With second trimester progress reports being sent out this week, we have officially reached the midpoint of the school year. We are halfway to summer! And, for the senior class, halfway to graduation. All of the senior class has heard from colleges, and many have already committed to the college they will attend next year. Now, “Senioritis” is beginning to set in, and the class is starting to feel it! Here are the top six things this year’s senior class says are no longer safe from the effects of Senioritis!

6) Motivation

The first thing to go when Senioritis hits is your motivation. Now that most of our class has been accepted into a school they want to go to, or have even committed to the college they will attend next year, most of our class’ motivation is completely shot. We just want to sit in the senior room and sleep! We still go to class every day, and (most of us) do all the homework, we are just much more reluctant to than we have been in the past. College is so close… but still so far.

5) Procrastination

“Oh, I can do it later! I have time!” That is the catchphrase of students with Senioritis. And for the most part, we really should not do it later, because we really do no have the time. Putting off assignments until the night before it is due, or waiting to do the homework until the class before it is due, are unfortunately common side effects of Senioritis when they are not aware about Best assignment services. By forcing ourselves into a vicious procrastination cycle, seniors affected by Senioritis also normally do not only have one assignment they are procrastinating doing at a time. They start to pile up, and unless you hit a “motivation high,” and knockout all of the work looming over your head, the quality of the work slowly starts to decline.

4) Being awake

With Senioritis come sleep deprivation. The lack of motivation forces students to procrastinate, which leads to hours long Netflix binges or hanging out with friends far too late. Then, the workload begins to preoccupy the mind, and the students stay up into the wee hours of the morning just to create something acceptable to turn in the next day. Or, they simply go to sleep, and procrastinate even more!

3) Interest

It is a shame to say it, but seniors suffering from Senioritis are also suffering from a decline in interest in school work, as well as school in general. High school is beginning to bore us, and by no fault of the school or the teachers! They cannot control it, but when you have been going to class every single day at the same times with the same schedule week after week for your whole life (and for the lifers, all at this same school), I think it is pretty natural to start to lose interest in it unless your heart is 100% invested in it. We know we will just be going to another work filled school in the fall, but as of right now all we see is the finish line: graduation. Getting to that finish line is what is consuming all of our interest!

2) Emotions

Senior year is an emotional roller coaster, and Senioritis just heightens the effect. Some of us in my grade were literally crying about Graduation and leaving each other just yesterday, and then today will talk about our college plans and how excited we are to get there! We are constantly going up, and down, and up, and down on the emotional scale. It gets a little confusing, and a little tiring as well. However, it too is a common side effect of Senioritis, and also one of just being a senior. We are excited, but terrified; prepared, but reluctant; impatient to leave, but not quite ready to go… yet. Senioritis makes us want to go, but being a senior makes us want to stay. Trust me, I know it’s confusing: I am living it right now.

1)STRESS

The last main thing that is highly affected by Senioritis, and something I believe our entire grade is feeling in at least some amount right now, is STRESS. Will I get into my first choice college? Will I get that scholarship? Am I ever really going to see that person ever again after graduation? Have I finished that project yet? Gosh, I still have to finish applying for this and the due dates in less than a week… wait, I need a letter of recommendation???? All of these questions and more are constantly swirling around the mind of a senior, and with our emotions already on edge, their effects are felt slightly more than they are for those without Senioritis. We have a lot on our plate and a lot to prepare for, and our lack of interest and motivation and sharp increase in procrastination are not helping our stress levels decline, but we just cannot get ourselves to change! It is our own fault, we know, but it happens to the seniors every year. After all, they all seem to turn out fine in the end!

Senioritis is no joke; I never used to believe it was real, and now this year I’m feeling its effects more than I ever thought possible. It is not diagnosed by a doctor; and to my knowledge there is no cure (except for dropping grades scaring you to snap out of it to make sure you stay accepted into the schools you’ve been admitted/committed to). Maybe it is our bodies way of coping with the knowledge of the upcoming major changes. Or, maybe senior year just really is the year people finally get tired with our school system. Whatever the reason may be for Senioritis, it is real. The one good thing about it though is that it really only lasts for your senior year; the excitement of becoming a freshman again in college forces your motivation and interest right back to you (well, mostly at least). I’m sure we will all get it together next year, but in the words of a procrastinating Senioritis stricken senior, that is next years’ problem. At least we won’t ever have to deal with Senioritis again… well, until four years from now that is.