Urban Dictionary defines senioritis as: "a crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as graduation." Damn, and this dastardly disease is only too real in higher lever education as well. We all experience Senioritis a little differently, but the core struggle remains the same: I've gotten this far, so I know I can do it... I'm almost done... Why do I have to keep trying?
I myself am a "fake" senior. I was privileged enough to take AP and AICE classes in high school. So many, in fact, that I found myself entering Flagler practically a sophomore, and honestly everything has been a blur from there. Here I am, in my fourth semester of college, one semester more after this 'till IT'S ALL OVER, and I am quite possibly losing it. Or not. It's just senioritis.
Senioritis is a vicious beast. She preys on the seniors at high schools and universities across the globe, and this killer knows naught the word "mercy." Her symptoms are many. They include, but are not limited to, laziness, cynicism, hard-core procrastination, negative obsessions, shutting down, introverted-ness, extroverted-ness, and countless others. As a senior, there is this "eureka!" moment when you have the most gratifying realization ever: you have done it. Whatever the major, whatever your social life, whatever the hours of sleep you exchanged for passing grades, you are now here. The top of the food chain. Probably legal and drinking, definitely experienced in college survival, and basically just an all out boss. While this realization holds many truths, it has a twist: you still have a final year left.
That incredible feeling of being done is utterly destroyed, devoured like Cheetos, then licked off orange fingers with a savage air. And when the illusion of escape has been broken, that's when senioritis attacks.
Senioritis has been a harsh mistress. I find myself procrastinating on simple assignments until the very last minute, arriving a couple minutes late to any class I can get away with, hunkering down in my house rather than hang out and be social on campus, I sulk at Grad school applications and hide from my GRE study book, I yell at freshman, but only because I'm jealous they are just beginning an adventure of a life time, where as I'm a shell of my former self, surviving off of Starbucks and way too much Gossip Girl. It's a powerful sickness.
As the advising sheet of remaining classes becomes smaller and smaller, I'm feeling sadder. I really haven't been here than long, and now it's time to leave. I'm excited, of course! The "Real World" is about to open its doors to me, and I get to put my skills to the test and see if I can survive, maybe even thrive.
For any seniors reading those or underclassmen who already feel the clutch of senioritis taking hold, be strong! You CAN do this. Don't push away socializing and our quaint little campus because it's more work, or maybe makes you sad. Procrastinate, sure (by this time you are at least as good as I am at it) but still try whenever you can. You have made it this far, and now it's time to finish with a bang! We all have to stand together, and with passing grades and the right amount of coffee, the cure of graduation is right around the corner!
