Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
8 — Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Combatting the sophomore slump

A

t 
the 
beginning 
of 
freshman 
year, 
everything is so new 
and exciting. Every first-year 
student is in the same boat 
when it comes to making new 
friends, navigating new classes 
and weighing different majors. 
Many of us are told we have 
such a long time to figure out 
what we want to study and not 
to worry, so we don’t. Then 
sophomore year rolls around 
and some of us start to freak 
out. Not only do we have less 
time to figure out what we’re 
majoring in, but many of us feel 
lost, confused and exhausted. 
The sophomore slump refers to 
the struggles, fears and fatigue 
we feel in our second year.
As 
the 
exhilaration 
of 
freshman year fades into the 
monotony of sophomore year, 
there’s little new excitement 
and many tend to feel burnt 
out. Alongside the day to day 
movements, 
classes 
become 
harder and hours of homework 
start to pile up. As schoolwork 
and responsibilities pile on, 
more and more stress builds. 
Four years seems like a short 

amount of time in the long run, 
but when multitudes of stress 
and anxiety build up, it can 
feel like a lot longer by year 
two.
As a sophomore myself, I’ve 
noticed the vast difference 
between last year and this 
year, both academically and 
socially. At this time last year, 
everything was new to me, so 
it was exciting to try to figure 
it out. Things are no longer 
new this year, but they’re also 
no longer exciting to figure 
out. Last year, it was fun to 
go out, meet new people and 
experience 
the 
“Michigan 
experience” as a freshman. 
This year, I don’t have nearly 
as much enthusiasm for going 
out and, with friend groups 
already established, it seems 
no one is trying to meet new 
people anymore. As someone 
pursuing dual degrees, feeling 
the pressure to declare my 
major and fit everything into 
my schedule is not fun. It’s 
tiring, draining and stressful. 
Sometimes, it feels like I’m 
simply scraping by. I know 
this 
is 
a 
sentiment 
many 
sophomores share on campus.
Seth Corba is a sophomore 
in the School of Nursing. It’s 

widely known that studies 
in 
the 
medical 
field 
tend 
to be challenging, and may 
often require a greater time 
commitment than liberal arts 
degrees. 
Corba 
decided 
to 
study nursing because, as he 
said, he was “in hospitals a lot 
growing up, so the healthcare 

professionals 
around 
me 
inspired me to have a career 
in that field and be able to 
help people as much as they 
did.” While he enjoys his field 
of study, sophomore year has 
come 
with 
some 
setbacks. 
“The 
workload 
increases 
a lot since freshman year 

because the classes just get 
much more difficult and I am 
feeling fatigued, burnt out and 
overwhelmed.” Overwhelming 
classes, work and the dawning 
of the long four-year haul of 
getting your degree(s) can all 
lead to this slump. 
It 
may 
seem 
daunting, 

but 
sophomores 
can 
beat 
the slump. According to the 
University of Texas at Dallas, 
it’s critical to prioritize both 
physical and mental health 
first. Drowning in homework 
and not feeling like you’re 
living up to your expectations 
can really take a toll on you, so 
it’s important to take time to 
care for yourself and seek out 
support if you need help. To 
combat his sophomore slump, 
Corba said he is taking time 
to just “exist as a student. 
I’ve also been spending a lot 
of time in nature to center 
myself outside of school along 
with spending time with those 
I love.” Sophomore year is 
stressful for a lot of us, but 
it’s important to remember 
that we’re not alone in feeling 
this way. If you’re struggling 
mentally, CAPS (Counseling 
and Psychological Services) is 
a program here on campus that 
is available to all students for 
counseling and mental health 
services. 
The 
sophomore 
slump can make you feel burnt 
out, but it is completely normal 
to feel this way, especially 
at a school as academically 
challenging and competitive as 
the University of Michigan.

KATIE MARALDO
Opinion Columnist

Design By Tye Kalinovic

College falls short in teaching students 
life skills — here’s how we can improve

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S

itting 
in 
Hatcher 
Graduate Library, my 
eyes 
glaze 
over 
my 
history textbook and I find 
myself staring out the window 
at the flagpole. Why is it at 
half-mast? Now that I think 
about it, when was the last 
time I saw flagpoles not at 
half-mast?
When four students were 
murdered in my hometown 
and in my old classroom, Gov. 
Gretchen 
Whitmer 
ordered 
flags across the state to be 
lowered for 12 days. After 
19 more students and two 
teachers were murdered in 
Uvalde, Texas, President Joe 
Biden ordered flags across the 
country to be lowered for four 
days. Today, it turns out, the 
flag in the Diag is lowered in 
honor of Queen Elizabeth II; 
what a relief that it isn’t in 
memory of dead children.
After Nov. 30, 2021, I had 
school shooting nightmares 
every day for six weeks. After 
Uvalde, another two weeks 
of nightmares. After I was at 
the national March For Our 
Lives Rally in Washington, 
D.C. on June 11 and a man 
stormed the stage threatening 
to shoot us all, and one of my 
fellow congressional interns 
had to hold me until I could 
breathe again, they came back 
for two more months. After 
a friend innocently let off a 
New Year’s Eve popper outside 
of Pizza House that sounded 
remarkably like a gunshot, 
the nightmares came back for 
another week. I’m exhausted. 
But isn’t everyone?
So many of us who are 
supposed to be focusing on 
becoming the “Leaders and 
Best” are just focusing on 
getting 
through 
the 
day. 
We’re anxious, depressed and 

