Hi, freshmen. Welcome to your first year at this crazy institution of higher learning. If you fit the Hopkins mold, as we all do, you’re probably excited and a little terrified to begin.
Classes can seem daunting, the social scene is nothing like high school, campus life is a foreign concept and everyone here is actually like you (happy, smart masochists).
Being happy and smart masochists means that everyone here feels pressure. Some from family, a lot internally and perhaps a new type of pressure, felt because it’s easy to compare yourself to peers and their accomplishments.
When everyone is doing amazing things, your life can seem unremarkable even when it’s not.
This is not unique to Hopkins.It’s a syndrome that plagues most schools like this where it’s hard for people to relax.
You will be tempted to put a foot in every door when you get here: join every club that sparks an interest, go to every party that’s happening, run for every leadership position.
I would never say not to do those things, but balance is key, and as you continue through your four years, cutting back is key too.
I know a few people who have repeated their high schools years in college, becoming a leader in many areas of campus life.
I’m impressed, but I can’t do it. Easing into my old age has made me happier. Actually, tangibly happier.
When I was a freshman, I was involved in maybe six extracurriculars and had a social life that was too much for my 18-year-old self to handle. But I felt like the rat race was necessary. If there were other people that could be so involved and also have fun, I needed to be just as capable.
The thing about Hopkins is that anxiety is contagious.
It’s easy to get caught up in others’ habits and lose sight of the amount of activity that makes you happy. Freshman year is why my belief in doing less exists.
The beginning of sophomore year, I focused on contracting, not expanding.
Those three committees I joined within my sorority? Two of them were dropped. That club that wasn’t related to my goals? Out. The campus job I hated? Bye!
The going out every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night was also shaped into something more manageable.
I kept, obviously, The News-Letter. I was a News & Features Editor sophomore year and I fell in love with the intensity, the drive and the necessity of getting our stories out every week.
The job reaffirmed that I wanted to go into journalism and that was an important part of my current career goal — to be an investigative journalist.
By easing back on other commitments and putting my all into the one I loved, I found what I love in the long term. You can do that too, but it takes strategy and the ability to listen to your gut.
This is hard. Hopkins is full of people who are very good at ignoring their gut.
Freshman year is going to be intense in more ways than one. It feels like you have to get ahead in an environment where it’s impossible to keep up.
You’re going to experience that particular emotion at different points throughout your four years here, but you learn to ignore it as you get older and as you gain confidence in your own accomplishments.
What am I doing now, as a senior? Did I take the advice I’m giving you? Yes. I’m still here at The News-Letter, I am a barista at the Daily Grind in Brody and have an important role in my sorority.
It’s not an easy schedule, but it does mean I’m doing a little less, and I’m very happy that I can do less during my last year here at Hopkins.
There’s enough to do — save my GPA, apply to jobs, eat a vegetable — without needing to worry about keeping up with my peers.
I thrive on pressure and masochism, yes. But I also absolutely do not remember the nights I spent overcome with anxiety about how I measured up to my classmates.
What I do remember, however, are the nights I spent with my best friends. Those nights are all reminders of why I love Hopkins so much.
Stick to the extracurriculars that you’re so passionate about that you could choke up a little. Go out on that one Thursday you can afford a semester. Spend a few hours watching Netflix. Call your parents even if you have homework. Be with your friends.
You can be a masochist throughout your time at Hopkins and fit right in, but you won’t be a happy masochist unless you do a little less.
Take some time for yourself. Resist the urge to compare your achievements to your roommate’s or your classmate’s.
Hopkins is a certifiably insane place. It is a place you have to make work for you.
Freshman, this is your first year here and your first opportunity to do things right.
You might regret bending to the worst of Hopkins pressure, but you’ll never regret stopping to breathe.
