THE EPIDEMIC OF "SENIORITIS" IN HIGH SCHOOLS

-THE EPIDEMIC OF SENIORITIS-

“ACHOO!” I sneeze, loudly enough to startle my friend. “God bless you!” he exclaims and asks, “Are you coming down with a cold or something?” “Not quite,” I reply. “But what I do have is a really bad case of senioritis. So, thank you; I can definitely use God’s blessing this year.”

Senioritis is not an ordinary sickness. One will not catch it by walking into a germ-infested area or standing out in the cold for too long without a jacket. It does not cause one to sneeze, cough, or become feverish. Rather, senioritis is more of an abstract concept that may or may not be considered an illness depending on who one were to ask. To further explain, Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers a formal definition for senioritis which is that it is a “supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance.” It combines the word senior, referring to a twelfth grader, with the suffix -itis¬ which technically denotes inflammation and generally causes a degree of illness.

To put the “illness” aspect of senioritis into simple terms while still maintaining a permissible amount of accuracy, one may describe it as being a condition of “not caring.” But the phrase “not caring” in this regard is relevant in more than one sense, such as throughout one’s academics, social life, confidence, behavior, attentiveness and so on. Furthermore, the condition of senioritis is not necessarily limited to carelessness; it is complex and can include a variety of symptoms. In other words, the subject of what is uncared for and the other elements in a student’s case of senioritis depend entirely upon the individual and the circumstances that surround his or her altered conduct.

Before elaborating more upon this concept, it is important note that the word senioritis should not be synonymous with the word “laziness.” A common misconception regarding senioritis is that all of its cases are generally the same: that students progressively become lazier and lazier until they just stop caring about school altogether. Although laziness is a common symptom among many cases of senioritis, there are a multitude of other symptoms that may accompany this condition. One can have senioritis, or change their conduct, without necessarily altering his or her academic performance. Therefore, the connotations of senioritis (whether positive, negative, or neither) depend wholly upon the student and the attitude they have acquired in regards to their high school experience, and more importantly, how they respond as a direct result of these attitudes. Typically, however, most elements of senioritis tend to revolve around this concept of “not caring,” or decreasing the amount of concern that a student will put into certain aspects of their life in high school. Thus, it is important to take note of the various components that may exist in a case of senioritis in order to acquire a well-rounded picture of what it may look like in twelfth-grade students and the consequences it may or may not bring about.

Perhaps the most recognized way that seniors exhibit senioritis has to do with decreased concern for their academics as a whole. This is due to the fact that most colleges receive a student’s transcript only up until their junior year when he or she applies for admission into their school. Therefore, any grades earned and classes taken succeeding junior year are usually not taken into account by colleges as long as no significant concern arises. To a high school senior, this often means that they have been granted indirect permission to slack in school as much as they dare, as long as they do not flunk out of their classes. However, sometimes this mindset can take a turn for the worst. When seniors immerse too deeply into the habits of neglecting their studies, they may forget how to bounce back into school mode, and can be problematic if improving their grades suddenly becomes necessary.

For example, I have a friend who graduated last year named Flora*. All throughout high school, Flora was incredibly studious; she maintained a 4.0 GPA, was a member of the National Honors Society, scored a 30 on her ACT, and was involved in track, cross country, and many other extracurricular activities. She was an ideal student, and was on her way to enrollment at The Ohio State University. However, during her senior year, Flora contracted a bad case of senioritis, in that she began to believe that there was no way that OSU could ever change their mind about her; thus, she decided that she would not spend as much time studying her senior year as she had her previous years. Even though she did not necessarily “flunk out,” her grades experienced a significant decline and, despite Flora’s assumptions, OSU noticed this. She was unsuccessful in improving her grades; therefore, OSU ended up declining her, and her dreams of attending that college were destroyed by her carelessness.

Senioritis, in regards to this particular mindset, can become very dangerous to a student’s academic career when they let their passivity reach a certain extent. One could have been the best students all their lives, yet, experience a critical fallout during their senior year when they deprioritize their academics. Anyone can become a victim to the consequences of this particular symptom of senioritis if they fail to recognize its potential severity and show no preparedness to recover their grades if need be.

Another way that seniors often exhibit senioritis is through their lack of concern for disciplinary action or authority. Typically, the more time a student spends at their high school, the more comfortable they will become in the environment. So, by the time a student reaches their senior year, it is likely that they have become fairly comfortable at school. For three years, they have witnessed disciplinary procedures executed and should have a pretty good idea of what they can get away with. Therefore, students will often sabotage the system for the sake of entertainment and leaving their legacy prior to departure.

