Why junior year is the most important


College is such an important time in your life, in terms of your career and personal development and general life; however, each year plays a different role. For example, as a freshman, your focus is on learning how to use your newfound independence and getting to grips with college life. By the end of your first year, you will feel as though you’ve got it all figured out, but then by the start of your next year, you’ll realize just how wrong you were!

What if?

Junior year is the time when you start to think about all the decisions you’ve made up to this point. You wonder what it is that you want in life and try to desperately join the dots from where you are now, to where you want to be. You look at your majors and minors and wonder just how they are going to help you get that dream job, and even if the ream job you started wanting when you applied to college is the same one now.

It’s okay to be unsure

Although at first, you may feel as though you are in the wrong for being so unsure about your future, once you tentatively mention it to a friend or two, you will realize that; actually, it’s perfectly normal. Not only that, but it’s completely okay! If you were not at all unsure about your future, you would be abnormal. We are also nervous about things we don’t know, especially when it comes to the future, so it is only right that at this point in your college career, when you are halfway through your junior year, that this fear hits you suddenly.

You work towards your goals

This is the year that you realize that your degree alone is just not enough. You look around at your classes at all of these other people who are going to end up with the same exact qualification as you and wonder just how you are going to get a job. This is when you start joining clubs, and extracurriculars. You join the school newspaper, learn skills in your own time, start networking as if your life depends on it, which is almost does in a way.

Applying for internships

Junior year is the time when you should be applying for internships, and you will spend many nights just staring critically at your resume. You’ll put together a portfolio and attend so many interviews that you will lose count. But then you’ll land an amazing internship and vow that you will work harder at this than you have ever worked at anything.

Fantasy

When you are a freshman, graduation is so far away it doesn’t even get considered. However, when you are in your junior year, things are getting real, and you will start to fantasize about your new adult life. You’ll think about spending every day in your dream job, and coming home to a loving partner and/or a whole load of cats or dogs, and progressing up that career ladder. This thought will thrill you as much as the idea of a weekend in PJs with Netflix and snacks used to.
Junior year is the most important, but it will also be one of the most exciting years too. Bring it on!

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