Expectations vs. Reality: Spring Semester

The best part about spring semester is that you have a chance to not make the same mistakes you did in the fall. After an agonizing finals period and (hopefully) restful break, most people return with delusions of grandeur about their new semester. Whether it’s a personal transformation, academic comeback, or improved relationship status that you seek, there’s a certain expectation that spring will be your time to shine.

But it’s easy to find yourself a victim of your own unrealistic expectations — a realization that strikes many Harvard students in their first few weeks back on campus.

Expectation: The workload shouldn’t be bad!

More than a month away from school has a way of making your memories of all nighters and mental breakdowns a little hazier — and therefore a lot more palatable. The first week of school should really only be syllabus overview and introductions, and anything difficult really won’t start until midterms.

Reality: It’s worse than you remember!

That same month of healing and restoration will come back to bite you when (somehow) you forget how to lock in for more than twenty minutes without a social media break. Even if you are at peak performance, you can’t fight the fact that your professors have all been told that their classes were too close to being gems and are now going above and beyond to disprove that. I never thought I would wish for more icebreakers, but it feels like we’re on week seven of content on day two of class.

Expectation: You will manage your time better.

A color coded Gcal makes you basically invincible. With time blocked out for studying, eating, and breathing, there’s no way to lose track of time. Even if you added a fifth class and two new clubs, I think we all learned from last semester, and we’re sure to have a very straightforward week of going to and from our classes without a hitch.

Reality: You actually have less of it?

Maybe it’s the lack of daylight, but I swear the 24-hour cycle doesn’t apply to Harvard. Even the most meticulous schedulers have managed to double book meetings or to give themselves 15 minutes to get from the Quad to the Science and Engineering Complex. And of course it’s only bound to get better from here, because comp hasn’t started and neither have most sections.

Expectation: The weather will be fine!

This one is exclusively for those of us who don’t come from cold climates. Of course, I knew it would be colder than when we left, but it’s hard to worry about the chill of winter when you’re getting sunburned in Miami or L.A. I thought that as long as I wore my puffer and scarf, I would be totally fine.

Reality: Cambridge or Antarctica?

It turns out that somehow the wind can chill you even through a Canada Goose. If the temperature alone wasn’t bad enough, the ice on the ground is downright hazardous. It’s not simply unpleasant to leave your dorm — it’s treacherous.

Expectation: I’ll be more social this semester.

Whether “being social” means going to MIT from Thursday through Saturday or just leaving your dorm in general, most people hope to find more time for friends, and the first week of spring seems like the perfect time to do just that. With all the free time you (should have) had, and super light workload, this should be the best time to be a social butterfly.

Reality: Friends??

The very concept of having friends feels far-fetched. Everyone seems to be on the same page about barely having time for themselves, let alone a packed social calendar. In these first two weeks alone, seeing a moderately full dhall has made me sigh, and I’ve already realized that I’ll have to be in bed by 9 p.m. on Saturdays if I want to have a hope of finishing my 1000 pages of unintelligible readings.

Well, it’s still too soon to write off spring as a disaster. Even if your first two weeks weren’t great, there are still eleven more potential comebacks to make. And if it doesn’t work out — at least you’ll find solidarity with everyone else who thought spring would be so different from fall.