The build-up to the first day of school is always something that causes excitement – it’s like a reset button for our lives. After a long summer, we walk onto campus feeling like a new person, arriving early to class, looking our best, and feeling our best. This year, we believe we will have it together. We promise ourselves to wake up earlier, get to class on time, actually use the library, and maybe even hit the gym before our lecture. It’s a familiar pattern – the annual tradition of becoming the “best version” of ourselves, at least for a little while.
The first day of school carries a unique kind of optimism. Coffee shops buzz with students eager to be productive, the gym is full of unfamiliar faces, and even the library hears chattering from the places that are supposed to be silent. These are the realities of the firsts of the school year. People are motivated and excited to “change” themselves now that summer’s over. These realities are short-lived. Excitement slowly fades as the “first” day (or week) turns into the “second”, “third”, and so on. New habits begin to slip, and resolutions are quietly replaced by our old routines.
This year, we took a look at what happens after students’ first week glow fades, and how long the “new school year, new me” energy really lasts.
It is easy to differentiate the first weeks of school from the rest. During the first few weeks, the campus feels alive with possibility. Students are everywhere, crowding the gym, forming long lines through the Duck Store, and wearing new outfits to look their absolute best.
Sierra Winchester, a fourth-year student, notices the shift right away. “The REC is unobtainable,” she says, “If you don’t want to be working out for at least two hours, you have to get a different gym membership.” She explains the dramatic reality that reoccurs every time a new year starts – this is her fourth time witnessing these patterns. “Outfits as well. People care a lot more about what they look like in the first month,” Sierra adds.
It’s true – the first week seems to inspire some kind of performance. There’s an unspoken competition to look productive, to look changed and to look like you’ve evolved over the summer. But quickly into the school year, this new energy starts to leave. The gym empties out, planners that were once color-coded now sit at the bottom of backpacks, and the sweatpants-hoodie combination becomes the new uniform for classes.
Mia Chitica, a third-year student at the University of Oregon, works at the Rec Center and sees this change every year. “After the first couple of weeks, it seems like everyone is over the hype of getting back into fitness,” she says. “Week six or seven, when it all piles up.” Midterms hit, routines blur, and the optimism of the first week turns into survival mode.
For many students, this drop-off isn’t about motivation, but a result of everything else that piles up. As the semester picks up, students’ energy gets redirected towards “surviving” rather than improving. Julian Rameriez-Sanchez, a sophomore member of the Filipino club, has noticed this pattern firsthand. “By midterms, the first half is getting used to the feeling of pressure under you,” he says. “But during midterms, you have all that pressure with the end in sight, so I want to push forward – which stresses me out.”
He’s seen the same patterns play out in his club. “In the Filipino Club, we’ve had a high attendance,” Julian says. “The next week, a few less, but still high. It’s nice to see more freshmen coming out and actually participating on campus.” The early enthusiasm fades across the board – not only in clubs, but in classrooms too. Professors and other students often report full rooms in the first two weeks, followed by empty rows by week four. It’s not always a lack of care, but just a shift in stamina.
As motivation from the first weeks is buried under the reality of exams, projects, late nights, and balancing student life, the campus becomes quieter and old routines set in. The spark that was once a resolution, dims after the first few weeks are over.
But this gets me thinking, maybe school-year resolutions aren’t supposed to last the whole year. Maybe they are just a tool – a small burst of optimism that helps us ease back into the rhythm of things. Because even if our motivation doesn’t last past midterms, we know that the desire to start fresh always returns with the next first day.
