You know that you’re a second-semester senior when you’ve already given up on the third day back to school.
Yes, my name is Jessica Adair and I have senioritis. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of sweatpants, a lack of studying, and a generally dismissive attitude.
It hasn’t even been a full week back at school yet and I’m already spending my time watching Netflix, and thinking to myself: would it really be so awful if I didn’t graduate?
As of now, it doesn’t seem so dangerous to me. I haven’t missed any assignments, I haven’t gone to bed at a ridiculous hour, and no colleges have rescinded my acceptance. I’ve only become extremely lethargic, unmotivated, and impatient, even more than usual. Where’s the harm in that?
It wasn’t until my Economics teacher put the awful snowball effect that is senioritis into perspective. At first, senioritis starts off as a subtle loathing for anything that has to do with school. That loathing turns into laziness, and you start missing class because who needs to learn about Economics when you got into your first choice school. All those missing assignments and absences add up, and before you know it, you’re sitting at home crying your eyes out on June 5 because you’re ineligible to graduate.
All those years of hard work come crashing down into a spectacular blaze of failure, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You don’t get to say, “Well there’s always next semester!” This is it, and if you drop the ball, graduation is the least of your worries. 35 percent of colleges have reported that they revoked an admission offer and 65 percent of those rescinded applications were due to poor final grades, according to the NACAC.
When my Economics teacher told me all about this lovely snowball effect, I wanted to cry. Without knowing it, I have started a foundation for disaster. Being lazy seems completely harmless now, but in five months I fear it will turn into something more if I don’t try a little harder. Yes, I know that this seems a little dramatic for the third day of the semester, but that’s when the senioritis starts to show and escalate.
I’m also not saying that we should all be completely focused on academics in our last five months of school. It is also a time to have fun, relax, and enjoy everything. All I’m saying is: check yourself before you wreck yourself, literally. So when you’ve missed 12 days of school because you don’t feel like it, just think about where you want to be on June 5.
