The birds are chirping, the sky is getting bluer and the temperatures are rising; spring, the time we have all been waiting for, is finally here. However for us seniors, spring is bringing along its evil companion: the countdown. We are almost to the finish line: I am sure we can all feel the tassels of our caps tickling our cheeks. Basically, it is safe to say that graduation is tomorrow, with the exception of midterms, finals, scholarships, spring sports and those math tests I am sure you have been putting off studying for. It is the time where even just entering the school feels entirely optional, and you sit in the car for 10 minutes before walking in contemplating what all you would lose if you just drove away. That, my fellow seniors, is called senioritis.
We hear it all the time in classrooms: “don’t let senioritis get the best of you,” or “if you succumb to senioritis you will fail this class.” But, is senioritis scientific or just a placebo we are taught to acknowledge? Well, I am here to tell you that senioritis is real (so you don’t need to carry anymore guilt about that five point assignment that you never turned in simply because you didn’t want to do it). Psychology says that seniors mentally shut down to tolerate the feelings of anticipated change and excitement, specifically during the second semester.
Psychology Today references a study that found 68% of high school seniors report decreased motivation in their final semester due to senioritis and 82% of graduating seniors admit to skipping classes more frequently.
Once the clutches of college applications and learning to navigate scholarships were survived, seniors were presented with the joy of Christmas break. However, the return to KHS was as anticlimactic as ever. Everything was the same, and the only things that were missing were the exact things that kept seniors motivated last semester: wondering what the future was. With nothing to wonder about, seniors experience a crash. The fight is done, colleges have seen your grades, you have gotten the credits, so, now what? That is the golden question, and is also the question that causes senioritis.
So next time you stare at your laptop for 15 minutes without typing a single word on your scholarship essay, know that it is not your fault. Senioritis is a real diagnosis.