Junior year of college has been one of the least fun years of my college career.

I'm so far from being a freshman but also not close enough to graduation. It's the awkward phase of being past being a doe-eyed freshman but not close enough to holding that diploma in my hand. It has also been a weird time for me and my friends being busy with school, work and life, and we barely had time to see each other.

The fall semester has been the worst semester of all of college.

It was the first time I ever had a grade that I was not proud of. Thankfully, it was only in one course and I knew my grade would not be satisfactory from the beginning of the year. However, I did not try to withdraw from the class because I was determined to not give up. I should've just withdrawn and taken the class at a later date but I didn't and there isn't much for me to do except retake the class.

This year has felt like having a case of senioritis except it's not even my senior year yet.

So, I prefer to use the term junior slump.

Last semester was not only hard for me but for a lot of my friends too, which is comforting to know that it wasn't just me and that I'm not alone. The consensus from many of the college students I talked to, regardless of what year they are: last year was hard. The only way to improve past mistakes is to focus on the future and not doing what you did wrong the last time.

This week marked the beginning of the second semester of my junior year. So far, everything is going well.

I definitely need to hold myself more accountable for doing my work on time and not procrastinating. Every semester I try to make the goal of not procrastinating but I never accomplish it. This semester, I'm taking the initiative to be ahead of the game and not only do my work on time but also doing my work ahead of time.

I also need to seek academic help if I feel that I'm struggling in one of my classes. And need to work on time management. It's possible to do well in school while also still finding time to hang out with friends and family and just do fun activities. In order to maximize my time management, I definitely will have to stop procrastinating.

The only way to beat the junior slump is to reclaim my goals.

The reason I attended college was to pursue a degree in Broadcast Journalism. College prepares you for the real world and if I think college is tough to balance, then I'm going to need a reality check once I graduate.

I have to learn and utilize these skills in order to have a successful career in the future. I'm going to go into this semester with the mentality that this will be my best semester at USC and that is how I will approach my last two semesters next year!

Good luck this semester students!