Senioritis: A pandemic

It’s been the second semester of my senior year for about a month now, and I can safely say that I’m not the only one to experience its influence. It includes waking up late on school days, blowing off homework to use Netflix, and acknowledging midday naps as a routine instead of a luxury. I’m talking, of course, about senioritis. This phenomenon that turns even the best of students into hedonists seems absurd until it hits you; I used to scoff at the idea of such de-motivation, but now it’s so potent that I’m barely even able to write this column. However, while senioritis has been regarded as a tradition, even a rite of passage, I’m starting to question the resigned attitudes towards it.

The train of logic here is simple: students get so burned out doing college apps, homework, activities and sports that, come second semester, they fizzle out and become lazy. Straight As drop to straight Cs and assignments are dismissed with a flippant “I don’t want to do this.” Though many feel they deserve this break after 3.5 stressful years, this viewpoint can have lasting effects on one’s work ethic; it ingrains in students’ minds that slacking off is okay. It’s one thing to relax, but it’s another thing to dismiss responsibilities entirely.

If you’re skeptical about these consequences, look at colleges that rescind admission decisions. Those seniors who count their chickens before they’re hatched and allow their grades to slip too much suffer. Take the University of Washington: it revokes around two dozen admissions a year.

This problem is two-pronged: school shouldn’t wear seniors down to such an extreme extent, but seniors also shouldn’t get a premature sense of achievement. It’s up to students to work through the feelings of apathy and realize that the year isn’t over.