Senioritis Infects the Class of 2017

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Afsana Hussain

Lauren Mirkovich ’17, Katrina Ramazan ’17, Jasmyn Crumpler ’17, and Kimberly Cruz ’17 sporting comfy attire.

Wearing sweatpants four of five days of the school week. Arriving thirty minutes late to your first period class every day. Excessive absence. Considering your homework to be optional. All of these are symptoms of the epidemic spreading throughout the senior class of 2017: senioritis.

Urban Dictionary defines senioritis as “When high school seniors get lazy, no longer care, and just can’t wait till school ends. There is only one cure: graduation.” It usually begins to affect students when college applications are sent in and they are no longer motivated to put in an effort to keep their grades up. After three and a half long years of working hard, many are eager for the end of high school.

“I started experiencing senioritis sometime last year. I had a lot of senior friends who were going through it, so it started to rub off on me,” Sarah Higuchi Crowell ’17 said. “Since then, I’ve started to procrastinate a lot more. I’ve finished way too many Netflix shows in the past months, and I spend most of my time doing nothing.”

Although senioritis has mostly minor consequences, for some, it can lead to a lot of stress.

Procrastination can often lead to a lot of worry if work is left to the last minute. “I sometimes struggle to find the will to work, even though I really need to, and it can lead to poor grades,” Andrew Ma ’17 said.

“I find myself always rushing to finish everything, and stuff can really pile up,” Josh Pope ’17 stated. “A question I often ask myself is: incomplete or late?”

Sometimes, a lack of attention to schoolwork can lead to serious disorganization and neglect in classes. “No matter how hard I tried at the beginning of the year, I couldn’t keep myself from it. I had a super organized binder in September, and now it’s basically just a bunch of papers,” Evan Enochs ’17 said.

The biggest cause of senioritis is acceptance into college, which often marks a time where students feel as if they no longer have to care about their grades. They’ve finally accomplished what they’ve been working toward all of their their high school careers–going to college.

“I probably started experiencing it at the beginning of this year, but I have definitely felt it more than ever, since I was accepted into college,” Rajiv Beepat ’17 said. “I just lost motivation to try as much as I did in previous years. Now, I’ll start homework at 11 p.m. or 12, whereas in previous years, I started homework as soon as I got home from school.”

Thankfully for the class of 2017, the school year is more than halfway over. Although these next few months may seem like the longest ever, it’s a time to relax and enjoy the little time left as a high schooler.