Difficulties of Junior Year at ONU

I am currently in the second semester of my junior year here at Ohio Northern University and I can easily say that it has been one of the hardest semesters of classes I have ever taken. Back when I was in high school everyone always told me that the junior year of high school was the hardest year I would face and it is definitely coming true for college as well. There isn’t just one factor that makes this school year any harder than previous one, it’s a series of factors that seem to compound on each other making things harder and harder every time a factor is added into the mix. Some of the difficulties I have been facing are a matter of the course material actually being difficult, but others seem to stem from poor time management and lack of motivation. The junior year of college is typically when you start taking classes that actually count towards your major so it is imperative that I overcome the difficulties I have been experiencing and finish out the rest of my time here at Ohio Northern University strong.

There are several contributing aspects that have made my classes considerably harder this year than in previous years. The most obvious one being the workload I have taken on with six classes. This is the most classes I have ever taken in a single semester and it has required a decent amount of adjustment in my day to day life and studying habits. Before I would only take four or five classes a semester, but my advisor told me that if I kept this up I would be stuck here for another semester or possibly an entire extra year. Another reason my classes have been much harder this semester is the number of projects I have had outside of class. It seems like I have some sort of project in every class and it is hard to find time throughout the week to work on all of them. These projects are much more intensive than typical homework assignments and require a large portion of time to complete.

Aside from my classes physically being harder than any other ones I have taken in the past, there are several personal dilemmas I have been facing this semester. The first being my severe lack of motivation to keep working on homework assignments and projects. The closest thing I could compare this lack of motivation to is the feeling of senioritis many high school and college seniors experience. Senioritis can simply be defined as a total lack of motivation during your senior year of school and is caused by anticipation of graduation and moving on to the next phase in your life. The only difference in the feeling I am experiencing and senioritis is I am not anticipating graduation, I am anticipating summer vacation. I actually enjoy my time in college quite a bit, but I am definitely ready for a long break away from Ohio Northern and the town of Ada.