Senior year of high school is an exciting time; you have substantially more freedom, college acceptances come out, but, most importantly, everyone is that much closer to not having to wake up at 6:30 every morning. However, every year at the beginning of the second semester, a deadly virus known as senioritis washes over the senior class. Maybe it’s because college acceptances have stolen the students’ will to receive good grades, or maybe people are just burnt out on high school. Whatever the cause, grades drop, teachers get frustrated, and the students, well they just don’t show the passion for their GPA that they used to. In an attempt to get to the bottom of this phenomenon I, a second-semester senior, have decided to set aside my personal case of senioritis and go inside the class of 2017 to see what has caused this recent drop in motivation.
Last December I was sitting in my old Biology classroom waiting to take my statistics exam. I was ecstatic as the second semester of my senior year was closing in at a rapid pace. One of my classmates, a teammate on the baseball team, walks in. He was recently accepted into his top choice of colleges, so I congratulate him as he sits down next to me and puts his feet up on the desk in front of him. I remember asking him how his studying went with the night before being so eventful, and he says, “my feet are up.”
Now, I will not tell you the name of this student to protect him from Mr. Lucia’s death stare, but this was my first experience witnessing the extreme phenomenon that is senioritis. In this case, it seemed that early acceptance into college was the main cause; however, in an effort to delve deeper into the issue, I went out into the senior class to ask some extremely sick people about the main cause of their newest illness.
In talking with the seniors, I was testing out my two different theories on the main cause of senioritis. Three out of the four people I talked to seemed to lean towards the side of having lost motivation due to college acceptances, as opposed to just being burnt out on high school. As senior Erica Scherer put it, “Everyone gets burnt out on school; I got burnt out last year, but I still continued to push myself because I needed to get into college. Now that I’m in college it really just drives it home that it doesn’t matter.” According to Erica, the feeling of have fewer repercussions really does have an effect on a senior’s study habits and effort in the classroom.
According to another classmate of mine, college acceptances have led to a lack of motivation to complete homework; in her own words, “At some point, Netflix just became more important than homework.” However, in talking with some more classmates, I found a unique perspective. One person I talked to seemed to not be affected by senioritis. All of his homework was done, he was alert in class, and his grades hadn’t seen the slightest negative dip. As it turns out, not everyone is affected by this terrible disease. Some kids have a hard time letting go of their tough work ethic and will to do well in the classroom, despite the fact that they have already gotten into college.
In closing, I have come to the conclusion that the reason seniors’ grades drop is because of their homework. The college acceptances come out and, as one senior put it, “you get home from practice and a long day at school, and you know it just doesn’t even matter, and so it doesn’t get done.” The grades drop and senioritis makes its home inside your body until next year when you’re just a little freshman, and you wait four more years to do it all over again.
Senioritis: an epidemic
By Jack Giardino
A look into the class of 2017 to see the illness that has affected our seniors.
“At some point, Netflix just became more important than homework.”
“Everyone gets burnt out on school; I got burnt out last year, but I still continued to push myself because I needed to get into college. Now that I’m in college it really just drives it home that it doesn’t matter.”
Senior Gil Gerber displays all of the recent tardy notes he has received. Photo courtesy of Jack Giardino.
Senior Gil Gerber disregards his work, chooses sleep over calculus. Photo courtesy of Jack Giardino.
A few seniors make quality use of their study halls by catching up on some sleep. Photo courtesy of Jack Giardino.
The Charger, May 2017
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