“Once senioritis starts, it starts to intensify,” senior Dave McEvoy said.
Every senior in high school has one thing in common: they just don’t want to do anything in the world. With graduation nearing, even getting out of bed to go to school seems impossible.
However, with the overwhelming desire to do absolutely nothing comes the reality of adulthood and the potential end of high school finals. For most seniors, their first stressor is college.
“I feel like college is more important to me than college finals because my future feels more important to me than high school finals. It’s the end of the road,” senior David McEvoy said.
As most students have a general idea of what they want to study, it is those final few months where scholarships, financial aid, and program acceptances come in.
“It’s definitely when you begin applying to it, and you’re writing all these essays about how the future is bright, and you keep on having to write these essays, and it is relentless. You start losing that passion. Everything is a burden,” senior Roosevelt Wilken said.
All those previous months of effort are finally being seen. On the other hand, it’s almost anticlimactic and worsens that feeling of senioritis when some acceptances are mixed in with rejections.
“When you get rejected, it feels like you could have done more, and you have the thought of what more could I have done?” Wilken said.
The work that seniors used to be able to do seems like a fantasy in the past. With activities, clubs, and work, there seems to be no time for a break.
“I had to quit every activity besides show choir,” senior Aspyn Christie said. “I used to do sports, be in the chess club, and participate in out-of-school activities. I had to quit everything to focus on school. It’s not that the work has changed; I just don’t want to do it,” Christie said.
Seniors are often taking AP classes, which means around this time, AP classes start to cram and prep for the final AP exam. Spring is also mixed with doing stuff for college and scholarships that come with senior year. “Homework isn’t as hard; it’s just less prioritized, and I feel that’s why seniors don’t want to do work. I just have priorities,” senior Toby Schweitzer said.
If an assignment takes more than 20 minutes, it feels like too much, and I don’t want to do it,’ senior Spencer Wickwire said.
Despite all of that, when does too much become “too much”? This ultimately means that everything a senior has done ultimately feels like wasted years.
“It’s different for everyone. For me, it started when I got my job,” senior Jackson Dibble said. “For some, it may have happened all the way in the beginning. Homework is just starting to not be as important. People already have scholarships and colleges. They just want to pass,” Dibble said.
It’s a difficult concept to understand, with even a favorite subject no longer being interesting.
For juniors who will be seniors next year, they start to feel it also. For junior Noah Kellar, he says he already feels exhausted. “I definitely feel senioritis hitting. Senior year is not going to be as fun because my friend group is majority seniors. It’s just not going to be as good,” Kellar said.
To understand a senior is to understand the effort they put in every day to be here. It takes grit, but also understanding that the majority of seniors are at least in one other activity, have a job, or are involved in an out-of-school organization. “Being in lots of activities keeps you busy, so you have to always stay focused,” Senior Grace Perkinson said.
Yet, the wait for the next year is taking over for college students. Every soon-to-be college freshman is already thinking about what to have in college.
“I’m excited to be away from home and have a higher sense of independence,” senior Kenzie Ackerman said.
college.
“I’m excited to be away from home and have a higher sense of independence,” senior Kenzie Ackerman said.
