Picture a day just like any other day. The weather is to be desired and people are as apathetic as ever.

Suddenly, for the first time ever, you can’t even remember the class that you’re walking towards. Your feet beat the same familiar path to a building you may not even know the name of. Your eyes sweep the same bleak scenery and somehow the right books have been placed snugly in your backpack.

Drone mentality has seized your mind and suddenly attending college has become a robotic routine. What could be this terrible plague rotting the minds of young adults? Two words: Sophomore Slump (although you do not necessarily have to be a sophomore to suffer such horrors).

This numbness of the mind can affect any individual stuck in one of life’s ruts. The body becomes a machine on a track. Wearing thin the daily trails tread to and from class. Feet always moving but never taking you anywhere. The mind worn down to basic abilities, enough to keep primary processes running.

Stagnation sets in and you feel numb. Stuck in the rut of academia, you feel helpless as your nose is pressed to the grindstone.

A terrible plague, Sophomore Slump can rob students of the desire to learn. It drains the joy of pursuing your interests. Students feel forced into niches. Pushed and prodded into courses that they have no interest in. Grades suffer under the weight of unnecessary electives, causing stress and anxiety.

The slump’s grip is not slack and it is not caring. It throttles the individuality right from students. Luckily for the minds of suffering students, there are ways to beat the slump, but they can’t be done sitting down.

The greatest combatant against the slump is spontaneity. Be expressive in everything you do. If you have a problem, speak up! If you are bored, then make a change!

After three years of studying the same major, I realized that I was unhappy. I had already dug a rut into the major I had wanted to pursue for many years to come. My solution: change majors!

I have found that change is a brilliant way to maintain spontaneity in your daily life. It keeps your routine fresh and helps you to prioritize your interests.

Now, I am not condoning a complete change of everything in your life every time you encounter a bad day. But if your bad days start to run together, step outside yourself and try to see the underlying problem.

Maybe your major just does not have the old spark that it used to. Maybe you are no longer happy at your University. It does not even have to be major changes like switching schools and majors. It could be as simple as reorganizing your room, or maybe splurging with that extra cash on a spontaneous road trip. The basic idea is to keep yourself on your toes so that you are never disappointed with your own life.

There is no medical cure for the slump. And everyone’s slump experience is different so not every tactic will work the same. The key is to explore your options.

Always give yourself as many opportunities as possible. Take a new route on the way to class, stop by the room of an old friend to catch up. Experiment with your wardrobe; and if necessary literally explore the world around you. If it takes a trip across the pond to ease your tensions then by all means, get the processes going to make it happen!

Take an active role in living your life. It’s called living for a reason, because it happens now. It is an action that we as individuals carry out each day. Do not be so apathetic as to give in to the despair of Sophomore Slump. Fight back and take back control of your life.

– Ally writes about mental health every Friday.