^Good to know there is a diagnosis 
Son was buried in work, had two shows back to back, and was pretty burnt out by the end of this semester.
Itās not necessarily being ābored to deathāā¦how my class and I experienced it was that freshman year takes a lot out of you, literally: Youāre being trained out of all your old bad habits and how to identify what is actual mastery of the craft. By sophomore year, then, you come in with an idea of what not to do, and with an idea of what you should be shooting for, but how to get yourself from Step 1 to Finished Product is a little unclear. This year was a lot of āI donāt know what Iām doingā or āI donāt know why I canāt do good work without my professors helping meā or āAm I even good at this?ā or āWhy do I feel like Iām going backwards?ā At least in my program, as well, sophomore year is when you finally understand what you have to really WORK on after freshman year has reset you to a clean slate. For me, this was a year of throwing a LOT of stuff at the wall and seeing what stuckā¦and a lot of it didnāt. It took me the better part of the year to develop a process in my craft that works for ME and has me using the resources that my school and my faculty provides most efficiently.
The sophomore slump can also be deceptiveāI thought I had pulled myself out of it by the start of spring semester, but alasāa few weeks in and I knew I was just as lost! Luckily, I feel really secure in my work now, and I know I have truly conquered the slump! In retrospect, I think thereās a lot of pressure students can put on themselves in sophomore year: theyāre not the newbies of the program, theyāre expected to step up and show up, and that can make it really easy to be hard on oneself and to think āIām not improving fast enoughā or whatever. Thereās a real impulse to look sideways instead of forward and start comparing yourself to others. But if you can keep a clear, cool head, and start to know yourself (I believe that freshman year is about finding yourself, and sophomore year is about accepting that person) and celebrate your strengths as well as your weaknesses, not compared to someone else but all on their own (as hokey as that sounds)ā¦youāll make it through.
@CanadianMTgirl - what a great post!
At the holiday break - my D looked me in the eye and said āMom, the sophomore slump is REAL.ā And, while sheās glad to have it behind her (except for a few more finals) and is excited for next year - when it was pointed out to her this weekend that she was halfway through college - her eyes got as big as dinner plates. Like @artskids said - the realization is sinking in that the college bubble is only going to protect them for a couple more years - the thought of the real world is starting to sink in.
@CanadianMTgirl - you have perfectly described exactly what my daughter has expressed to me about this year! She is very hard on herself, thinks sheās working her butt off with little result, etc. but she does admit that she has learned a lot!
@kategrizz, I had this EXACT conversation with my voice teacher the other day! I walked into my last voice lesson of the year (sniff) and said āGary, it doesnāt feel like Iām halfway through this degree. Or rather, it doesnāt feel like Iām halfway to being ready to be a professional.ā And we had a bit of a talk about some of the stuff I mentioned above (the fact that sophomore year is about finding your own process), and how junior year is about balancing growth and consistency. I made a remark that when I came into this program in August of 2014, this yearās senior class were juniorsā¦and the amount of growth that Iāve seen them make from first semester juniors to graduating seniors is astonishing. It can get really easy to think āyikes, Iām halfway done and I feel nowhere near ready,ā but itās good to remember that there is a long way to go yet, that nothing is set in stone (which is great, especially after the sophomore slump, which can make you feel like youāre pedaling through molasses), and as you become an upperclassman, thereās an increasing focus on āwhat do you do well and how can you do it well over and over again?ā coupled with āhow can we make you the best at what you do well?ā
And hey, maybe a little bit of the real world breathing down our necks is healthy 
Wow! Thanks everyone for your definitions and anecdotes on what the Sophomore Slump means. My D is actually looking forward to sophomore year as she is excited about some of the classes she is lined up to take and the cool new apartment she and her roommates found. However, it will be interesting to see if she too falls prey to the 2nd year blues/stress/reality check, etc. Only time will tell? Iāll let ya know!
