Senior year. Movies promise a fun and adventurous time with friends, but in reality, it can be very stressful and seemingly pointless to some students like James Bell. Seniors have already experienced three years of the repetitive cycle of high school: attending the same classes each day, going home after eight, long hours of learning, laboring over homework assignments, eating dinner and, occasionally, getting some sleep. This year, Bell doesn’t even touch his backpack when he comes home from school. He’s caught senioritis.
The commonly known syndrome senioritis has been documented as early as 1957. It triggers a declining work ethic in seniors who are eager to face graduation day. Even college board recognizes it. While this condition most commonly occurs among seniors, other students in various grade levels experience the effects of this syndrome.
“When you have senioritis, you don’t want to take the extra steps on extra credit or even make up work,” Bell said. “It most definitely affects my grades.”
However, senioritis has not altered his attendance record. Bell, who often uses class time to finish incompleted homework from the night before as a result of senioritis, plans on going to the navy after high school instead of going immediately to college.
“It’s something that you can’t really avoid,” Bell said. “It’s something that despite your attitude toward school in the past, you’re always going to want to slack off because you know you’re almost done.”
Already experiencing senioritis, junior Heba Zakaria has grown tired of the same routine every day. Zakaria believes she has a perfectionist personality which can lead her to experience increased levels of stress.
“The people who are older than me always tell me that no matter how hard I try not to feel unmotivated, you will still experience it,” Zakaria said. “It’s something all seniors feel.”
Zakaria stays motivated through her time management skills, dream of becoming a doctor and the reward of scholarships. By dividing her homework, Zakaria tries to prevent stress and procrastination while taking 5 AP classes. Her grades have not been affected by senioritis.
“[Graduation is] exciting because it’s a step closer to my ultimate goal,” Zakaria said. “Graduation serves as the first milestone of building my future.”
Anticipation plays a key role in senioritis. Many seniors wait expectantly for graduation day and what the future holds for them after high school. Coach Keel has found a rise of unexcused absences in his senior classes. The seniors told him ‘D’ stands for diploma, and ‘C’ stands for ‘C’ you at graduation.
“[Senioritis is the] culmination of 13 years and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and not wanting to get there, but wanting to be there at the same time,” Coach Keel said. “[Seniors] are ready to be done. They’re ready to get on with the next phase of their lives. There’s only 30 something days of school left, and they’re ready to leave.”
