Senioritis: “A supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance.”
I always thought the term “senioritis” was made up.
Whenever I heard anyone talking about having senioritis, I always thought it was something seniors made up to get away with things. I thought having “senioritis” was just a way for students to make themselves feel better about skipping class, turning in an assignment late, or just being lazy.
I always doubted whether senioritis was a real thing because I never experienced it. As a senior in high school, I may have skipped school or felt lazy some days, but never to the extent that other people described when talking about their own “senioritis.”
But I was wrong. Senioritis is a very real thing.
This year, I have jumped ahead of the rest of my class and will be graduating from St. Bonaventure as a third-year student. And even though this is technically my junior year of college, I am still graduating this year and am considered a senior. And as the first semester of my last year winds down, I have learned throughout the first few months of my senior year that senioritis is definitely real.
I started this semester out well, feeling motivated to start my last year here off well. I was excited to start all of my new classes, see all of my friends that I missed over the summer, and get back into my college life routine. But as the semester progressed, this started to become harder and harder for me every day.
Now that we are in our last full month of the semester, the stress of senior year has gotten to me, and I am officially as unmotivated as I possibly could be.
Waking up for class every morning has become the most exhausting thing in my life. Every night, I dread going to bed knowing that I have to wake up early in the morning for my first class. Doing my assignments and even just going to class has become my least favorite chore and is a challenge to get through every day.
Now something I once refused to believe was real has now become a reality for me. I have senioritis.
Although I know there is a reason for my lack of motivation and disinterest in school this year, I still have a hard time dealing with my newfound “senioritis”.
I know that the reasoning behind my feeling this way is the stress of taking my most important senior year classes, and applying to graduate programs and schools. But I still know the underlying reason for my “senioritis.”
I am missing out on a whole extra year I could have spent here at St. Bonaventure University, my favorite place in the world, with my favorite people in the world. My senioritis is present because, in reality, I am not ready to be a senior, and I am not ready to be done with my time here.