Howdy to all of you sophomores!

Welcome back to school (a month in)!! How does it feel? From what I have heard from my friends, this semester has been nothing but BUSY. I completely concur with that statement. All I have been doing is studying, doing my extra-curricular activities, studying some more, and sleeping. In a way, I did bring it all on myself. At the same time, I know some things that I am doing this semester are just absolutely ridiculous when it comes to classes and other things. You know what I mean? I keep trying to remind myself that I have to do the dirty work to have the fun. I am not really digging the dirty work though… see what I did there?

Anyways, I was walking to the library today and a thought popped into my mind. I was passing a few freshmen holding onto their lanyards with the proxies attached. They were walking confidently, but almost to the point of being to cool for school. Are we too babied as freshmen or even in general when hitting college? Think about it. Most of us by the time we reach college are 18 years of age. That is 18 years that we have witnessed and experienced life. Is that not enough time to really be independent without some extra nurturing? Of course you could say that it depends on how the person was raised, but is it necessary to have certain skills acquired by the time we hit freshmen year of college that some do not currently have? I know when I was a freshmen, I was ready to fly the coop having been the baby of the family. Therefore, I made sure that I went to ask somebody for help, self-advocating, rather than just slumping around not knowing where to start. For others this did not ring true. If they did not have the drive to really figure out a specific issue, they would not even try to solve it. Either way, my freshmen year was successful because I was open-minded and willing to try new things. Do some of you now as sophomores regret not having tried more as a freshmen or even younger in general? I know I have missed some opportunities.  I feel like there is some need to motivate students, going into a school where they may know a lot of people from high school, to meet new people and get out of their comfort zones. The same things I have seen occur at CU, too. Maybe it is a large state school thing? We gravitate towards our comfort zone when college is the time to expand and break free from it.

I bring this up because I am studying abroad next fall. I think it’s so important to travel and experience the world. It builds your confidence, your understanding of the world, and simply makes you grow as a person. My teacher for my film class agrees with me in this sense. He even mentioned that he is flying to Switzerland for a week starting on Sunday to see a film festival. Who does that?! What a champ, in my opinion.

I challenge you all this week to try something that is out of your comfort zone. It can be little or large. There are people who are currently standing in the plaza holding signs for “free hugs”. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for one! It’s college. For some reason, I have recently felt like I am back in high school because I’ll get weird looks or feel like I am at least. I then remind myself that NOBODY CARES. Well, the mature people don’t care. You’re bound to find those immature people who clearly have not left high school, but don’t let them make you feel inferior. So once again, try something you wouldn’t usually do. You may like it or you may not. Either way you learned something. You won’t learn anything unless you try!

Much love to you all!

~ Chand