Aside from the occasional rant from a senior friend, senioritis is a condition that some may not have heard of. While it may seem like it’s just a crazy excuse that seniors have in their back pocket to use if they are feeling any sort of apathy about school, as the years and the assignments pile on it becomes more clear: senioritis is an epidemic amongst seniors everywhere.
Before looking at peoples’ opinions, we should acknowledge that senioritis is in fact, a real thing. In a study from Vanderbilt, it is shown that dopamine levels are directly correlated with work ethic. Seeing as “senioritis” is a lack of work ethic, it’s not hard to see why the cycle of not wanting to do anything at a late stage of school is a constant one. Now how does this real life problem affect those around us?
Matteus Araujo, a senior, shares some of the many problems that seniors deal with nearly everyday.
“I have definitely been feeling senioritis,” Araujo said. “It probably started to hit me around half way through this school year.”
However, senioritis can strike at any time in the year. It’s not a cookie cutter thing that treats everyone the same. In fact, although everyone has different things that can cause it, it’s important to try and push through.
“It’s hard to push through,” Araujo said. “It’s so easy to relax your senior year because you’ve done pretty much everything you have to do. All that’s really left is waiting until college comes around.”
When it comes to a senior’s best advice for getting over senioritis, it can be hard to pinpoint a cure for a situation like this.
“I don’t have too much advice because I am still feeling the symptoms,” Araujo said. “What has helped is thinking about the subjects that are important to your future and really locking in on those subjects.”
Erin Shahan is another senior who understands the trouble with senioritis. She shows what it takes to push through the struggles and what keeps her going.
“I deal with senioritis by remembering all the personal goals I have set for myself,” Shahan said.
Senioritis is called SENIOR-itis primarily because it strikes seniors more as they are closer to the end of their education than others in school may be. In fact, many seniors think it’s an exclusive term.
“[Senioritis is exclusive to seniors] because by the end of the second semester most people start to give up on doing their work,” Shahan said.
As far as advice goes, Shahans best piece of advice is to continue to push through the senioritis.
“My advice to anyone who is wanting to overcome their senioritis is “You can’t have lemonade if all the lemon trees stopped growing at the halfway [point],”” Shahan said.
Olivia Sankey is yet another senior who struggles with senioritis day in and day out and has her own ways of dealing with it.
“I normally have to force myself to do all of my work at once or immediately after I get the assignment because I know I won’t do it later,” Sankey said.
However, some classes offer more intense senioritis feelings than others.
“[Some] classes that have a lot of busy work are floral design and aca government,” Sankey said.
While struggling with her own senioritis, Sankey offers advice to help her fellow seniors in their pursuit of graduation.
“My best advice is to stay on top of your work, Sankey said. “It may suck now, but doing your work now is better than stacking it and having to do 2 hours of straight work.”
Although senioritis is something that everyone can struggle with, seeing as so many people have gone through it, there’s always advice to go around. So be ready, you never know when senioritis will strike.
