Life as a Junior at UNE

As a junior at the University of New England, I find the following statement to be very true; college life is an exciting and challenging experience for most students.

            After attending UNE for the past three years, my opinion of college life has definitely changed. My first two years at UNE were definitely more exciting than the past year has been. It’s most likely because there are so many new experiences to have when first coming to college, such as the first college party or first 3am road trip with friends. However, after the first year or two, there seems to be a lack of firsts. Don’t get me wrong, college life is still fun as a junior, it’s just not nearly as exciting.

            As far as the challenging part of college life goes, I definitely find that my junior year has by far the toughest. As a freshman, I made a ton of new friends at UNE, which was pretty exciting. However, over the years many of my guy friends have ended up transferring out of UNE. It’s tough having them leave, but it’s a pain dealing with mostly girls on campus. As a junior, I miss having my guy friends around and being able to do things with them that my friends who are girls don't really have any interest in. In addition to this, I started off my college career being really involved with clubs and organizations, which was pretty easy since all I had to do was show up to meetings, but, it’s expected that once an upper classman,  it's time to head those clubs and organizations. Well, that’s exactly what happened, I gained leadership roles in numerous clubs, resulting with A LOT of work! In addition to club work, schoolwork has also become more challenging. I can remember being able to finish homework as a freshman in only an hour or two. As a junior, an hour or two of homework is pretty much unheard of. Not to mention the fact that the work has become more and more difficult as the years have passed. What also makes junior year so challenging is that graduation is getting closer and closer. So, it’s necessary to start thinking of “real world life,” after college and what needs to be done to prepare for that. Finding internships, making sure every class required has been taken, and getting goods grades, definitely adds to the challenge of junior year. So, it’s definitely reasonable to say that college life is definitely more challenging as a junior.