The mindset of a senior with this symptom can be excellently summarized in the words of my good friend, Mike Chase (a senior), who both said and demonstrated that “bad choices make good memories.” Earlier in the school year, the Walsh Jesuit girls’ soccer team was headed off to another state championship. On the day before the game, Mike decided that it would be a brilliant idea to start a spontaneous rally in the middle of the school day. He ran out of his physics classroom and began screaming cheers for the soccer team. He pulled students out of their classrooms until he had accumulated a group of about 350 of them. The crowd of angsty students stormed and chanted throughout the hallways, causing an enormous scene and interrupting just about every classroom in the entire school. It was epic. However, administration was not too thrilled with his demonstration. They reprimanded Mike, but he received no actual punishment because, as a senior, he knew his way around the system and justified that his actions were for “a good cause.” Mike knew that sparking a boisterous rally in the middle of a school day would not align with Walsh Jesuit’s behavioral guidelines. Senioritis is what prompted Mike to have the confidence to lack any sort of concern for the disciplinary action that could have potentially been executed by administration.

Though it is important to not let this particular symptom of senioritis become too uncontrollable, one may be able to get away with having it as long as they are somewhat careful as to avoid expulsion and/or a law suit. At times, being audacious and taking risks such as these have proven their worth as they often create crazy memories and hilarious legacies.

An additional way that seniors may exhibit senioritis is when they begin to acquire the deep longing to graduate high school. This symptom typically emerges for one of two reasons. The first reason a student may yearn to graduate is because they genuinely resent their high school, and their displeasure while in school is so intense that daydreaming about graduation becomes a survival mechanism in order to avoid going insane. The second reason for a person’s thoughts to be consumed with graduation is because graduation, for many, is a very exciting event. Just about every high school senior has a specific image of graduation ingrained into their heads, depending on if they have ever been to a real graduation or not.

One of the trademark images that people typically associate graduation with is similar to that which is depicted in the picture below, where the graduates are throwing their hats off into the air. This is an image that makes its appearance in almost every graduation scene in movies, and most high schools have made it a part of their tradition to throw their hats off as well. In addition, the weather on one’s graduation day is stereotypically trusted to be beautiful, as depicted by the bright blue sky and sunshine that radiates in the image. Both the clear weather and the action of throwing off one’s graduation hat are meant to serve as components that symbolize freedom. The concept of freedom can be perceived differently by different students. For example, for the students who hate school, they could associate the moment of throwing their hats into the clear blue sky with the thought: “I am finally free from this school and am both literally and figuratively throwing away the responsibilities that came with it!” Or, a person might take this image and associate it with the more hopeful thought of: “I have finally gained the freedom to move onto the next chapter of my life and will now focus my studies on something I am passionate about!” But regardless of one’s individual interpretation of this image, this desire for freedom is a major aspect of the senioritis condition, because the image takes one’s mind away from the hardships and they must face while still in high school, and places it on the feelings of liberation and excitement that accompany an upcoming graduation day.

So again, the condition of senioritis could be best described as when a twelfth grader does not care as much about certain aspects of their school life as much as they might have during their years as an underclassman. The symptoms of senioritis are by no means limited to laziness, as they can also include a decreased concern for one’s academic performance, disregard of disciplinary action, an increased focus on the future, and a multitude of others. The reason that senioritis is better described as a “condition” rather than an “illness” is because the connotations that accompany this mindset are typically subjective. Some seniors take great pride in their senioritis while others may be in denial of its effect on them.

Likewise, while parents and teachers never seem to be too pleased with their children contracting senioritis, more recent high school graduates (such as the older brother, sister, or friend of a senior) are almost guaranteed to be patrons of the condition; this is generally because many of them regret not enjoying their high school years as much as they could have, and now they must stress about the plight of adulthood. Therefore, seniors should realize that it is both acceptable and natural to have a bit of senioritis linger in their system. Seniors should be encouraged to enjoy their last year of high school and to not figuratively break their back over completing school work.

At the same time, it is important for twelfth graders to still be cautious of not letting their senioritis become too severe, as it could easily complicate many aspects of one’s future such as graduation, college plans, or criminal record. Hence, it is of great importance for people, especially high schoolers, to have a well-rounded awareness of senioritis along with its benefits and consequences alike, because an appropriate balance of fun and responsibility is what will allow one to make the most out of his or her high school experience.

*name was changed for the intent of privacy