1. Define senioritis.

“I think senioritis can be described as just being done with school in general. Senioritis is when seniors get to a point where they don’t want to do any more work and just be done with school and hang out with their friends,” said John Ciliento.

“It’s when you fall into a serious slump in school either academically or mentally and you’re honestly already ready to wrap school up,” said Sarah Bedi.

“Senioritis to me is the lack of motivation to go to class, complete assignments, put effort into paying attention in class, or even have the desire to come to school,” said Alex Pereira.

Incredibly correct. In my own words, senioritis is the “disease” that plagues the senior class of any high school, when they realize nothing matters because they’re graduating! This year is supposed to be all about fun, so what’s the use in school work? This month, I tried to figure out why.

I have interviewed five seniors for this interview which I think are perfect for this topic. Thank you to everyone who participated!

2. What does your senioritis look like? Is it skipping classes once in a while? Not paying attention to a specific subject? Never getting your work in on time?

“It’s pure procrastination. I would have never thought I would ever procrastinate this much in my life. I find myself zoning out in my classes a lot, such as Computer Science. I haven’t been able to keep up with my school work like I usually would. I always tend to do the assignment a bit late or struggle to stay motivated to finish the assignments. My grades start to slip every now and then,” said Brandon Anderson.

“My senioritis looks like getting my work done early so I could just hang out. I also skip class once in a while to hang out with my friends and sometimes I don’t feel like paying attention and just goofing off in class,” said John Ciliento.

“Mine looks like not going to school everyday, not doing assignments, and using my early release almost everyday. it is definitely freeing not having to stay all day but those missing assignments always add up and I have to make them up!” said Valery Lopez-Moreno.

Interesting. My editor in chief actually suggested this question (thanks, Alisa!) so I’m glad it came out quite nicely. My senioritis actually, I think, I’ve had for a while now, but I never thought it would be so amplified. You see, I’ve had a procrastination problem for a while now, consistently waiting until the last minute to do my work, but this year, I’m barely putting any effort. Actively, I’ve been missing homework and classwork assignments just because I didn’t feel like it. Even my sister jokes around with the fact that I have it and actually witnesses me several days a week, distracting myself with anything else.

3. Did you ever think you would get senioritis?

Alex said, “Honestly, I never thought I would get senioritis but the constant demand of school, extracurriculars and on top of that, applying to colleges really made me burnt out and just exhausted from school.”

“I never thought I would get senioritis. Looking back at last year, I took care of my responsibilities pretty well and I was just enjoying school with no worries,” said Brandon, “I felt like I was ready for senior year to start because of how things were going; not thinking about how it would have some struggles. Now I understand how easy it is to feel unmotivated when responsibilities pile up, especially when you’re close to graduating.”

“I honestly expected it but what I didn’t expect was for it to come so early in the year,” said Sarah, “I think the roughness of junior year added on, considering how quick the summer felt, it was like we never even had a break when we came back which led me to quickly fall into old habits. ”

When I was a freshman, I never expected that I would get it. For a little while–maybe a year and a half–I looked down on the older students in my school to slack off. I always thought that they were so careless, but that was also probably me just projecting because again, I have a terrible procrastination problem. I always wondered why they didn’t try and why they seemed to give up so easily. 

4. Do you think your friends have it as well?

“Oh definitely,” Sarah laughed, “we all going through it together this year. Something that is definitely normalized with my friends is texting each other constantly if we are coming to school or not in the morning. The senioritis hits hard especially THIRD marking period.”

“Yeah, I believe the majority of my friends have senioritis too. They always talk about how tired they are, not wanting to come to school, or not wanting to do any assignments anymore. It feels like there’s a switch in senior year which makes you feel a bit drained and less focused,” said Brandon.

“Yes. We all accepted it’s senior year and that we can go home early, but it honestly makes this year fun. We can all do our own things on our own time!” said Valery.

One of the most common things I observe is how many people slack off so instantly at the beginning of the school year, myself included. I realized, within the second week of senior year, that all my motivation was gone. Usually I’m so anxious to get my assignments done while dreading it and yet, now I’m staring at my screen going, “Who even cares?” My conscience does apparently, as anything lower than an 85 in the Gradebook gets me antsy.

5. Would you give any advice to underclassmen to try and prevent senioritis?

“DON’T OVERWORK YOURSELF!” said Valery, “I know it seems like grades and extracurriculars are the whole world, but by senior year you’ll realize that burnout isn’t worth it. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself and what you’re doing (for ex. clubs)! high school does fly by so take a second, breathe, and enjoy your time.”

John said, “I think senioritis comes no matter what, even if you love or hate school. I loved school and just learning about new things, so I never really minded it. However, I think when the weeks start to drag and the days feel longer and longer, then you can’t really do anything about it. The only advice I would give is to do all of your work and to stay on top of it so that at the end of the year, you wouldn’t have any problems when graduating. I would say just do you while still worrying about school, even if it is still your last year of high school.”

“My advice would be to pace yourself and your activities to decrease the possibility of burn out, because it can happen very quickly. I would also say continue to try and give effort in your classes as colleges still have access to the first marking period or even mid-year grades so just be conscious of grades too,” said Alex.

Looking back at these answers, it’s honestly a little surprising that these students get plagued as easily as others. The people I picked for this interview are all, in my eyes, stellar people and even they fall back just because it’s our last year and we all went to have fun.

I agree in their advice, in that by the end of the day, grades aren’t everything at sometimes, no matter, all different kinds of people–academically advanced or not–still end up at the same place. It’s important to have fun in life and it definitely starts to take priority by senior year.

Also by this point, I’m tired of seeing the word “senioritis” more than I am from school. Unfortunately though, I still have to experience both of them for the next few months until I get that cap and gown.

Again, I’m truly grateful to all the seniors who participated! Thank you!