Some things never change

She can barely move. For the third day in a row, she drags herself out of bed after missing the first two alarms. Her eyes are heavy and her motivation is at an all-time low. She leaves the house half asleep, wearing the same outfit she fell asleep in. Although she doesn’t yet realize it, her underclassmen friends noticed days ago, and are working to stage a much needed intervention: she has a classic case of Senioritis.

“I don’t even want to wake up or get dressed anymore,” senior Jasmin Tran said. “Sometimes I just wear what I slept in. I remember seeing other seniors deal with this, and I never understood where it came from. Now that I’m in their position, I completely understand.”

Symptoms include a heavy dose of laziness and trouble focusing. All root from four years of repeating the same routine. Senior Grayson Russell’s case of senioritis came with an excessive desire to sleep and a low motivation for school work. He believes his senioritis progressively got worse throughout the year.

“I got to point where there was so much stuff to do, so instead of doing it, I took a nap for a week,” Russell said. “As the year progresses, I can feel myself starting to care less. My alarm goes off, I wait twenty minutes, and then I get out of bed.”

Tran agrees, feeling senioritis only gets worse. While she attempts to push herself to be productive, a strong sense of low-motivation kicks in, leaving her case of senioritis worse than ever.

“I knew it was bad when I had all of Thanksgiving break to do work but I chose to lay there for three hours instead,” Tran said. “I also knew it was bad when work for my easy classes, like office aide, started feeling difficult. I’ve felt it getting progressively worse throughout the year and my grades prove it.”

While the urges are strong, senior Lauren Whitehead fights to keep her focus. She understands that colleges are still carefully monitoring grades and says it is important to stay motivated.

“I think it is important to stay focused because students still have to pass their classes,” Whitehead said. “Colleges can easily take away admission if they see a student failing classes because those are not the grades they saw when the students applied.”

To Tran, staying focused is a daily battle and she is ready for the only known cure to senioritis: graduation.

“Every day for four years, it’s been the same thing and I think everyone’s ready to move on,” she said. “I don’t think I will ever get over my senioritis. The only thing that can fix it is graduation, and as the day becomes closer, it becomes harder to focus.”