OPINION: The question every junior is tired of answering

By Olivia Puppolo

There’s a moment that happens during every long weekend and holiday at home. The conversation of “So…where are you working this summer?”

A question asked so casually by our moms, dads, aunts, cousins…but for many college juniors, it doesn’t feel casual at all. It feels like a question that is supposed to have one right answer, one that is supposed to sound confident, impressive, and fully figured out. 

Being a junior in college comes with an unspoken shift. Suddenly, the conversations change, and it’s no longer just “How are classes?” or “How’s school?” But now it becomes, “Do you have an internship?” “What do you want to do with your life?” These questions come from everyone around us, our family, friends, and even people we barely know. And they all expect the same thing… certainty. 

However, the problem is that most of us don’t have it all figured out. 

I feel like there’s this assumption that by junior year, everything should be figured out, that we should have a clear career path, relevant experience, and a neatly thought-out plan for the future.

For a lot of students, that’s just not the reality. Instead, junior year feels like this weird in-between space where we are close enough to graduation that expectations are high, but clarity is still low. 

Part of what makes this pressure so overwhelming is the constant comparison that comes with it. It’s not just about the questions we are being asked back at home, but it’s also seeing peers post internships on LinkedIn or hearing them talk about their plans like they already have everything figured out. Even when no one says it directly, it can feel like everyone else is ahead. 

“I feel like every conversation turns into a check-in on my future,” said Isabella Pereira ‘27.

Max Bishop also described a similar experience. 

“I’ll be home for one day, and someone asks what I’m doing for graduation,” said Bishop ‘27. “I’m like, I haven’t even figured out next week.”

And that’s the part that gets overlooked. We are asked to be able to clearly define our futures while still trying to be in the present. We are expected to have answers to questions that we’re still actively trying to figure out. 

For many students, it’s not that we are unmotivated or unprepared; it’s that we are in the middle of a process, and that process can be messy. 

What makes this pressure even more complicated is that it often comes from a good place. People ask because they care, and because they want to see us succeed. But at a certain point, those questions stop feeling like small talk and more like expectations.

Maybe the issue isn’t that we don’t have answers yet, it’s that we’re expected to have them too soon. 

“It feels like everyone expects a clear answer,” said Pereira ‘27. “When in reality, most of us are still trying to figure things out.”