Iām wondering how everyone is doing!
D went back to UArts June 30th; sheās a CA (like an RA who also organizes floor and dorm activities a couple times a week) for the rising juniors and seniors in their pre-professional program. Yesterday, they welcomed their campers after 10 days of training, team building, and preparation. Sheās been super busy, but itās been fun!
After 4 more weeks as a CA, D gets 5 days off (weāll go see her and make it a mostly relaxing mini-vacation) then sheās back at UArts for Peer Resident Tutoring training, Orientation Leader training, and MT Mentoring training, freshman orientation (sheās looking forward to seeing a couple āCC studentsā there ), then the start of the semester. Whew!
She just texted me: āSo. Exhausted.ā But, sheās enjoying it a lot and is excited by it all, and these experiences will be great for her, I believe. We were especially ecstatic that she obtained the Peer Resident Tutor position, where she holds open tutoring hours 6-10 hours a week in 2 dorms and helps the RAs implement their activities (which she attended last year, anyway) once or twice a month. Not only do I think sheāll like this, but she gets R&B reimbursed because of it. Yay! With her scholarships, that means no money owed this year, which obviously thrills us! (And which I only brag about here to encourage anyone who might be reading this who will be auditioning that itās possible to graduate low or no debt from expensive private schools. Of course, it depends on the school.) Iām hoping that it wonāt all be too much for her, but her discussions with former Resident Peer Tutors and her employers allayed her concerns about that. She did fit in a lot more than she thought she could last year (with room to spare sometimes, too), including a light box office job. Fingers crossedā¦
The down side to all of this is that she was only home for a month this summer. But, we filled it with fun stuff, including 2 vacations. (D actually flew from Canada to Philly since we were on vacation there). D didnāt work during this time, so we had a lot of quality time together, which was really nice. I miss her a lot, but, once again, sheās happy, so Iām happy. I guess this is the new norm.
Howās everyone else doing?
D leaves to go back to Nebraska in a little less than two weeks. :((
Sheās stage managing West Side Story (I think it goes up in two weeks ā¦ two weeks of crazy long rehearsals - yikes!) back at NWU and has been SMāing a community theatre show here at home. This is probably her last summer at home - sheās crazy bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.
BUT - and I know everyone here will love this bit of news - her and her father came back yesterday from a long weekend in NYC where they saw Hamilton on Friday. :-h (They also saw Waitress, Aladdin and The Crucible.)
And ā¦ thatās it. Thatās all I got. Hope everyone is having a great summer!
Haha @KaMaMom Iām feeling the same way! I did a 2 week show and now Iām working for a theatre camp in addition to three other part time jobs, so itās been a crazy summer. I might actually have less down time than I do during the year! But Iām still totally ready to get back to Philly.
D is working retail this summer, in her words, āpracticing for my REAL future jobā (local hero Katie Rose Clarke works retail between shows in NYC - http://broadwaystyleguide.com/2015/10/katie-rose-clarke-cocktail-dress-up/). We have been lucky to have her home for 4 months since Western Michigan lets out before May 1 and doesnāt start until after Labor Day. She didnāt sing much for almost 2 months and when she went back to voice lessons, she found that her high belt had stetched a step or more. Hmmā¦it appears vocal rest periods may be a good thing for MTers. She is having a ball traveling this week and next through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with us - she is really excited about visiting her MT roots in Salzburg since she played Maria in SOM her senior year.
My D did a show earlier in the summer that began rehearsing before she was actually done with school (benefits of going to school only an hour away - she could commute on the days she was called and thankfully the director was super flexible) and ran through the end of June. The day after it closed, she started a 6 week intensive Shakespeare program and is halfway done - they will do 2 shows in rotating rep the first week of August, then she has a little over 2 weeks of R&R and she moves into her new off-campus apartment with 3 other girls (one other MT and 2 Actor Training students) - She has not really been home much, but she is having a great time and learning so much she said her head might explode. Canāt believe she will be a sophomore alreadyā¦time is flying! @myloves congrats to your D on the Peer Tutoring gig! No debt is AWESOME!
