The start of a new academic year can be exciting. After three long summer months, you are finally reunited with your best friends at the best school in the world. You have new professors and classes, providing you with extensive learning opportunities and knowledge. There are hundreds of fresh faces on campus, creating a plethora of new people to meet. The energy is unmatched as campus is buzzing with euphoria, and everyone seems happy to be here.
There is so much excitement, so much to look forward to. Yet something feels off.
Maybe you feel like something is missing or feel scatterbrained, or maybe you just have no idea what’s going on, even though you are returning for another year. This feeling is what I like to call a funk: a feeling of being all over the place, frazzled, unsettled or flustered.
I am in a state of funk every time I return to Chapel Hill in August. This has nothing to do with my love of UNC because, believe me, I am a Tar Heel until I die. It instead has to do with change, transition and adjustment.
Adjusting back into college mode can be an overwhelming experience, even if you’ve been counting down the days to get back. The second I step onto campus, everything I seemingly forgot about over the summer comes rushing back to me — the academic stress from classes, the pressure to find a real job and the feeling that I must use every free second I have to get ahead.
At UNC, we are held to a high standard, and it can be difficult to lean back into the grind after three months of freedom. We are obligated to figure out how to fit social obligations, free time, food prep and other responsibilities into our already packed academic schedule. You go from feeling like you have a few things on your to-do list to about a gazillion in just one week.
Aside from adjusting to change in schedules and lifestyle, a funk can also arise by comparing your current college experience to the year before. Maybe last year was perfect and this year is not meeting your expectations, leaving you disappointed.
If you are feeling this way, you are not alone. I was in a serious funk at the start of my sophomore year. I had an amazing first year and was genuinely confused as to why I was experiencing feelings of chaos and anxiety in a place that I loved so much. I was not aware I was in a funk because I had never heard anyone else voicing these feelings.
If you are in a funk, it helps to adjust your expectations and mindset. Instead of comparing last year to this year, aim to start the new year with zero expectations. Just because something was a certain way last year does not guarantee that it will be the same this year. Instead, embrace the new opportunities that will present themselves in the near future.
