Comparing your sophomore year to someone’s graduation photo isn’t fair to either of you.

You are holding your middle up against somebody else’s ending. A graduation photo is an endpoint, already edited; your sophomore year is still happening and still full of loose parts. The comparison flatters nobody. It makes you feel behind in a race with staggered start times, and it quietly erases the two rough years the person in the photo probably had.

Next time you catch yourself measuring, add the missing question: where were they at your age? If you can, ask someone two years ahead what their sophomore year actually looked like. The answer is usually messier than the picture.