After what felt like the longest four months of my life, the first semester of my sophomore year is finally over. I never paid much attention when people talked of a “sophomore slump.” I didn’t think it really existed, or if it did, that it would ever apply to me.

I returned to Charleston at the beginning of this semester ready to have another exciting year. It's not that my freshman year was easy, but there was always something new to experience. As a sophomore, nothing is new anymore. You’ve already had the excitement of your first college parties, and going out doesn’t have the same appeal as it did when everything was new and you were constantly meeting people. You’re no longer the cool, interesting new freshman that people want to know -- now, there’s a whole new grade of kids who are more intriguing and fresher than you.

After this semester, I can definitely say that the sophomore slump is absolutely real. I spent a lot of my time searching for ways to stay motivated, to keep the place I’ve already lived in for a year exciting and new. Most of the time, I just wanted to leave. The social scene that used to be fun and new quickly turned exhausting. I grew apart from many people who were major parts of my life freshman year. I thought seriously about transferring for awhile.

But, I realized that I can’t just leave and expect things to be great somewhere else. New places eventually become old, and it’s up to me to find the excitement, to breathe life into my own. It’s a combination of restlessness, of disappointment and of change. But I’m trying to view it as the signal of new things to come. I’ve never been a person that does well with change, but in this case, it is necessary and good.