terrified of the next horrible 
thing we’ll see in the news. 
We’re trying to complete our 
classes while leaders of this 
country take away our rights. 
We’re even trying to avoid 
getting a deadly virus. We’re 
preparing for long, vibrant 
careers even though we know 
the Earth probably won’t make 
it that long. Apparently, now, 
we also have to worry about 
guns at U-M frat parties.
Living 
in 
a 
society 
that constantly fails us is 
exhausting. When we live in 
a country that leaves us with 
dead classmates and no bodily 
autonomy, where do we go from 
here? How do we get excited 
about applying for grad school 
and going to Rick’s when our 
peers are dying? How do we, as 
survivors and their loved ones, 
move forward when there’s 
a new tragedy every week to 
remind us? 
I don’t mean to pretend 
there isn’t progress. I stood 
in the Capitol Building and 
watched the Protecting Our 
Kids Act, the largest gun 
violence prevention law in 
U.S. history, get passed by the 
U.S. House of Representatives, 
despite the Senate bill being 
much weaker. I’ve seen the 
Oxford High School students 
after me dedicate their lives 
to fighting for Madisyn, Tate, 
Justin and Hanna. I am so 
proud of my peers who will 
not stop marching, yelling and 
working until they reach their 
goals. I want to be one of them.
I also stood in the Judiciary 
Committee hearing room and 
wiped the tears falling down 
my face as U.S. Rep. Greg 
Steube, R-Fla., video-called in 
from his home for a hearing 
on how to best prevent school 
shootings, and showed off 
all of his military-style guns 
with their accompanying high 
capacity magazines. He even 
explained how many people 

they would each kill and 
that he always carries one in 
public, just before dropping 
one of the 21-round magazines 
on the floor. When U.S. Rep. 
Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, 
concernedly asked him if that 
gun was loaded, he shot back, 
missing her point entirely: “I’m 
at my house. I can do whatever 
I want with my guns.” How 
do we handle watching news 
clips of this at night and then 
immediately going to class the 
next morning?
Sure, we can vote, volunteer 
or run for office. We can 
share what we care about 
on social media and at the 
dinner table, but at what 
point does the omnipresent 
tragedy overshadow the joy of 
working for change? At what 
point do we stop and allow 
ourselves space to experience 
the devastating reality around 
us? Oh sorry, too late, you 
have a quiz tomorrow. Maybe 
the next time I see a flag at 
half-mast I just won’t Google 
why. 
I don’t have a solution. 
Self-care doesn’t cut it. Self-
care won’t protect us from 
gun violence, police violence, 
forced births, climate change 
and the litany of other issues 
we face every day. It is difficult 
to truly capture the exhaustion 
that comes from waking up 
each day and watching your 
country fail you. Especially 
when you’re one of the people 
who will deal with the reality 
that 
80-year-old 
senators 
leave behind. Some of us may 
respond in different ways, but 
none of us have the chance 
to truly feel our grief and 
concern over the world around 
us. I’ll never forget those who 
have been killed, and I will 
never stop hoping for change. 
However, I can’t promise I’ll 
never stop fighting for it. One 
day, the fatigue of tragedy will 
take me out.

