Senioritis... Again.
- Reese Worrell
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
“We write about it every year,” Mr. Hudson says skeptically.
“And yet every year the issue is not resolved,” I reply defensively.
The school newspaper’s advisor shakes his head. “You say you have senioritis in September.”
“But that’s just stage one senioritis! It progresses. Right now, I have at least stage four.”
“Life is better after high school.”
“But we don’t know that because we’re not out of high school yet.”
“Hm… maybe you should listen to your elders.”
“But we don’t do that either, because we’re seniors.”
Mr. Hudson rolls his eyes. “But aren’t you just being lazy?”
This is the unique paradox of a condition affecting many students graduating at East this spring. Senioritis is misunderstood and oversimplified. You think you have senioritis, underclassmen?
No. No, you don’t.
Senioritis is a condition that can be described as the following symptoms: chronic absenteeism; grades below an individual’s expected performance; severe addictions to doomscrolling, fast food chains, naps; and out-of-character bouts of apathy relating to assignments, test scores, and student-teacher relationships, all specifically arising during the 12th grade.
It is important to note that a senior suffering from this diagnosis likely does not desire to be exhibiting such symptoms. Furthermore, it may feel to them as if these ailments are beyond their control. Some things we do have control over: your most-used screen time app being Roblox is definitely something to improve, along with phone usage exploding to over 8 hours of the day, likely dedicated to doomscrolling. However, acknowledging what is out of our control is just as important to health and recovery. For example, all of the horrible drivers that terrorize the senior parking lot.
Mr. Luke Santo, a math teacher here at East and our only AP Statistics teacher, is all too familiar with the yearly wave of senioritis. Though he has been teaching senior students his entire teaching career, the past four years have included all-senior classes. He claims to “enjoy” teaching seniors.
On the front lines, Mr. Santo has identified the defining characteristic of senioritis as, “A recognition of what [seniors] should be doing, but a challenge to do it.” Other symptoms he has noticed in acute phases are not having class materials out 10-15 minutes into the period, and wandering zombie-like around the hallways.
“Honestly, I think number one is just bringing awareness to the problem, right? You can’t fix a problem you don’t know you have.”
Mr. Santo compares it to his ADD. “I am really bad at certain tasks,” he said, “so I have what I call my spoon method. I hate putting away dishes. When I see I need to unload the dishwasher, I don't tell myself ‘I’m going to unload the dishwasher,’ I'll just tell myself, ‘I'm going to put one spoon away.’” Then he unloads the rest without much difficulty.
“Getting started is like half the battle. It's all about tricking yourself into starting and then riding that momentum.”
I asked Santo if there is hope for a cure. How do we treat an annual, inevitable issue? His response, however, was very optimistic.
“This is like a common cold, it has a pretty defined length of time. It doesn’t last forever, because in about a year you guys will all go off to college and you’ll be responsible for all parts of your life…for the most part.”
He references the saying that prevention itself is worth a pound of cure. “If you can ride your old habits, because most seniors have built really good habits, a lot of times the senioritis is just a little tickle at the back of your throat by the end of the year rather than a raging flu.”
That means going to (most) of your classes, doing at least a little homework every night, following half your teacher’s classroom expectations, and remembering how to study! Senioritis isn’t fake or permanent. It is something worth careful attention and the support of the people in your life. You are not just being lazy, seniors. Past stage three senioritis, you deserve a doctor’s note.
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