Senioritis—ever heard of such a thing? Well, if you’re a senior, you know exactly what it is. If it hasn’t settled in quiet yet, be prepared for the storm.
Senior year can be chaotic, juggling between classes, emotions, and applications can be overwhelming. And after you think it’s all come to an end an abrupt wave of de-appreciation for schooling has set in.
The way we see it, senioritis is the sudden decline of motivation in participation in senior-level students. Basically—it is the feeling of just wanting to be DONE.
According to one of our moms, who is a professor of counseling techniques and psychotherapy at Pepperdine, senioritis is “definitely a very real and prevalent state of mind.”
“Students have been pacing themselves emotionally to get through each year and the end represents a huge transition from childhood to adulthood and all the years that lead up to that moment is a lot to absorb,” she says. “Where do I go from here? It’s scary and exciting all at once, so I think emotionally it’s easy to kind of shut down to try to tolerate that feeling.”
The process of getting all of your applications in is dreadful, but once done, a weight is lifted off your shoulders. The realization of knowing the hardest part of your senior year is over, is thrilling, but frightening.
Former Venice High graduate, Olivia Uzan ’23 let us bend her ear about her personal take on senioritis.
“My experience in the last semester of senior year was both incredibly boring and extremely exciting. With college apps done, there was stress lifted off many of the seniors’ shoulders, and anticipation for college decisions floated through the air,” she said.
“Many of my teachers knew we felt this way too, so they didn’t give us as much work. While I definitely still had motivation the first three months of the last semester, it wasn’t the same drive I had when starting the school year.”
“After AP exams, I felt like I didn’t have to try at all in my classes, partly because I was done with the “most important” parts of senior year, but also because I felt my teachers didn’t care to give out tedious and dense work anymore,” Uzan said.
Put simply, the lack of motivation and anxiety of the future sums up senioritis. Although, put in a more sophisticated way, Uzan said, “I would define senioritis as a mentality that affects seniors in high school where they lack motivation to end out the school year, and see no point in putting effort into their work because they know they’ve already done almost everything necessary to graduate.”
“The only things left are to maintain good attendance and not fail. Because there is such an emphasis around the idea of “senioritis” in highschool, not only was I affected by senioritis, but I felt that some of my teachers were too. That’s not to say that the teachers weren’t doing their job, but they became more lenient with deadlines and figured that their students weren’t going to want to try that much anyway,” she said.
“While I felt like I had senioritis, the main reason I felt this way was because it was such a common word to use amongst my peers, that I almost “gave in” to having it. If it wasn’t talked about as much, and if teachers just didn’t acknowledge it, I feel like many senior students would finish out the school year just as strong as they started it,” Uzan added.
Now after reaching the second semester of senior year, we are witnessing first hand the preparation of slowly adjusting into adulthood, all while balancing our academics, and social life simultaneously. The early morning wake-ups and commutes are becoming more and more awful, the days move slower, and our beds are getting warmer and warmer. With all this said and done, has it kicked in yet?
