Class of 2014: Freshman Blog

Most high school students know that, come summertime, their schedules completely open up.  What a relaxing time compared to their 8:30AM-3:00PM high school class schedules, right?  Now that I’m a college student, summertime hasn’t become any less relaxing for me; the difference is that my school year has become so much more relaxing, that the dividing line between school and summer is quickly becoming imperceptible to me.

Something that most first-year college students find incredible is the amount of free time that is available to them on a normal weekday.  Sure, they have class for the occasional 3-4 hours, but it’s nothing compared to high school’s grueling seven-hour-straight workday.

JHU_Lucie’s first semester at Hopkins: I took five courses. Three days a week, I only had two short classes.

JHU_Lucie’s second semester at Hopkins:  I also took five courses.  My classes were a bit more spread out than they were first semester.  Occasionally, I’d only have class for a mere two and a half hours a day!

Here's my schedule for next semester

And here I am, going into my first semester of sophomore year, and I think I’ve finally got it right.  Since I came into Hopkins with a few AP credits, I can afford to take four classes next semester.  Three out of five days a week, I have class for less than two hours.  Two of those days, I only have one class! And, get this: I’ve learned how to make my course schedule fit with my body’s schedule.  I am a huge night owl (most days of the week, I don’t go to sleep until about 2 or 3AM).  I know that I have a hard time functioning early in the morning.  Therefore, the earliest class that I signed up for starts at 10:30AM, and I’m not taking any nighttime courses since I have A cappella rehearsals at night (and also, I hate to miss my weekly Stressbusters on Monday nights!).

Being home for summer definitely feels different—living in a house is nothing like living in a college dorm, NY is nothing like Baltimore, and, of course, I miss all of my crazy friends from Hopkins.  What’s not too different, though, is the amount of stress that I have.  Check out this line-graph displaying the difference in my stress in high school vs. college (not really sure what the stress-scale is measured in…)

My stress chart (click to enlarge)

Notice how in high school, my stress-level fluctuated like a rollercoaster!  Hopkins has given me the ability to ‘HOP’ off of that rollercoaster.

Summer is no longer a quickly-fleeting, long-awaited fairytale.  In fact, Hopkins is becoming that quickly-fleeting, long-awaited fairytale.  In fact, I’ve done the calculations, and I’m actually working more hours over the summer at my internship than I would be spending in class if I were at school!  I can’t wait to get back.