Dreaded Senioritis Strikes Again!

Every year, it sweeps through Dimond’s halls, a silent killer. Unseen, it preys upon grade point averages, letting its presence be known in each senior class with a wave of tardy slips and unexcused absences.

It is the most foul and devilish disease to ever strike upperclassmen: Senioritis.

Every year, as seniors’ high school careers begin to wind down and we all head into the great blue yonder of post-secondary life, there’s an inevitable slowdown in how well our class does academically.

Whether it’s exhaustion from school, or a simple readiness to get out of Dimond, many seniors begin missing classes, procrastinating on assignments and simply have a harder time staying on top of school work.

Alexis Stanich, a Dimond senior, described Senioritis for her as, “A fatigue that seniors tend to experience after going through 13 years of school and just feeling burnt out.”

Stanich herself admitted to feeling the effects of the upperclassmen’s malady, and said, “I feel like I have been putting off things that I know are important, especially my AP test studying, I’ve been putting it off, and I’ve instead been getting on Discord with friends and talking with them who are also stressed out.

“I’ve also been playing video games and reading, and just trying to get myself in a happy place before I’m bombarded with all this stress,” Stanich added.

For many seniors who are planning to head off to college, AP classes and tests can compound the effects of Senioritis massively.

“It’s probably the most stress that most seniors have, other than colleges which kind of play into the AP testing,” Stanich said.

With the looming threat of both AP tests and trying to get into a college of their choice, it’s not hard to wonder at how thoroughly Senioritis can affect students.

But then the question must be asked, how do seniors stave off Senioritis?

Ian Cruickshank, a Dimond senior and one of our two Dimond Spirit Commissioners, seems to have found a way.

“I’m staying on top of my assignments, I haven’t missed a day. And the classes I’m in, I think it’s because I have three classes, and they are all classes I really enjoy,” Cruickshank said.

“I have Art, I have AP Lit and I have Student Government. The sheer workload really is not that much so I think that because I’m really not that challenged, I’m not feeling the traditional ‘Skipping-Senioritis’: Missing assignments, saving things until the last minute,” Cruickshank added.

However, Cruickshank does admit to feeling some of the effects of the looming end to his high school career. 

Cruickshank said, “What I am feeling is almost like a Senioritis like, ‘Wow, we’re really done.’ Like we’ve got two more Mondays, you know what I mean?”

Cruickshank’s position as Spirit Commissioner has also helped him stay on top of any mental fatigue.

Cruickshank said, “It’s like, why would I miss days when I frankly feel like I just became Spirit Commissioner when we came back to the school? I feel like I just started talking on the announcements, and the new Spirit Commissioner is already getting voted in, so I feel like school just started basically.”

There’s a lesson to be learned here I guess: We’re all going to get Senioritis, but what matters is not that we have it, but how we overcome it in our last days of high school.