For my fellow classmates, we are now entering our third week of the new school year. You’d think everything changes. Everything gets better. Everything will be easier from here on out. That’s an optimistic standpoint. Now, I am all for optimism — the world would suck without optimists -- but these good-hearted people are missing some things as well. For example, not everything changes. My three weeks of this year are pretty much the same as last year. Keep reading for more information. The excitement for the new term is on. You move into your dorm. You meet your suite-mates. All is good. This isn’t much different than it was when college first began.

“Things will get better,” the light hearts say. Well, I say it depends. It depends on what the situation is. Since you’ve completed one year of college, you can say you have a general idea of where your classes are even if you’ve never walked past that particular room before. You understand that the dining hall has a system: the food is sometimes good. The food is sometimes bad. There could be consistencies of good or bad, but you don’t know until you taste the food. The best food is usually for an event and shouldn’t be a habit to get used to. You know how dorm life will go. Because of this, time outside of the classroom could be a vast improvement. Unless you’re roomed with a bunch of random people who you don’t know or don’t like. Then you’re screwed again if it didn’t work out last time. Not everyone experiences this, but it can be a common pattern to see on campus. It’s bound to happen to – if not you —someone you know or had a pleasant discussion with at some point.

Let’s see. What else? Classes, food, dorm life, I think I covered the basic ideas. I could go into further detail with each of these, but that probably better for another article. When people say things will be easier from here on out, may be forgetting technological problems, early morning classes, and the overall stress to perform well to succeed in classes. In that case, it’s more like you’re more accustomed to the fact that the good times don’t last forever. During Freshman year, it was an extreme wake-up call. The television shows and movies on college life lied. There will be struggle. The pressure is on.

“What destroyed my school spirit?” Nothing. In fact, my first three weeks of my sophomore year have been ok. That’s it. Not great. Not terrible. There’s room for improvement, but everything is solid right now. I have no heavy complaints…for now. My classes are swell. The rush of new knowledge and schedule after a 3-month summer vacation of reading, eating and sleeping as much as I want and of my own accord has overwhelmed me, so I’m admittingly a bit on edge. Does it show? The food hasn’t been terrible. I’ll put it that way. There are tasty days and alright days, but absolutely nothing that has me questioning humanity, so that’s a bonus actually. Dorm life is good. Living conditions feel exactly the same. I don’t expect any drastic change positive or negative until midterms and again at finals when we all tend to break out of character. Come on, admit it. You know, it’s true.

“Am I a pessimist?” No. “Well, you sure as hell don’t seem like an optimistic.” Well, I was one at some point before I was introduced to life. I, dear reader, am a realist. I may have tap danced on the dreams of any high hopes for a bigger, brighter year of college, but that’s just it. I didn’t. For starters, if I wanted to crush dreams, I wouldn’t tap dance to do it. I can’t dance in any way, shape, or form. Second, I don’t intentionally crush dreams. If I have, I’m sincerely sorry. Thirdly, I just expressed what can be thought of during the first three weeks of the new semester. This holds no weight to what can happen the rest of the year. It hasn’t even been a month yet. To me, being a realist means acknowledges the happy, valid points that life has to offer. While they may seem naïve occasionally, they can be exactly what you want to hear when life gets wonky. It doesn’t mean I go around thinking the world can crap out rainbows that can fix the issues the universe has. Not by a long shot. A realist thinks rationally incorporating both aspects from an optimist and a pessimistic. Balance is important after all. That’s one of the main concepts of college.