Sen·ior·i·tis, A supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance. 

Now being a senior myself, the reality of senioritis, its symptoms, and fighting it has become relevant to me in my everyday life as a student. The debate on whether this “disease” is merely satire, or a factual battle seniors face, is a blurred line for many that should be debunked. 

Art teacher, Karen Lemmon adds her two cents on senioritis from a teacher’s standpoint. With confidence and enthusiasm, Lemmon shared, “senioritis is most definestly fact!” Lemmon details how senioritis affects her classes, “Students’ motivation takes a nosedive, they struggle turning in assignments, they feel stuck, and ditch a lot. Which makes them anxious on top of everything else.” Throughout her years of teaching, Lemmon has discovered a few tactics to approach senioritis with, “I’ve found food helps a lot as an incentive and I also use one-on-one talks with my seniors to keep them on track and to redirect their focus.” The next question, “How does your Senior’s work differ from your lowerclassmen’s work?” prompted deep thought as she replied, “I actually see the best quality of work from Juniors which surprises me because you’d think Seniors would be more of the leaders and show their expertise.” 

Senioritis is likely to take students by surprise. A student survey conducted by the New York University Steinhardt, shows that only 7.7% of Freshman students “strongly agreed” to the prompt, “My academic effort will most likely decline in the second semester of my senior year.” 4.8% of sophomores strongly agreed, 13.8% of juniors, and 23.8% of seniors. This data is an example of how students are not expecting to be vulnerable to senioritis, but its strong and undeniable reality easily takes over the common senior student. 

I thought getting the opinion of a real time high school senior might help get to the bottom of it. Senior Kaitlyn Gonzales, sides that senioritis is in fact, true. “It’s a fact because I see senioritis affecting myself and my peers.” Gonzales’ symptoms include, “Fatigue, low motivation, and quickly getting bored with classes.” She answered to the rebuttal, “How do you fight senioritis and maintain your grades?” by saying, “The thought of graduation keeps me going and the fact that this is the very last year I’ll be doing this.” 

There are a few helpful tips to be familiar with when fighting senioritis. First, seniors should maintain a challenging course load. The perfect balance of challenge and comfort will keep them involved and in the routine of studying and completing work. Next, they should of course be enjoying their senior year experience. This only happens once and is one of the most memorable times in a person’s life, so having fun and relaxing should be a priority just as much as education. Lastly, be sure to are not obsess over college and the admissions process. Being proactive and aware of deadlines and requirements is essential, but it is easy to become too concerned with post secondary life. This will only inflict anxiety and stress on seniors, adding to the symptoms and overwhelmed feelings of senioritis. 

Humorous definitions can make light of a phenomenon that has real consequences on hardworking seniors, regardless of a person’s position on the affliction. Seniors, remember that the all-consuming senioritis may be out to get you this coming second semester, but finish strong and get that diploma.