Senioritis–anyone in high school has heard of it. Every year, the teachers dread the spring semester, when senioritis is at an all-time high. The freshman overlook it(they have no clue what it means), but sophomores and juniors soon learn, watching first-hand as the motivation slowly drains from the seniors. I’ve come to think that some teachers just see it as an excuse for the seniors, believing that many just use it as a ploy to make excuses for why their homework still isn’t done or why they stayed up until ungodly hours of the night doing homework. On the contrary, I have had multiple teachers who, on the first day after midterms, have opened their clas with: “We all know the seniors will slowly start to go, please try to stay with me here.” The honest answer is, as cheesy as it sounds, senioritis is real. It’s not that the homework isn’t done because we didn’t feel like doing it, it’s that we went home after extracurriculars, felt zero motivation, scrolled through Tik Tok for an hour, and went to bed. And we weren’t awake until 3 a.m. because we had hours and hours of impossible homework, we just didn’t start it until at least 9 pm(while it’s more likely that we didn’t start until like 11 o’clock).
Boomer’s will say, “It’s those damn phones!! If you didn’t have Tic Tac, Instachat, or Snapface, you would have your work done!” Well, not really. The truth is, it’s not all phones. I cannot speak for all seniors, but I know that I will do literally anything to avoid my responsibilities, and most of the time I’m so exhausted that I go to sleep instead. Other times I clean my room, take an unnecessarily long shower, do a whole spa routine, play with my dog, then sit in my bed for at least an hour doing practically nothing. It is currently 11:30 p.m. and I am in my bed, no homework done, only writing this article so I can validate my senioritis and the fact that I honestly have no intention of doing any homework, knowing very well that I will be in study hall tomorrow trying to get 4 classes worth of homework done in less than an hour because not having it done makes me anxious. A great cycle, right?
It’s not an excuse, and we aren’t just lazy. After four years, we are tired. Please give us a break. Sincerely, Class of 2020.