give it the chance it deserved.

So my resolution for this semester is to keep an open mind and to get excited about my upcoming classes. After all, maybe macroeconomics will become my new best friend! And maybe you will find your new passion in an unexpected place as well.