Is there a ‘sophomore-itis’?

By Braedon Martin
Staff Writer

Many high school graduates have experienced the phenomenon called “senioritis”, a decline in motivation or performance in the last year of high school or college.

So it stands to ask, do students at Hutchinson Community College experience something similar, despite only attending a two-year community college? A kind of “sophomore-itis”?

“I know what I want to do, and I feel semi-confident, but at the same time I’m doubting every single plan I’ve ever made and questioning whether or not this is truly the right path for me,” said Allison Bomgardner, a Hutchinson sophomore. “I’m taking it semester by semester and one day I’ll be out of time and I’ll have to face everything I’ve ignored until that point.”

This seems to be backed up by Hutchinson freshman Ryker Douglas, who finds himself in a similar, though uniquely different, situation.

“I’m not any less confident in my career path, as far as I don’t know if I can do it, but I am less confident in the sense that chemistry is a very tied together field and there’s a multitude of things I could do that I have to take similar classes for,”Douglas said. “I’m confident in the direction I’m moving in, but not my end goal.”

While Douglas has only been at HutchCC for a year, his high school classes and class load for the past year have been enough for him to finish his two-year education in one, leaving him ready to transfer come the end of the year.

It seems students are facing less “sophomore-itis” and more a general sense of dread, questioning if they are truly ready for what comes next.

However, there will always be students who are more than ready to finish their education and get into “true” adulthood. Hutchinson sophomore Red Bridges is one such student.

“I’m so excited to graduate purely because I’m so incredibly tired of schoolwork, sitting through classes that are teaching me nothing, and spending all this time dedicated to busy work instead of anything productive or remotely helpful.” Bridges said. “I’m mentally calling it the state of ‘My brain is full of metal and there’s a magnet in the middle of the earth.’”

It seems that even through the rigorous class schedule of college, and targeted learning to one’s career path, student’s can still feel anxiety towards their decisions, unsure if they’ve made the right decision, and whether or not there is still time to perhaps change paths, despite all the time and money they’ve already put forward to get to where they are.

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