The Fatigue of Tragedy

MADISON CUTLER
Opinion Contributor

A

s college students, none 
of us are strangers 
to high stress levels. 
At some point in our college 
careers, most of us will be faced 
with 5:00 a.m. nights to finish 
essays worth 20% of our grades 
and networking events for which 
we feel not at all prepared. I’m 
convinced that the fact I’ve 
made it this far in college is 
partially due to “winging it” 
and partially due to obsessively 
planning all of my days down to 
the minute.
The fact of the matter is, 
nothing truly prepares us for 
college, and a lot of us end up 
“winging it” just as I have. And 
once we’re in college, we are 
met with the same dilemma 
— college doesn’t equip us for 
the rest of our lives. Our sense 
of agency over our own lives 
could be drastically improved 
if colleges dedicated more time 
to teaching students life skills 
rather than primarily teaching 
students career skills (which is 
another area colleges fall short 
in to begin with). 
A 2021 survey revealed that 
81% of college graduates wish 
they had been taught more life 
skills before graduating. Some of 
the main areas where students 
felt lost were investing money, 
planning long-term financial 
goals, managing student loan 
debt and learning how to budget. 
Outside financial literacy, 
students 
were 
concerned 
about being unable to cook, 
do laundry or reset a Wi-Fi 
router. For issues like those, 
one would think we could turn 
to our parents or guardians for 
assistance. I have been lucky 
enough to have my mom provide 
me with much of the knowledge 
I will need to succeed in life 
outside of my career. However, 
it is ignorant to assume that 
every student has the privilege 
of a safe, comfortable living 
environment with access to 
someone who is knowledgeable 
in all of those areas. Luckily, 
our generation has brought with 
it technology — we have access 
to the internet, which gives us 
access to any knowledge we 
could possibly desire. Even then, 
it would be convenient to have a 
mainstream form of guidance 
provided through our education.
Fortunately, 
progress 
has been made. In the state 
of Michigan, Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer 
recently 
signed 
a 
bill requiring all high schools 
to include a financial literacy 
course in their curriculum, an 
invaluable asset to any student. 
At the University of Michigan we 
actually have a couple resources 
such as a one-credit LSA course 
about financial literacy; the 
Smart 
Borrowing 
initiative, 
which 
includes 
counseling 

about student finances; and 
the National Endowment for 
Financial 
Education, 
which 
offers 
many 
resources 
for 
students to learn about money 
management.
Personally, I did not know 
about any of these resources 
until doing some research for 
this piece. Maybe I did not 
hear about them since I was an 
incoming freshman during the 
“COVID year,” but nevertheless 
it does seem to be a general area 
that students should be made 
more aware of. With the new 
presidency of Santa Ono, we can 
only hope that the change in 
administration will encourage 
this 
much-needed 
shift 
in 
awareness.
With all that said, we would 
hope that we are preparing 
students well for their careers 
since we are not necessarily 
preparing them for some aspects 
of life itself. Unfortunately, 
another survey conducted by 
McGraw Hill Education shows 
that a mere 40% of college 
seniors feel prepared for their 
upcoming life in the workforce. 
Participants reported that they 
wish their colleges would have 
provided more internships and 
professional 
opportunities, 
more career preparation and 
more 
alumni 
networking 
opportunities.
I am lucky enough to be 
in the College of Pharmacy, 
which has only about 100 
undergraduate students, thus 
giving me ample opportunity 
to work in a personalized, 
one-on-one environment with 
instructors who are eager to 
connect 
me 
with 
whatever 
and whoever I need to prepare 
for my career. However, this 
isn’t the case for all colleges 
within the University. If you 
are 
feeling 
estranged 
from 
your administration or your 
future goals, consider smaller 
communities 
within 
the 
University, which will help 
you to accomplish your career 
goals while feeling a sense 
of solidarity with your peers 
— for example, professional 
fraternities.
LSA senior Izzy Steinberg, 
executive director of Wolverine 
Support Network, reports on 
this solidarity phenomena by 

emphasizing “the power of peer 
support and forming genuine 
connections 
on 
campus.” 
There are over 1,400 clubs on 
campus, tens of thousands of 
students and infinite things to 
do in Ann Arbor. With all these 
options comes the opportunity 
to connect with like-minded 
students and superiors, which 
are both crucial to career 
preparation and success. There 
is a world of opportunity 
which we can and should take 
advantage of. 
Change 
and 
indecision 
are undoubtedly scary parts 
of college, but you are not 
alone. Between 20% and 50% 
of college students come in 
undecided and about 75% of 
college students change their 
major at least once before 
graduation. Even though many 
schools allow two years of time 
before declaration of majors, 
any time taken to “explore 
different options” can end up 
feeling like wasted time that 
could have been spent taking 
core requirements. 
Granted, 
some 
majors 
allow more flexibility than 
others. For example, with a 
Communication 
and 
Media 
Major there are 28 credits 
that must be strictly adhered 
to, as opposed to a Bachelor 
of Science in Pharmaceutical 
Sciences, which demands 73 
inflexible 
credits. 
For 
this 
reason, students often rush 
themselves to choose a path 
more quickly than they are 
ready for. The idea of knowing 
exactly what you want to do 
at a young age is flawed — our 
education system should have 
more fluidity, opportunity and 
exploration.
In the grand scheme of 
things, a degree from the 
University is great, but what if 
you don’t know what to do with 
that degree? What if you don’t 
have any interpersonal skills or 
blow through your newfound 
earnings 
within 
a 
couple 
months because you weren’t 
taught financial literacy? Let’s 
do better as an institution and 
as a holistic system in helping 
our students carry their bright 
knowledge out with them with 
self assurance that they can 
and will do great things in life.

ANNA TRUPIANO
Opinion Columnist

Design By Reid Graham

