In those instances when I left the comfort of my bed and my time spent with my good friend Olivia Pope (obviously I was binge-watching Scandal on Netflix, it was winter break for Pete’s sake), it was nice to see friends, family, and people from home for the first time since August. Since coming back to Minneapolis, I had been asked the standard list of questions that college students can expect to be asked when they come home on a break: whether I like my roommate, whether I’ve declared a major, whether I still like Boston, and how sophomore year compares to freshman year.
None of the questions are tough, but comparing sophomore year to freshman year usually seems easiest to answer. Without thinking twice, I’d explain how great sophomore year is because campus is already familiar and my re-entry into a comfortable environment went smoothly.
“It’s so great to return to school and know exactly what to expect!” I’d exclaim without a second thought. “Sophomore year is better than freshman year because I came back to school already understanding how everything works at Tufts.” Without fail, something of this sort came out of my mouth in every conversation.
I feel like this is not the whole story, though. It is true that I started sophomore year already acclimated to life at Tufts: I was equipped with a strongly developed preference for Carmichael dining hall over Dewick, a mental map of the fastest route to Davis Square from an uphill dorm, and an understanding that I simply can’t pull an all-nighter without crashing at 4 a.m. I was not worried about making friends like I had been at the start of freshman year, and didn’t anticipate my group of friends changing dramatically from one year to the next. I knew what to expect and how to navigate life inside and outside of the classroom, but coming into the school year with fixed expectations wasn’t what made sophomore year great so far.
I think it’s actually the stark opposite: sophomore year is great because of the unexpected. The best part of this year was becoming part of the JumboRaas dance team after accidentally auditioning. After a friend asked me to go to what I thought was an open dance class with the team, to our surprise, we both got callbacks, and we decided to join the team. Ever since, I’ve squeezed six hours of dance rehearsal into my weekly schedule. I guarantee that this is the farthest thing from what I expected after freshman year: I’ve never been on a competitive dance team, I’m practically allergic to exercise (I’ve only been to the gym three times since coming to Tufts, and one of those times was while giving someone a tour of campus), and I felt like I’d already found my groups on campus by the end of freshman year. I can’t imagine what this year would have been like without finding my way into a new community on campus, getting to know a wonderful group of people, and realizing that this year is far from a simple continuation of freshman year.
During the last few days of break, when I encountered someone (other than Olivia Pope), and I was faced with the standard list of questions, I made sure to answer more honestly. After responding that I love my roommate, that I’m a history major, and that I’m still head over heels for Boston, I refrained from praising sophomore year for its predictability and its similarity to freshman year. Instead, I noted that the best part of sophomore year was thinking I knew everything about college and quickly learning that I was wrong, and that every year is unique. 2016 football team, here I come?