Freshmen tend to experience a wide range of emotions during their first semester. Happiness, sadness, excitement and depression all contribute to the rollercoaster ride that is freshman year.

Grades are even more varied. Some people did very well across the board. Others, unfortunately, did rather poorly. Many more fell into the foggy gray area that we call average. Despite it all, most of us have made it through in one piece, and are still around to experience the beginning of the second semester.

Most of us freshman have not had any classes since mid-December. All of that time allows a lot of rust to accumulate. It’s amazing how three months of class can escape your mind in half that time, but it seems to happen any.

So, after a nice break, we are confronted with classes and professors that expect us to know the material from the previous semester, but we do not. Many of us, expecting to have a handle of things going into our second semester, are even more lost than we were before.

Some of us had winter classes, which would be expected to provide a bit of an advantage going into the new semester. Let me be the first to tell you that it did not. New material is still new material, there is not getting around it.

Then there is the fact that we take more classes in the spring, while we only take one in the winter. For every other class, the rust is just the same, and perhaps even more so. For not only did we have the effect of not taking the class, we had the added problem of the super compacted class pushing all of the other information out.

Ultimately, even though it’s a new semester with a new schedule, we all have to look at it the same way. Classes are still difficult, there is still a lot of work to be done, and there is even a lot of fun still to be had.

So enjoy making new friends and doing new things, but be sure to memorize your new schedule soon. Because, if the first week is any sign, this semester will be very much like the last one, which means there is no time for messing around.