August came around last fall and seniors, you may have told yourself that you are going to avoid “senioritis,” a disease characterized by a decline in motivation during your final year of high school or college. On New Year’s Eve, I feel as though once that clock struck midnight and it officially became 2019, all students graduating in May thought: “I graduate this year.” It’s the beginning of the second semester and I guarantee that the majority of you have already caught senioritis. While it’s almost impossible to not catch senioritis at some point throughout senior year, with four more months left until graduation, it’s time to push through the senioritis.

Symptoms of Senioritis

Senioritis is not a joke. This “disease” is a serious problem for high school seniors. The majority of these occur because at this point in the year, you “just don’t care anymore.” Senioritis is characterized by:

1. Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings
2. Procrastinating even more than you usually do
3. Receiving lower grades
4. Skipping class
5. Lack of motivation
6. Turning in subpar work

Ways to avoid Senioritis

Avoiding Senioritis is almost impossible, especially once you have already been accepted into a college. Although avoiding it is close to impossible for majority of seniors, there are several ways that seniors can attempt to get rid of senioritis:

1. Senior year is not over, which means that your high school days are not over yet. This does not mean to continue overloading yourself with all of the work you have to do for your AP classes and your dual classes or even anything college related. It means to get together with friends as much as you can and enjoy every last minute of high school.
2. While not overworking yourself, be sure to have control of your school work. Don’t do so much procrastination that you begin to lose sleep and lose time that you could be doing other things rather than school. Set deadlines for yourself ahead of the actual deadline so you won’t have to be in a panic the night before your paper is due.
3. You may not be in college yet, but try thinking of this semester as a test for how you are going to prepare for assignments when August comes around. Yes, you are still in high school and you just want to be done, but you are so close to being done and college is coming faster than you think. Finish your high school days like how you’ll start your college days.

Senioritis is one of the hardest things to avoid and once you get it, it’s not easy to get rid of, but if you are a senior this year and have already been diagnosed with this disease: Finish the year strong. High school doesn’t last forever.