Senioritis. The one thing most of us have all been desperately trying to avoid for all of high school. When I first heard about it, I thought that it was not real. I, like most high schoolers, have always had a hard time finding motivation to start my school work when I had a bunch of assignments piled up, but I would always have no problem once I started. However, I am here to tell any underclassmen that senioritis is definitely real.
As someone who committed to college to play a sport, I knew where I was going to go before most of my classmates. Which meant that my grades did not matter for college during the first semester as well as the second semester. At first, that made me hate school. I felt like being there was so pointless because the entire point of going to high school is to get into college, right? That was certainly how I felt. So, I started to zone out during class and had to fight a battle to get up to go to school every morning.
At first, I thought I had to fight this feeling in order to have any enjoyment at school, but over time I realized that if I can embrace the fact that my grades are not super important I can have a great year. Not constantly having to stay up all night trying to memorize information for a test just to immediately forget it has shown me a whole other side to education. In the past few months, I have discovered that if I actually listen to what my teachers are saying instead of just scribbling down the information that I need for the test, the classes I am in are actually interesting. I find that actually learning about a topic, not just memorizing enough facts to do well on a test, makes getting up in the morning worth it. With this new approach, I have been able to retain information much better and anyone who knows me knows I can go on and on about the topics I am studying.
Without the stress of getting perfect grades, I have redirected that energy into interacting with my classmates. In some of my classes the teachers will assign seats, which I used to hate, but I have been able to make connections with people who I never thought I would have anything in common with. I am definitely not saying that every person will meet their new best friend through randomized seating. However, I am saying that within this school I have found that there are many people who are fun to talk to that I would have never known if I had remained quiet all class long.
Many people may think that as a senior it is pointless to talk to become friends with people in your classes because the chances of seeing them again after high school are slim. However, I believe that this is one of the best ways to be prepared for college. High school is here to prepare us for college or going into the workforce and when starting college most people are not going to know anyone there. I know that the chances of anyone else from this school going where I am for college are practically nonexistent so I am going to have to learn how to talk to people who I do not know. This used to scare me a lot because, like many other people, all of my best friends are people I met in middle or even elementary school and I have not been forced to make conversation with people I do not know recently. Stepping out of my comfort zone this year has given me much more confidence that I will be able to make friends in college, which has been very reassuring.
Senioritis is not something that can be completely avoided, but it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. If you take classes that seem interesting and connect with those around you, even the school part of senior year can be fun. If you have plans to continue your education beyond high school, nothing will be the same as these four years. No one gets a redo, so enjoy every moment because after high school life will never be the same.
