There’s been buzz around campus between students about what to do and what not to do as a senior anticipating graduation on June 4.
Senioritis is a slang term used to describe the decreased motivation toward studies and overall school participation shown by teenagers who are nearing the end of their high school career. It is safe to say that this term has been around for a while now and it has engulfed a majority of the senior class on the West campus.
“It’s an epidemic,” senior Vipul Kohli said. “As the graduation countdown begins, so does the laziness.”
Senioritis can be seen as a bug. The main symptoms of senioritis include an immense amount of procrastination, absence of motivation, a drop in academic performance and “coasting”, which is the act of going through classes with very little concentration or application of intent. In other words, a student who has been bitten by the senioritis bug tends to do the ‘bare minimum’. Along with coasting comes truancy and frequent tardiness.
“Getting up for school and walking to class are the hardest things to do this year,” senior Channing Tramel. “College is so close, but it feels so far.”
Although senioritis is a fun word, with a meaning that students laugh at, there are some adverse outcomes that result from slacking. For example, senioritis in high school may cause the incoming college freshmen to not be as efficiently prepared for the pace of college level studies as they would be without the senioritis bug. Also, a decrease in dedication academically the last year of high school could also sway a college to rescind the acceptance decision. Though rescinding is a rare consequence of senioritis and lies on the heavier side, it is unlikely, but not impossible.
Though there is no doubt that college and high school are two different environments that give and receive different essentials, but both revolve around education. Both also require some type of determination and effort, and it seems that senioritis leaves teenagers completely effortless.
“Senioritis may look like a terrible thing on the surface, but it is pretty much inevitable,” senior Tramel said. “In my mind, senioritis is a great thing.”
Attending school five days a week, give or take a day, for around nine months a year for 12 years is without a doubt a challenge that students finishing their last few months of high school like to reward themselves for.
“I have followed the same routine and applied tons of effort for 12 years,” Robinson said. “I think I deserve to slack off a bit.”
Whether senior year be an effortless year because it is seen to dedicate months of rest and fun, knowing that in a few months students will be back in the classroom, for the ones who plan on gaining even more years of schooling in college, or just as a goal that has been completed. Senioritis has its ups and down. Graduating from high school is an achievement that is commended with caps and gowns and a shiny diploma as a memory of hard work. For most, the years to come are some of the best, but also some of the worst.
Senioritis is a controversial word used to describe a number of different things, but the question is, is senioritis really as bad as it seems?
“The sad thing is,” junior Brandon Hightower said, “I am only a junior and I think I have already been bitten by the bug.”
