Feel like a fourth year student

A friend of mine keeps joking that Hopkins has three freshman classes this year. And while I don’t want to shed any light on the grave loss we’ve all suffered in our upbringing (and other areas of life), he’s not entirely wrong. There are the juniors, who saw their first year cut short; sophomores, some of whom were here last semester but many of whom are now on campus for the first time; and then there are the legitimate freshmen (welcome!).

But I would say that maybe there is four freshman classes this year, or at the very least three classes plus me (but I think there are probably other seniors who are feeling the same).

My route from my off-campus apartment in Gilman, where most of my classes are located, takes me into campus through the tennis courts, then through the Freshman Quad. I pass right by the AMRs, where I lived just three years ago, and I have lots of fond memories (to the one who lives in my old room, 255, I hope you will too). Then, coming back from class, I sometimes feel the instinct to go through the turnstiles and head for the Griffin gate.

However, it’s not just muscle memory and nostalgia that makes me feel a bit like a freshman. The first week of class seemed like a lightning (re) introduction to the university experience that I hadn’t had for over a year and a half. After nearly three semesters of mind testing on Zoom, the in-person classes are fun and engaging, but they are also very exhausting. I’m thinking harder than I’ve done in… a while – which is probably fine, but also difficult, and that’s only exacerbated by being in a stuffy, windowless Gilman room where I have to make an effort to hear people through their masks.

Aside from my walk to Gilman, I wondered what was the best route to get from point A to point B around campus – I know where things are, but I can’t remember all of them. ins and outs, shortcuts, paths less traveled than the others when everyone walks between classes, especially since Mattin is no longer a passageway. And I guess I forgot how to read during summer vacation (it happens every year, to be honest) because, boy, did I underestimate how long my homework would take me last weekend? . And none of this is crazy. These are just things to adjust to, a lot of the same things I had to adjust in my first year.

In some ways, however, the novelty and the recalibration has been a really good thing. I am directing a play for a student theater group for the first time, which I don’t know I would have done if the pandemic hadn’t happened and changed all my old habits and obligations . Maybe I was too stuck in what was familiar to me to try directing.

The last time I wasn’t an editor for The News-Letter was my freshman year, and while I loved my two years as an editor, I’m excited to step back and just be a writer (and I know the journal is in good hands with the team of editors this year). I never had that in first year; I was a copy reader, and didn’t start writing until after I became an editor, so writing always felt like something I did in addition to my primary responsibilities as an editor. It’s good to change focus.

Again, I don’t want to use my metaphorical freshman status to trivialize or shed light on what the pandemic has taken away from us, nor do I want freshmen, sophomores, or juniors feel bad or love their experiences as students of Hopkins. insufficient because they have not yet had a full year in person. It’s weird to get back to normal, especially when it’s still a pretty weird and scary “normal” that we’re moving into. It’s just the funniest, most positive angle I can think of looking at him through.

And in many ways, I actually wish the other seniors and I would start over as freshmen, that we have four clean years here ahead of us. I haven’t really figured out that I’m an elderly person yet. I don’t know how to put together all that we missed during the pandemic in just one year or, really, how to accept that we don’t make this time back.

But for now, one last glimmer of hope: As I meet new people again in my classes and clubs, this newness and adjustment that we all go through – no matter what year we are – m seemed an equalizer and a relief. It’s not just me. It’s not just you. Were all a little lost.

Sophia Lola is a senior from Brooklyn, NY, specializing in writing seminars. His column explores personal development, whether it’s an inch or a mile at a time.