Senioritis

 By Ji Hwan Kang

I have senioritis. According to Merriam-Webster, the meaning of senioritis is “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” I thought this phenomenon was fake and all the past seniors were just making excuses to not do work. As you can see by the title, I was wrong. It truly started after the first week of senior year. I was one determined boy in a purple shirt to finish off my high school career with a bang. That didn’t go as planned as I had other factors that blocked me from really concentrating in high school. Schoolwork wasn’t a big factor in my life then and almost for everyone because we were too focused on my college applications as it was due before Christmas break.

After semester 1 flew by with college apps done, I prioritized hanging out with my friends over my schoolwork. I was leaving everything up to the last minute as possible to submit. I even finished my handbook quiz at 1:20 PM on Monday as I forgot it was due that day at 2:00 PM. Fortunately(?), it wasn’t only me who faced this problem. 

For example, Yong-Yu Huang is one of many victims who got infected by senioritis. She says, “When you think about the fact that you're leaving everyone you know in three months, solving derivatives kind of takes a backseat.” Because she realizes she is leaving her friends in 3 months, doing AP Calculus homework didn’t seem to be worth it. 

Another victim is Tim Santiago. He said, “Personally, I think senioritis stems from wanting to spend more time with people. Here are a bunch of my friends that I’ve spent significant amounts of time with and they’re all leaving in a matter of months. This deadline kind of prioritizes them in my list of things to do and is probably why schoolwork seems less pressing.” Tim also realizes he doesn’t have much time to spend with his friends so he prioritizes them over the deadlines for school. 

The last sufferer of senioritis I interviewed was Emilia Park. She said, “I tend to procrastinate more these days since all I have to do now is to have fun with my friends before graduation.” Just like Yong-Yu and Tim, Emilia places her friends over homework which means she would be spending less time on her table doing work but outside with her peers. 

I honestly don’t like the meaning of senioritis made by Merriam-Webster as it seemed to make us look like irresponsible students. From just interviewing three extremely responsible people we can see that our efforts for school are jeopardized as we prioritize our friendship over schoolwork. It is still a work in progress to find an antidote against senioritis. Until then, it will be haunting the seniors.