As I sit in my seat, listening to Tisha Pankop talk to her journalism class, I struggle to pay attention. My mind wanders off to other things as I lose focus on the task at hand. As a senior almost done with the second trimester, “senioritis” is the biggest obstacle I have to overcome. According to The Northwood Omniscient, “78 percent of seniors say they have senioritis.”
As a freshman, sophomore and junior, I constantly heard seniors talk about how unmotivated they were and how bad their “senioritis” was. I’ve not realized how real the sickness was until I became a senior myself. Now I am struggling with my work ethic entirely.
Not only is my homework getting done last minute, the quality of it is slowly diminishing from excellent, well thought-out work, to “at least it is completed and has some thought put into it.” It is hard to want to keep the best effort up when you’re so close to graduation. It seems almost pointless. Going to school and still putting in 100 percent of the effort seems irrelevant when you have already been accepted into college.
The next struggle is simply going to high school. Being tired, it is inevitable that sleeping in seems to be the “right thing” to do when you have a car and can go to school whenever. Missing classes and having to make up the work isn’t bad enough to outweigh the bliss of having the day to just sleep in. The term “senioritis” is used to describe and explain the weariness and fatigue of a senior in high school.
I use to think that I had a case of senioritis hit me as early as a junior — oh how wrong I was. I was naive to think that doing homework at a later time instead of right after school was senioritis.
Though it is hard to get through senior year and maintain the motivated mentality you had as a freshman or sophomore, it is possible with a few tricks. A way to help your work ethic is to put your phone away, make plans with friends later and try to get things done like homework and important school work while you have the time so that it is more time efficient for yourself.
Try to put more effort into assignments while doing them. Though it may seem useless to turn in A+ quality papers, it helps you improve as a writer and proves that senioritis can’t stop you.
Going to school is just as challenging, but if and when you have the thought to skip the day or even 5th period, just think about the attendance policy or having to make up the missed work that you already lack the work ethic to complete. A day going to school is a day closer to graduating.
Though senioritis is the hardest part of the high school experience, it shouldn’t be the thing that causes problems. Graduation should be on your mind every day and that should encourage you to do the best you can while you are still in school. Senioritis is just an excuse to be lazy, but with a good mindset and the end goal right down the road, it isn’t hard to overcome the obstacle in the way and to graduate to the best of your ability with hard work and dedication.