Thanks, @gingersnap97 !
I agree; time is flying!
:)>-
Thought Iād drag this thread up and see how the kids are all doing as sophomores!
My D is having a great semester so far ā¦ sheās cast as the Usherette in Rocky Horror, which opens at the end of this month. And then right after that, sheāll be in Love, Loss and What I Wore. Sheās still working in the costume library on campus and itās perfect for her (and all the theater kids actually) ā¦ they understand their crazy schedules. AND sheās a student tour guide this year too - I wonder if we can add āadept at talking while walking backwardsā to her list of special skills? =))
(Can I just say again that all the drama that went along with her audition season happened for a reason? Sheās still loving Nebraska!)
And I donāt know how I missed your post @EmsDad ā¦ that is one heck of a summer vacation you had!
How is everyone?
How are our kids Sophomores! It has been 2 years since our kids were duking out prescreens,applications and auditionsā¦oh my! Incredible how time flies. My son loves TCU. So happy to hear your daughter is loving Nebraska @KaMaMom My son did Summerstock from May to August @ an equity theatre this summer and was in 4 showsā¦he had 18 hour days and only 4 days off the entire summer. They rehearsed during the day, had shows from 8-10 and then a cabaret/bar show from 10:30-12am. That experience was either going to sell him on his chosen path or cause him to run for the hillsā¦it was a crazy schedule, but he loved it. He was Liver Lips Louie in Guys and Dolls, Enemble in Jesus Christ Superstar and Rocky Horror and Scuttle in Little Mermaid. Rocky Horror is so fun @KaMaMom congrats to your daughter! Hope all of everyone elseās kids are happy and enjoying where they landed. I recently saw @MTRaleighmomās daughter in Ball Stateās Parade. It was fabulous! Take care everyone!
@KaMaMom - true story from our trip: we were walking through Salzburg and passed a line of nuns in full habit. Just as we went by, the Mother Superior at the front of the line spun around and yelled, āMaria!ā My d jumped about a foot and then we both almost died laughing. It was like a scene right out of the movie.
D gets to play the lead in Violet this fall in the Footlights Series at Western Michigan, so she is pretty pumped about that. She is really enjoying all her classes this fall.
Love it @EmsDad !! =))
We are up in the Kāzoo area a lot during the summer months - such a great town! And congrats to your D!
@tmygirl ā¦ sounds like a summer my D would die for! I saw Rocky Horror live years and years ago in St. Louis - with Wendy O Williams. (That most definitely dates me!)
So glad to hear everyone is doing well! I just wrote this article about the perspective Iāve gained on college auditions in the last year of BFAing 
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/7-bfa-program-taught-musical-theatre-college-auditions
Any 2019āers still hanging around?
I canāt believe that sophomore year will be over in about a month! Holy cow! Where does the time go? And my D just registered for the fall of JUNIOR year!!
Sheās really come into her own this year - had a couple of great roles, including a faculty directed, mainstage one - and has grown so much ā¦ both as my kiddo and as an artist.
No summer stock offers this year (though she only auditioned for a couple) and will be home for the summer probably working retail. Sheās not happy ā¦ but I am!! =))
@KaMaMom I know what you mean! These two years have flown by! In that same amount of time they will all be moving on to their professional lives!
My D is also completely thriving! She has been in a mainstage production, a devised play, a student directed play, a new works festival and in a couple of weeks she will be in a Cabaret in downtown Indy! Such a wonderful and diverse set of experiences! She has loved it all! I have seen her talent and confidence grow!
She has never had any professional experience. Before college she only had done shows at our local childrenās theatre and her high school. This summer she will have her first paid job as a performer. She is over the moon about it! Thankfully it is only for half the summer so I will have her home for a few weeks!