“College” to a sophomore is condensed into a tiny, yet ever-present intention shoved to the back of the mind. Tiny because it seems too far down the road to even bother with it, and ever-present because of its persistent pounding in your head whenever you hear about that classmate who just won a national piano competition or your lab partner who is going to be interning with a Stanford chemistry professor over the summer.

 

For the ambitious (and I mean wealthy) student, private college counselor meetings and community service opportunities are already on the calendar. But the reality is that most sophomores are completely clueless in the face of something as daunting as college applications. Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed when even Club Day, a fun event intended for discovering people with similar interests, is filled with screams of “join our club, it’s good for college”?

 

However, it’s not like we are completely ignorant of the fact that college is upcoming and important. Far from it. College constantly puppeteers our choices, from influencing us to choose computer programming over interior design or that sleep-depriving Honors math class over the much better-suited regular class.

 

So we continue to make sacrifice over sacrifice to feed this perpetual idea of achievement. Yet at the same time, we really don’t know much about college or its process. We think about it (sometimes obsessively), but it’s the sheer massiveness of the internet along with a nasty habit of procrastination that keeps us from seeking out what we need. And the constant mentioning of who got into what “Top 20” school is a bit of a turn-off, too.

 

Being a sophomore is like being a tween all over again. You’re stuck in that awkward phase where you kind of just have to idly sit and wait until you grow into yourself — or in this case, until you’re a junior. Because it’s not freshman year, where we have an excuse to push responsibilities aside. And it’s not junior year, where all of those stress-inducing tests and pesky deadlines are just way too close to ignore.

 

Sophomore year is the gray area. Free from obligations, yet also not so free at all. It’s implied that we have to do something to fill this vacancy, but what? And where do we even start? Should we start by asking about the differences between the SAT and ACT or how many AP classes we should take? Or are these stupid and obsessive questions?

 

As of now, only a small percentage of sophomores are privy to this information. And whether you receive this information is oftentimes dependent on how involved in the Parent Teacher Association your parents are or how many connections they have. But those seemingly put-together students aren’t representative of the whole grade. It may not seem so, but it is normal to be struggling. Most of us are.

 

Maybe the school administration feels like exposing us to too many details at a time too soon would overload us with stress in this age of harsh expectations. Yes, repeatedly drilling the word “college” into our tired ears doesn’t help. But some concrete information would (since not all of us have parents that hand us a detailed plan of our entire summer).

 

Knowledge shouldn’t be restricted to a lucky few. And if everyone could have this knowledge, maybe we wouldn’t feel so suffocated by the unknown. And maybe we would be able to breathe again.