Emily Anderbery

It’s that itching feeling you get while looking outside the window, and you think, “why can’t I be doing anything other than this?” It’s the dread you feel everyday on the way to school. It’s the pang of jealousy that rocks your body when you see Seniors graduating and moving on with their lives. It’s you giving up on homework and procrastinating it away until you’re stressed to the point of no return. It’s senioritis!

Senioritis is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” If this sounds like you, I hereby officially diagnose you with a bad case of senioritis.

According to an article in BuzzFeed the symptoms of senioritis can include laziness, an over-excessive wearing of sweatpants and sweatshirts, lack of studying, repeated absences, and a dismissive attitude. A student’s emotions will range from “not caring” to rushing to write an essay due next period.

A few ways to prevent senioritis are as follows: plan ahead (work around your busy schedule to ensure you finish that really stressful essay a week before it’s due), don’t obsess (take a deep breath and stop trying to do everything just so you can impress colleges, do things for yourself), talk about it (your friends feel the exact same way, trust me, so they are the perfect people to help you to get your feelings out on the table), have fun!

High school is a hard four years, but you don’t want them to rush by either. Have as much fun as possible and get involved. If you contract senioritis, tough luck because the only cure is graduation.