Once a student starts getting towards the end of their high school years, specifically during their senior year, a feeling of demotivation overtakes their senses and they struggle to see why they need to finish the school year. This is called senioritis.
While senioritis is not a medical diagnosis or even proven real, many students undergo its harsh effects on the body and mind. There are usually multiple steps to feeling the full effect of senioritis.
The first thing that typically happens is a decline at the end of one’s junior year. Senioritis is specifically a feeling seniors get, but a similar wave of this “disease” hits juniors around the fourth quarter. They are in the middle of still having a bit of school left and almost reaching the end. They feel like sleeping more, studying less, and not focusing on assignments and class.
The next phase of senioritis is the entire first half of the school year. The months of August to December fly by because of college applications, homecoming, senior skip day, and midterms. The main focus is the first half of the school year since colleges pay attention to specifics during that semester. This season does not give time for seniors to identify that they are nearing the end of high school and makes the feeling hit harder during the second semester.
By the time the end of winter break rolls around, seniors find themselves asking, “What’s the point in going back?” This is the time that the feeling of being done with school starts to hit hard. The end of it all is just around the corner, and students find themselves taking more sick days, turning in late assignments, and overall feeling burnt out. It takes everything in them to go to school each day and to finish the classes before graduation.
Why does this happen to many students? Well, one guess is that they know that bigger and better things are coming in less than a year. Subconsciously, they could be deciding to focus on that instead of what is happening right in front of them.
On the other hand, it is nearing the end of over a decade-long cycle of waking up, going to school, doing homework, doing chores, playing sports, participating in activities, eating dinner, studying, sleeping, and repeating it all the next day. Just on the horizon is a new beginning with a different routine than the one that has been going on for 13 years.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for senioritis other than working hard and trying to finish assignments early instead of having them stack up over the semester. Some people have never felt senioritis during their schooling, but more than that have been accustomed to that feeling of zero motivation, so good luck to those entering their senior year.